Please answer having trouble

To improve your understanding of an informational text, the question you should ask yourself as you read is: do i agree with what the author says in this text? who assigned me to read this text? what details in the text are unclear to me? what other texts has this author written?

Read this excerpt from leah missbach day's foreword to wheels of change.bicycles have long played a role in my life. as a young woman, i rode one year-round before i had a car. but it was later in adulthood that the bicycle became more than a source of transportation for me. the bicycle actually began to truly shape the way i saw the world.what is the author's purpose for including this in the foreword?

In this example, what does the author use to describe laurie