Posts from — July 2007

The Star-Tribune writes about suburban bicycle efforts. MNDOT officials are quoted advocating for both wide shoulders and some segregated facilities, noting the difficulties of weaving them into well-established urban and suburban areas.

Meanwhile, the interviewed cyclist uses quiet streets, but she and the article lament dedicated bikelanes and trails for ‘less experienced’ riders. Meanwhile, this paragraph stands out:

“It just scares me to death seeing kids go down Interlachen [Boulevard] on their bikes; it’s so narrow,” she said, talking on her cell phone from her car. “Oh … I just passed one of my daughter’s friends. She’s going the wrong way on the road on her bike, talking on her cell phone. It’s not a real bright thing to do.”

Let’s examine what’s wrong with this paragraph, shall we? She’s driving while using her cell phone (automatic inattentive driving penalty), and the friend is riding the wrong way on a bicycle, also on a cell phone.

Arguably, kids have always done what they will, regardless of ‘dedicated’ bikeways. This isn’t an argument for bikeways. It’s an argument for teaching them what to do, and do properly, on a roadway. And being surrounded by adults on cell phones at every instant — including while driving — is not a good modeling behavior.

Luckily, the article isn’t all aggravating. Edina cyclists put a stop to a bicycle ‘trail’ that would have crossed 60 driveways (!) in 2 miles. Cities are bringing 4-lane roads to 3 lanes, and leaving wide shoulders, even if they aren’t striped as ‘bike lanes’ because some aren’t a full 5 feet wide (federal requirement), but only top out at 4 feet (perfectly adequate). They cite traffic calming, as well as cycling-friendliness, as motivators.

My core objection to this article is that the cyclist who is exhibiting poor modeling behavior, and her concerns, take the center stage and the first column inches. The rest of the article is far more balanced and educational, and speaks to Minnesota’s attempts to follow good traffic planning principles that view roadway use by cyclists as a goal.

There’s a Google Maps hack designed specifically for routing bike rides and sharing the maps called Map My Ride. I fiddled with it for a short version of Great Googly Moogly (a 21-mile version I run late-season), and it’s pretty interesting. It allows for pretty easy routing and allows the addition of waypoint notes.

There’s a way to print a map with a cue sheet. They’re really literal with waypoints on the cue.

Even though Google Maps recognizes some trails (for instance, the Gateway State Trail), I’m finding this to work slightly better when you can create an all-road route, just because of the literalness of the cue.

Here’s the printer-friendly link, just to show the example: Googly! Note this will create a print prompt from your browser. Just say no, and you can see it anyway. For whatever reason, this view claims to be powered by Yahoo Maps.

Hm. I think I shall have to play with this a bit more. I’m baffled as to why the draw view is Google Maps and the print view is Yahoo Maps, and there’s some other oddities. On the other hand, it’s open-platform, unlike Delorme map softwares, which are Windows-only. As a Mac/Linux user, I have to prefer a web app.

The Washington Post is giving some media-love to Minnesota’s Representative Jim Oberstar, and his love of the bicycle.

Oberstar is presently working to provide bicycle storage at airports — something quite common in some European and Asian nations, but far less common in the United States. He’s also looking to provide better bicycle access into airports.

I’m waiting for someone to claim Homeland Security concerns. I know they do that already with storage lockers in most transit points, but on-airport parking still exists for cars. It’s a lot easier to do mischief with a 2,000 pound auto than it is with even a crummy commuter fixie.

Recently, I wrote of the need for funding to replace the Old Cedar Avenue bridge, a critical bicycle commuting connector for the south metro. It was closed after it was declared unsafe in 2002. Prior to that, cyclists had done some impromptu repairs with plywood and used the bridge at their own risk — and it was probably unsafe well before 2002.

Minnesota State Representative Ann Lenczewski is staging a rally to support just such a goal on July 14, at noon. This weekend time offers good potential for attendance for many people — after all, bicycle commuters who want the bridge back are probably working at noon on weekdays!

The rally will be on the Bloomington side of the bridge, which is near Cedar Avenue and Old Shakopee Road. It’s a nice ride from many parts of the metro, and it would be good to see cyclists in attendance with their bicycles.

I am already sick of the motor oil commercial with Jerome Bettis, all Versus house ads, and the Ski-Doo commercial.

Some people ask why I ‘have it in’ for bike lanes.

I don’t. However, they aren’t a magic bullet, nor should they be treated as such. In the end, they’re segregated facilities that have a number of issues:

• They create a perception among many drivers that cyclists should only be in a bike lane, or on streets with striped bicycle lanes.
• Many bicycle lanes are poorly designed, placing cyclists going straight between the curb and a right turning car, or placing cyclists squarely within a parking area’s ‘door zone.’
• Maintenance for bicycle lanes can be highly variable in many places.
• The far right of many roads become glass collection zones, either due to curb proximity (recycling pickup zones) or the natural tendency for debris to collect roadside.
• Many communities act as though striping some lanes equates to creating a bicycle-friendly community.
• Bike lanes that go the ‘wrong’ way down one-way streets create potentially extra-hazardous crash situations, as two vehicles approaching one another head-on create impacts with greater force.

There is a point to many kinds of ’segregated’ facilities. Some trail systems, for instance, bring riders through areas that are unsuited for heavy vehicle traffic, such as trucks and ATVs. But they are not a free pass to ‘bicycle-friendly’ status, and they have a number of important design, maintenance, and public relations considerations that must be baked into their construction, and too frequently are not.