In my office, people still give me weird looks when I come tramping in in the morning, cheeks red and swinging my bike helmet. “Are you really still biking to work?” they ask, rolling their eyes. I imagine they think I’m ridiculous, some stereotype of another millennial hipster, needing to be “different.” I even have the bangs to match, so I can’t blame them.

I only have one coworker who also lives in Detroit. She asked me one morning as we waited for the coffee to brew if I was still riding. We were standing by long bay of windows which overlook Woodward Avenue. It was lightly snowing. I said yes, and she asked me where I lived. I told her where, and she said, “Oh, you’re close by, near Wayne State? That’s a nice, fun spot.” She wasn’t surprised that I insisted on biking, since its not very far. Unlike my other coworkers who always give me concerned looks when I tell them I live in the city and rarely drive, she understood what most Detroiters know– that midtown and downtown are both reasonably safe and easy to get between.

Honestly, I know plenty of things about Detroit (mostly history things, or weird bits of trivia about buildings), but I don’t really know very much about what its like to live in Detroit, outside my little intertwined bubbles. I can’t give you any crime statistics, partly because I’m uninterested, but mostly because I don’t want to know. But I realize that’s an incredible luxury and privilege, being able to simply not care to know.

Our recent Challenge made me realize even more how ridiculously special my experience is in Detroit, commuting by bike. I have a pretty reliable bike (her name is Jean, and she’s blue!), but my biggest advantage is distance (or lack thereof, I think I only have a little over a mile to work). A few Detroiters we talked to while working on the last Challenge, expressed concern over the general safety of biking in Detroit, especially in regards to motorists hitting cyclists and lack of biking infrastructure (including bike racks, lanes and– the ubiquitous concern of all Detroiters– street lights). I couldn’t agree more; my particular route is fairly untrafficked, but many places in Detroit are accessible only by major highways and large boulevards.

I know I’m not alone in believing that a huge indicator of whether Detroit’s comeback is real and substantial for all Detroiters will be physical infrastructure improvements– schools, public safety, roads and public services (street lights!). The good news is that our new mayor and city council are excited about including biking infrastructure in those improvements and have announced plans to move forward with many biking projects in 2014. Studies have shown biking infrastructure to improve commercial areas and improve neighborhoods, but like most things in urban planning, everything is linked. Biking cannot grow without improved safety, infrastructure, etc; but those things could also be improved by an increase in biking.

In plenty of other cities (including my hometown, Portland, Oregon), bike lanes are known as the “white stripes of gentrification,” and frankly, its not surprising. My neighborhood in Detroit is gentrifying (perhaps already gentrified), and its not hard to see the problematic nature of supporting a transportation option that can be seen as for elites only. As poverty (not just in Detroit, but all over the country) gets pushed out from inner cities (becoming more popular with my generation), and into the suburbs, the question of whether biking is really an option for everyone becomes more and more relevant. Is it a luxury just for the affluent, like the privilege of being able to afford “superior food” at Whole Foods? Or is biking and its city-supported infrastructure just another indicator of the widening gap between the have and have-nots in America?

Personally, I don’t think it has to be, although, like everything, obviously can be; its no question my bike commute through Brush Park (pictured above!) is a luxury impossible for most Detroiters, especially as most employment options are in the suburbs. But! There are two things pretty promising about biking for all Detroiters. One: Detroit has one of the highest populations of African-American cyclists (if you think biking isn’t a super white thing, just look at the Tour de France), and a myriad of groups and organized rides to support the growing biking community (shout out to fellow fellow Brandi’s group– Bike and Brunch).

Secondly, biking is freeing. At our community conversation, an older woman waxed poetic about how much she loves riding her bike around Detroit. “It’s like flying,” she said. A bike is often a child’s first taste of independence, their first experience controlling what world they see. Some of us never loose that feeling. To be honest, I ride my bike because of that. In college, I could often talk myself into driving places (hills! Art supplies to bring to class! I’m late!), but in Detroit, those reasons seem stupid. There’s something incredible about riding down our wide streets, past interesting pieces of architecture, pedaling pretty steadily without seeing a car, without having to climb a hill. Biking feels like the best parts of living in Detroit: the sense that you are part of bigger community, the freedom of all this space, the excitement of being perpetually on the cusp of discovering something new and the possibility of changing our city for the better.

I guess that’s why I sort of just laugh when my coworkers roll their eyes at me when I say I’m still biking, I still live in the city. They don’t know what they’re missing.