April 17, 2008
by julie
Comments Off on Bridge Inspection Mania!
Fox9 News reports that a bicycle-pedestrian bridge over Minnehaha Creek near Bryant Avenue is being closed due to potential safety concerns. Cited are the bridge’s age, rust, and footing erosion.
Welcome to Minnesota, where bridge inspection and closure doesn’t just hit the highways, it hits the trails too!
April 17, 2008
by julie
2 Comments
The City of Minneapolis has received a $900,000 grant to improve cycling facilities in the city. They don’t plan to blow it all in one place, however. Highlights include:
In somewhat more dubious excitement, they plan to re-stripe many existing bike lanes. Several of Minneapolis’ designated routes need more than paint to make them meet a standard of ‘not ridiculous relative to common rules of traffic.’ I’m thinking the downtown Hennepin Avenue lane, which goes through the CENTER of the road and thus is head-on to buses in both directions, and the Portland/Park lanes, which have bicycles – the slowest moving vehicles on the road – in the left-hand part of the one-way street, cutting across 3 lanes to make right turns. But, hey, the lanes will have fresh paint!
April 14, 2008
by julie
Comments Off on News Updates
News from lots of spots:
April 10, 2008
by julie
Comments Off on Media Bias in Cycling Accidents
Bob Mionske, author of the excellent and invaluable Bicycling & the Law, has highlighted the issue of media bias in bicycle-vehicle accidents in his newest VeloNews column.
I would be the first to agree with his assertion that cyclists who blow stop signs or disrespect the rules of traffic “(provide) the ammunition to those who want to restrict our rights to the road.” In fact, I regularly rant about that very issue. At the same time, something he doesn’t mention in this column is that we might expect a city like San Francisco, known as a progressive city, to have somewhat more enlightened views of a green, low-pollution transport method such as cycling. However, that’s not reflected in the recent Chronicle coverage of a pair of cyclists killed by a law enforcement official who CROSSED THE CENTER LINE of the roadway. It is difficult to argue that their deaths were provoked by their legal use of their own through lane.
This is why bike education is important – and not merely for cyclists, but for law enforcement, legislators, and drivers. Aggression by cyclists and drivers creates mutual escalation, when the goal should be to work together as road users. Many law enforcement officers have little training in bicycle statutes and rules for road use, resulting in some ridiculous situations – I’ve personally experienced such a situation, in which the citation against me was laughed out of court by the county prosecutor as ‘completely without legal basis.’
We all need to work together. Unfortunately, there’s a long way to go there.
April 7, 2008
by julie
Comments Off on Green Messenger Bags
For those who look at spring as an opportunity to start bicycle commuting and who want to truly embrace their inner environmental warrior, the Gear Junkie’s column this week highlights a Minneapolis business that makes functional messenger bags out of recycled plastic bags.
Save the landfills and buy from American, on-shore labor. That’s anti-recessionary behavior to embrace!