Kevin Miller is easily one of the most athletic people I know, and the most knowledgeable when it comes to environmentalism and athleticism.
I went through the same cross-country ski program as did his kids, and I remember when I was little occasionally seeing him on the ski trails decked out in all that professional gear.
Today, he gives off the same impression as he did back then. Kevin is serious about physical activity – but in talking with him, I discovered that his interest extends not only to performance, but to the advocacy and education aspects as well.
After speaking with him for a generous 75 minutes, I could just as easily have written my 700 word assignment on cycling in Winnipeg (even better: winter cycling in Winnipeg), the advocacy approach of Bike to the Future, elite vs. performance athletes, gender neutrality in sports, the benefits of individual vs. team sports, or the challenges of being a high performance athlete in your 50s and overcoming the various health related obstacles.
But my journalism assignment required me to include a balance of work and personal information to help others understand the person I’m profiling. In other words, to try and discover, then explain in words, what makes Kevin Miller “tick”. I knew there had to be something; after all, using the bicycle as personal transportation 24-7-365 since 1993 can’t just be all for the fun of it.... right?
Despite the first snowfall of the season, Kevin Miller rode his bicycle to work today. Look closely, and what appears to be plastic wrap covers his helmet vents to keep out the cold. Wearing cycling glasses, spandex bike pants and a triathlon jersey, the tall and slim built Miller gives the impression he just finished the Tour de France. In reality, he’s just serious about cycling.
Miller is co-chair of Bike to the Future, a Winnipeg lobby group that advocates cycling as transportation, but first and foremost, he’s a performance athlete: Miller completed his 583rd race this past Thanksgiving in the Linden Woods Fall Classic. He is also among the few who’ve beaten Cindy Klassen at in-line skating – at least once: Miller finished 4th in the 1998 North of the 49th Inline Marathon, where Klassen placed 5th.
Besides running, in-line skating, mountain biking, and year-round commuter cycling, Miller has taken up triathlons with his wife and two children, thriving on the individuality and motivation that comes from setting personal goals. “It’s the drive, the internal drive to prove to yourself what you can do and to use it as a motivating tool to get better.”
This mindset helps Miller bring the same passion he puts into cycling into his volunteer work at Bike to the Future. Since 2001, Miller works only 60 per cent as a software programmer at Great-West Lifeco Inc. to devote more time to organizations like Bike to the Future, a commitment which speaks to the value Miller has placed on cycling for most of his life.
In 1974, at 18, Miller started saving for university and found commuting by bicycle, instead of the bus, gave him more time, money, and freedom. “When you take the bus, you’re on its schedule, and I found out really quickly that cycling is faster than a bus,” he said, admitting personal fitness and environmentalism were not the major incentives they are for him now, at 53.
These days, Miller chooses to cycle to work, though he could afford to drive by car. “I could fly six or seven times a year, generate greenhouse gases and have three cars – I could afford all that. But I’m ideologically driven, so I don’t do all that because I don’t believe in it.”
Believing in cycling and its potential for Winnipeg brought Miller to Bike to the Future. As co-chair, he tends to “be a little bit of a glue”: producing the majority of the organization’s communications, orchestrating monthly meetings, and doing his share of lobbying.
This month, Miller began promoting the “STOP signs as YIELD signs for cyclists” campaign, urging the city to allow cyclists to yield at stop signs when no traffic or pedestrians are present. On Oct. 5, he advocated the issue on CBC radio.
Janice Lukes, co-ordinator of the Winnipeg Trails Association – one of Bike to the Future’s partner organizations – said the radio interview demonstrates why Miller is an effective lobbyist. “He explained [the campaign] in very simplistic terms, for the masses – he wasn’t talking above anyone’s head. He has a way of bringing things down to a very simple, black and white way to look at things.”
Ron Brown, executive director of the Manitoba Cycling Association and Bike to the Future member, agrees Miller is “quick to the point”. But what impresses him most is Miller’s ability to admit his own strengths and limitations. “He’ll bluntly say ‘I really don’t want to do that’, or, ‘that’s not my strength and it’s better that others do it’.”
Under Miller’s leadership, Bike to the Future successfully lobbied for a pedestrian/bike bridge on the Disraeli Bridges Project, created the first Winnipeg Cycling Map in 2009 in partnership with the city, and is a key organizer of Bike to Work Day.
His position comes up for renewal this November, but Miller hopes to continue volunteering as co-chair, striving to make cycling part of everyone’s lives. “Whether we’re talking about the environment, personal fitness, [or] livable cities, the bicycle is the answer [and] when I believe in something, I don’t have to have a personal payback-in-my-pocket type of thing to do it.”
If you’d like to read more, you can check out some of my classmates’ profile assignments here and here.
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