They’re everywhere! I’m talking about the Nice Ride Minnesota bikes, which I always think of as “do bikes,” because they have the logo of the longstanding “do” campaign on them.

I’ve seen them all over the city in recent weeks, from the river parkways on the east to the greenway out by St. Louis Park on the west. It’s a great program by our client, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. (And one we weren’t involved with, although our agency has done and continues to do a lot of work on other elements of the “do” campaign.)

This is just a wonderful program on so many levels. The bikes themselves are cute as all get-out, and of course the health benefits could be substantial over time. The program kicked off with $1.75 million in funding from the federal Department of Transportation, and Blue Cross kicked in an additional million from the tobacco settlement.

Given the absolutely incalculable billions that our government has spent in the last 100 years to support the automobile, I’m happy to see the Department of Transportation actually investing in a different form of transportation.

And today you can take part in a little bit of history:  the first Tour de Nice , starting at 5 p.m. with a party afterward.

“Do” it!