Sam Mattson, a 25-year-old painter and carpenter of Yankee Hill, spent just over an hour on June 9 biking the shape of Wisconsin around Milwaukee.
The idea was sparked by one of his friends, Mattson said. With the use of his friend’s program, they were able to create a stencil outline of Wisconsin, put it over the map of Milwaukee and roughly estimate the route; however, that turned out to be sloppy, Mattson said.
“[That route] went driving through parking lots and people’s driveways, because it had really, really rough estimates,” Mattson added. “So I took it, refined it and narrowed it down.”
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Despite initially creating the route as a joke, Mattson took to the program to create a rideable route. After about a half-hour to an hour, Mattson said he was able to create a safe route.
“It didn’t take a long time [to refine] because I’ve been riding my bike in Milwaukee for two years now, and I’ve come to know what streets are really easy to ride on, and which ones aren’t,” Mattson said.
Totaling around 15.4 miles, and a little over an hour, Mattson said that this route was not nearly the longest he had ridden in Milwaukee.
“It was pretty easy,” Mattson shared. “It was a hot day, but I just kept moving, and the breeze was nice. It wasn’t until I stopped to get coffee near the end of the route that I really got hot.”
Mattson posted his route on X (formerly Twitter), and since then has received over 2,000 likes, 52 reposts and 18 comments.
Rode the shape of Wisconsin on Milwaukee’s Streets today! Loved getting to see so many neighborhoods and different streets than I would normally ride on. pic.twitter.com/M89Ke2pK2G
— Sam 🚲 (@rexilsv) June 12, 2024
For this route, Mattson used an e-bike, which he has been riding since November. He shared that he bikes almost everywhere, hot or cold.
“I got into biking because I don’t like driving. It was bad for my mental health. Biking makes getting everywhere fun, quick and easy. I can stop at a stoplight and talk to people, things like that would never happen in a car,” Mattson said.
Since November, Mattson has rode almost 1,400 miles and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“I bike even more than I used to, and I have a cargo bike, so it allows me to carry a ton of stuff. I can carry my tools to work, I can even carry a whole nother person on it, like it’s a true car replacement.”
Mattson shared he hopes to take this ride with Critical Mass — a protest ride across the world that occurs on the last Friday of the month in various cities as a protest to demand safe streets.
“I was scoping it out and seeing if [the route] was possible for a group ride, I really think it is,” Mattson shared. “Especially with next year, when the construction on a couple of the roads are done, it’ll be a really good route.”
