How Bike Lanes Can Connect to Mini Golf

Welcome back to my blog! This post is for the Action Project in the Workshop class Par for the Course. In this class, we have been looking at all things mini golf. We started by checking out the history of golf and how minigolf was made from regular golf. We also looked at the rules for minigolf, which would be helpful when we would do putting challenges as a class. In these challenges, we would have to hit the golf ball as close to a marker as possible without touching it, keep it in a small zone after the ball was hit, make a ricochet shot, and more. For all of these, we played inside our school and set up miniature courses in the hallways or open spaces. We also explored different technologies that could make minigolf courses more engaging. One of these was a battery-powered ball returner which would catch the ball in it and push it back to the player with a strong hammer. For Field Experiences, we took a trip to the Chicago Athletic Association and used their virtual golf simulators. In this Action Project, we have been tasked with creating a minigolf hole that connects to a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and an organization with a link to that SDG. Below you will read about my hole and see what I built. I hope you enjoy it.


For my AP, I have connected this minigolf hole with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. This goal focuses on making communities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. I chose this SDG because I was interested in city transportation, which could be more sustainable and inclusive for everyone. Biking, for example, is a popular method of transportation in Chicago, but only some streets have designated bike lanes, and the ones that do are not always safe to ride on.

The organization I have decided to link this project to is Bike Lane Uprising, a Chicago-founded organization focused on making cycling safer by making it easier to report obstructions in bike lanes. Chicago has many bike lanes, but they are often blocked by cars that use them as parking. Bike Lane Uprising's central database of bike lane obstructions helps highlight problem areas and trends surrounding bike lane violations. As a biker in Chicago, I encounter many obstructions while going to school and coming home that cause potential and unnecessary risks to me. One of the targets of SDG 11 is providing access to safe and accessible transportation systems and improving road safety for all. This connects to Bike Lane Uprising's work of identifying areas where bike lanes are unsafe for cyclists because of obstructions. An action I encourage you to take a picture of blocked bike lanes and report them to the database. Even if you are not riding a bike, many citizens do, and their transportation systems could be made safer.

Scale Drawing of my Course, GS, 2022

The drawing above shows what I designed my course to look like. The starting area can be defined by tape, shown in my photograph, 5 inches from the middle board. All the boards will end at the same 40-inch point, with the 45-inch board extended toward the start area. This course was designed to resemble a street in Chicago. The road has a car lane (14 inches wide) with obstacles meant to be cars and a bike lane (2.5 inches wide), clear of obstructions but smaller in width. 

For building the course, the scale drawing is the best reference. However, lining up the boards and setting the obstacles can take some time, so the setup of my course takes a few minutes. 

I decided to make the one wood board longer so it would be easier to get the ball into the bike lane. Also, bouncing the ball off the board into the lane would be easier because the angle is slightly tricky from the start area. I placed the hole at the end of the bike lane because this is the path I expect players to take the most, and I also wanted to make a hole-in-one opportunity. Initially, the bike lane was 4 inches wide, but I made it smaller to increase the challenge of getting the ball through. I've chosen to make this hole a Par 3 because of the different paths a player can take. If the player went for the bike lane, they might hit the ball into the lane with 1 or 2 hits and tap the ball into the hole on a 2nd or 3rd hit. If the player tried to use the car lane, navigating the obstacles could take 2 hits and be finished on the 3rd. For boundaries, the golf ball shouldn't roll too far away where the Par 3 is greatly exceeded. In my testing, a golf ball going down the bike lane will not get too far past the hole since the hole is right at the end of it. For the car lane, my testing put me closer to the hole after 2 hits, so Par 3 is possible. Even though I do not have materials or a drawing of a confirmed boundary, any ball over 2 feet away from the end of the lanes is out of bounds. 

Golf Hole, GS, 2022

This wraps up my post on my minigolf hole. I had a lot of fun with this AP and this class. Many of our class periods were just us playing golf and creating different challenges for the other students to try out, which was fun. Since this was a workshop or elective class, I was enrolled with students from all grades, which was an excellent opportunity to interact with the newer students and even returning students with whom I hadn't talked much before. I enjoyed designing my hole and testing student's holes who had excellent ideas for their project. Because I am a biker, preparing this hole came with a personal connection. I appreciate having a bike lane on one street for riding to school, but the other street I take when riding home does not have one, and it can be crazy to ride in car traffic some days. Chicago is working on adding more bike lanes or adding protection to existing ones, and I hope these efforts continue to create a safer and more sustainable city. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in the next post!