The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

The bicycle has long been a primary mode of transportation in countries around the world, but in the U.S., we’ve tended to view this vehicle as a child’s toy (one destined to gather dust in the garage once the child receives a driver’s license) or a specialized implement meant only for aerobic sport junkies. But all kinds of signs indicate that the humble two-wheeler is poised for something much bigger on our shores.

John Herou isn’t your typical electric-car ideologue. The founder of e-ride Industries possesses a bright strain of idealism to be sure, but fundamentally he’s a practical man, an inventor and classic car buff, more entrepreneur than tree hugger. The cars he builds, called neighborhood electric vehicles because by law they can go only twenty-five miles per hour and drive on streets with commensurate speed limits, are distinctly Minnesotan.

Guthrie, Minnesota, is not much more than a sleepy little huddle of buildings nestled between Lake Itasca and Leech Lake. It’s classic lake country, where tourists have been coming to summer resorts for generations. Cabin season is short and the impact of tourism can be dramatic, especially since logging and mining have ebbed. The locals have quietly tried to adapt. Here, the famous Paul Bunyan Trail, which runs one hundred miles from Brainerd to Bemidji, is still unpaved.

It’s become apparent that our little Metro Transit system isn’t exactly a municipal moneymaker. “Dismantle it!” come a hundred basso-profundo bellows from the radio’s right end. What good is it?

I once punctuated a doomed love affair with a ride on the Empire Builder to Glacier National Park in Montana. It was my 25th birthday, and I spent it sighing deeply into a window-framed postcard of North Dakota, idly expecting the steel rails to yield some inspiration.