Posts from — August 2007

The Strib reports that the 10th Avenue Bridge will re-open Friday, most likely to all traffic. Prior solutions discussed had suggested that bicycles, pedestrians, and mass transit would be allowed through, but not automobiles.

This, along with the Dinkytown Connector re-opening, will certainly help with traffic issues that always occur when school starts at the University of Minnesota.

…well, really, the whole park is closed. Due to the recent storms in the Twin Cities, the DNR is closing the park until they can clear all the deadfall trees on paths and roads, and probably do a bit of pruning on some precariously damaged trees, too.

Bummer for bikers.

Info and updates are at the Minnesota DNR site.

So, Jon and I went for a ride Sunday and saw a number of cyclists of varying abilities and equipment.

Most of them needed to raise their seats. I am increasingly convinced, solely through anecdotal evidence, that more people need to check their seat height.

When your bike seat is too low, you don’t get extension of the leg. This is missed power on the downstroke. It also tires the legs faster. When a seat is at the right height, you get more power from less work. It’s awesome.

Some people worry about knee over-extension. As the queen of premature knee arthritis, I assure you this is not the case. The seat should be high enough to fully extend your leg without locking the knee. No knee lock = no overextension.

Even if you’re aware of seat height, like me, it’s good to check it regularly. On many bikes, seat posts can ’sink’ with use. Just check the height before taking off every time.

Try it. Really. Trust me.

In Minnesota, bicycles are considered vehicles, and thus subject to vehicular code.

That is, save in two cases of which I am aware.

First, on a sidewalk (where permitted) or in a crosswalk, a bicycle becomes a special sort of pedestrian.

Second, all those state and county parks that have vehicle permit requirements? Not for bikes! Yahoooo! Thus, the ability to ride over to the Coon Rapids Dam without paying the nice ranger at the gate.

Awesome.

With the Dinkytown Bridge re-opened, back-to-school just got a whole lot simpler at U of M. I can’t imagine what a pain it would have been to have that closed for the start of classes.

Cyclists are still ’short’ the bridge at 10th, but that stands to be the case for a good while. The Dinkytown Bridge wasn’t really being used for I35W bridge recovery efforts, and the closure was just political hoo-ha.

Thinking about it, it ought to be interesting to see what controversies the increased use of 4th Avenue and University Avenue by cars creates as fall commences. Those are major cycling thru-ways for U of M students, and vehicular traffic has increased a lot there.

So, living here in the land of ALL BRIDGE ALL THE TIME, I’m getting a close-up view of how messed up US transportation policy really is.

A lot of infrastructure’s been neglected, or taken for granted, in the era of ‘no new taxes’ and small government. One bridge collapsed. Others are on the line for replacement, and were even prior to this collapse.

A 10-lane bridge with a bicycle crossing has been proposed to replace the I35-W bridge. That’s fine. I’m in favor of building as many roads with suitable infrastructure for cyclists as possible. There’s debate about building the bridge to accomodate light-rail transit (LRT) as well. A line is under consideration to run very near there, over a bridge that is basically fine… but would need a huge overhaul to handle trains.

It’s being said that the feds won’t help fund such a construction project, but will only replace the bridge with a similar bridge (no rapid transit). This is pretty messed up. If when infrastructure needs drastic work — and many highways, as well as bridges, do and will — if we cannot adapt them to forward-looking uses, what’s the freaking point? We can add lanes for more car traffic, but not mass transit, under this formula. What?

Cranky.