Meet the Street Collective's new director

State of play: Alex Rice, a Valley High School graduate, has traveled many RAGBRAIs and cycled across the country in 2011.

• She's worked around the world, including France, West Africa, Pittsburgh and Portland, Oregon, until she most recently returned to Des Moines to be the executive director of the Willkie House in 2021.

Here are three things Rice wants to improve in the metro:

1. Bike racks: "Once you get outside of this really urban core, they're pretty few and far between," she says.
2. Bike share expansion: Street Collective operates 32 stations and about 200 bikes across the metro, logging roughly 14,000 trips a year. Rice wants more stations, particularly ones that connect with bus stops, but she says that requires more corporate and government investment.
3. Suburban cycling infrastructure: Bike lanes and trails thin out fast outside Des Moines proper. Extending that network into the suburbs is a major opportunity she wants to pursue.

What's next: May is Bike Month, with Bike to Work Week running May 11–17 and the Pedal Art Poster Show on May 15 at Confluence.