• The Winona Bridge, about which I have written a billion times following its brief closure in Summer 2008, is now scheduled for ‘rehabilitation’ in 2014. Everyone gets to take their chances on this fracture-critical structure until then.

• A Complete Streets bill is under consideration in Minnesota. I recommend against even going NEAR the comments on the linked article, as they are full of standard-issue hatred of bicyclists and the same tired arguments about licensing, taxes, and etc. that we have heard many times before.
• City of St. Paul is starting pothole patching this week. Hooray. I think we’ve all encountered a few doozies lately. MPR’s user-driven pothole map is pretty epic.
• The National Bicycle Summit is next week in Washington DC. I’ll be there! Watch this space for coverage of the sessions, plus I’ll also provide a summary of the bills we’re advocating for on Capitol Hill – the Active Community Transportation Act of 2010, the federal Complete Streets bill, the Urban Revitalization and Livable Communities Act and the reauthorization of Safe Routes to School.

The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota will be offering a Traffic Skills course on May 15 and May 16, 2009, in Duluth. Course completion requires attendance on both dates.

As part of the National Rally of Bicyclists, there will be a Traffic Skills course on July 31, 2009, in Winona.

Two instructor certification clinics will be offered in Minneapolis in late July. Traffic Skills 101 completion is a pre-requisite. Local instructors plan to provide additional TS101 opportunities this summer for those interested in the certification.

• Registration for the League of American Bicyclists’ National Rally, which is being held in conjunction with TCBC’s Weekend on Wheels, is now open: WOW2009 Registration
• The aforementioned event is to include a League Traffic Skills 101 course in Winona, Minnesota, on Friday, July 31, 2009.

The TS101 course will be listed on the League web site shortly as well, although all registration will go via the above link.

Rev February 2010: Removed links to registrations.

One special thing about this year’s event is that it will be the partner for the League of American Bicyclists National Rally of Bicyclists. TCBC and Winona will welcome bikers from across the country for the weekend’s festivities!

The weekend will feature riding, eating, and educational opportunities, including a session of the LAB’s Traffic Skills 101 course (formerly known as Road I).

Complete info on the event, as it develops, is posted on the Weekend on Wheels website at www.bikewow.org.

Apparently, MNDOT is using creosote-treated wood for the crossing. Exposure to creosote can cause irritation of the skin, and eating it is an especially bad plan.

MNDOT points out that it’s a river crossing, so metal is a bad plan. No one has suggested that bridges are meant to be crossed, not camped out upon or eaten.

Me, I still think bikes can do just fine on the pavement of the bridge proper, as I have every time I’ve ever crossed that bridge on a bicycle.

Signage still says bikes are legally unwelcome on the bridge. However, enforcement seems lax – when I’ve been in Winona, I did see some cyclists using the roadway. MN43 is a 4-lane bridge with plenty of room for a bicycle and a car to travel efficiently over the rider alongside one another.

Not that I am advocating illegal behavior. I’m just observing.

City of Winona has put up some close-up shots of decaying gusset plates in action on the MN43 bridge over the Mississippi River. Closing the sidewalk is clearly justified by these images.

Clickable for detail:

There are several others on the City of Winona web site.

However, bikes STILL don’t belong on sidewalks, so they STILL could easily be allowed in the traffic lane. The bridge was never signed that bicycles could only use the sidepath (like on the Mendota Bridge of MN55), and MN43 was never a prohibited route (like most interstate highways). The restriction on cyclists appears to be a categorization failure – those making this rule are classifying bicyclists with pedestrians as sidewalk users, rather than as vehicles making shared use of the road as permitted under Minnesota Statute 169.222.

Because, remember: Those bikes will be the straw breaking that concrete camel’s gusset plates!

There IS an update on that:

Pedestrians and bicyclists are also restricted from crossing, but a cab service will be available for 75 cents per person each way.

So, these cabs… have bicycle racks?
I’ll believe it when I see it.

Spend 3 days in Winona riding premier cycling routes, and partaking in a Saturday night lakeside luau that is sure to be delicious.

edited 10/27/2008 – removed out of date registration form.