Posts from — April 2007

A group in San Francisco have decided to demonstrate road-sharing in response to mild disgust at the behavior of local Critical Mass riders.

I’ve always felt Critical Mass sent the wrong message. While I see a point of militancy in social movements, at the same time I’ve always had concern what an encounter with a bunch of Critical ‘Massholes’ does for a motorist’s perception of a lone rider, later — even if that lone rider is riding in a legal manner. Critical Mass is almost the definitional opposite of ‘traffic calming’ — it’s angry people making other people angry.

I like the Critical Manners concept. It will be interesting to see if this particular cycling meme spreads.

Twin Cities Bicycling Club are sponsoring two Sunday evening courses in the next two weeks to help people learn simple maintenance on their own bikes. The courses are being taught by Jamie MacDonald, who is the only local wrench I’ll let touch my own rides.

Attendance would be free, even for a nonmember. If you show for the dessert potluck, it would be polite to, say, bring a dessert and not be a brownie-snarfing freeloader.

Here’s the info, snarfed like a freeloader from the TCBC web site.

15 SUN BIKE U - BEGINNING BIKE CARE AND FEEDING. Begin dessert potluck at 6:30 PM, presentation at 7:00 PM at Sunrise Cyclery in Minneapolis (3031 2nd Ave S - 35W to Lake St exit) Learn beginning bike maintenance from Jamie McDonald, bicycle mechanic extraordinaire. Jamie will cover basic bike maintenance and troubleshooting - if you hesitate when your handlebars or seats need adjusting or aren’t sure how to clean and lube a bike, this class is for you.

22 SUN BIKE U - ADVANCED BIKE CARE. Begin dessert potluck at 6:30 PM, presentation at 7:00 PM at Sunrise Cyclery in Minneapolis (3031 2nd Ave S - 35W to Lake St exit) Learn advanced bike maintenance from Jamie McDonald, bicycle mechanic extraordinaire. Imagine you’re at Ironman standing in a pleasant 40 degree drizzle with a bike that won’t shift. Wouldn’t it be nice NOT to wait for that sag wagon? For those who know the basics and are ready to learn more.

There’s talk of paving the Luce Line. It may even be an OK idea. But some of the reasons why… eh, not thrilling to me.

The article was in the Hutchinson Leader. There’s some debate among locals, current trail users, would-be-trail users who hate the limestone, and others about future plans for the trail. Some advocate leaving it as is, some advocate paving.

However, the article definitely reflects some notions that aren’t necessarily good reasons for paving.

Lee Salmi of Hutchinson said he could ride a mountain bike if he were 40 or 50 years younger. Bike riding is key to keeping up his cardiovascular health, but riding around town is hazardous, he said.

“I’ve been knocked down twice on the streets,” he said.

I have every sympathy for this. However, I have to wonder about how he’s riding the streets. Is he sidewalk-surfing against flow? Is he in parking lanes? Is he cycling as a vehicle?

Similarly, another cites ’safety’ as a goal of paving:

Hutchinson Mayor Steve Cook also cited safety for cyclists as another reason to pave the trail. Cook said he and his family rode the trail to Winsted and back again. On the return trip, his son opted to ride along Highway 7 because the going was smoother. Cook was concerned that riding along the highway was far more dangerous than riding a paved trail would be.

I don’t know that section of 7. I’m fairly sure it’s a 4-foot shoulder. Might have a rumblestrip or two. However, if there is a shoulder, even a fast section should be safely ridable by most adults. I can certainly understand not taking children of a certain age on a busy, fast roadway — lots of kids need skills development, such as how to ride straight. As well, kids are short, modern vehicles are tall, and that can be a bad combo. But on-road, you don’t deal with off-leash dogs (as much, given that it’s farm country), children rolling all over the place, people who don’t ride to the right and allow for passing or oncoming traffic, horse poop on shared bridges, etc. etc.

That said, I’m not opposed to paving. Pavement is nice. Trails have a place. But their place shouldn’t be as a reaction to ‘oh no the road has cars.’ If one rides properly and defensively, roads are safer.

Since I keep on this rant, I should dig out the stats on that. However, there are meatballs and beer waiting. Ah, the joys of blogging during dinner prep!

The Department of Transportation has posted the Gateway Trail detour map for this year’s Highway 36 construction.

This looks like a solid detour set where motorists may be more apt to use different routing than the marked bike/ped detours. The pedestrians are taking a different detour as well, although how much that occurs is going to be interesting given how many bladers I see with runners, or runners with really slow bikers…

The Star-Tribune reports that, to save time and money, MN-DOT will be closing a section of Highway 36 entirely through North Saint Paul for reconstruction. Construction is to begin in May. (See: Splitting North St. Paul in the Sunday, April 1 edition; I’m quite sure this isn’t a weird April Fool’s prank.)

The paper — and for that matter, the DNR page for the Gateway Trail — doesn’t mention if there’s going to be closure/rerouting of the Gateway Trail through there. It does mention that the Snowman gets to stay put at Margaret, so there’s a possibility that it won’t.

But I’m doubting it.

This reconstruction is great. The trail crossings that run parallel to Highway 36 between White Bear Avenue and Interstate 694 are a hazard. Because it’s a trail, cyclists and walkers and other users frequently are going counter to traffic, and drivers who don’t look both ways are prone to taking out a few trail users here or there. Highway 36 is going to an expressway format, so that can only help.

But I’m guessing that relative to the closure, it’s going to muck up the trail. A lot.

There are a lot of easy re-routes — but most of them are the same re-routes as mentioned for automotive traffic. County B is a staple road for north-side bikers, as is County C. For a lot of the recreational users of the trail, these routes aren’t appealing. Even for experienced vehicular cyclists, using these roads this summer won’t be appealing, because a lot of people on the re-routes will be frustrated with construction and having to go a different route that runs 20-30 mph SLOWER than their accustomed route — never the best people to be sharing a lane with given a choice!

Beyond that, the re-routes also are considerably less flat — another negative for many users, especially those in the pink-training-wheels set, who often are seen with parents near the MN120 crossing going to the DQ.

It will be interesting to see what kind of mayhem is created — and if the crossing up above 694 at Washington County 12 gets opened BEFORE or DURING the start of the mayhem…