Ride Boldly!

Bikes, bicycling, and road safety.

September 22, 2008
by julie
Comments Off on More on the MN43 Construction

More on the MN43 Construction

There is apparently controversy about the construction/repair of the bicycle/pedestrian crossing of MN43 across the river at Winona!

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.

September 18, 2008
by julie
Comments Off on Trash Talk

Trash Talk

The League of American Bicyclists have a nice little section on their web site called Trash Talk. They track stupid things said about bicycles and examine the underlying issues, and give some nice talking points around the standard red-herrings used against bicyclists, such as the notion that cyclists don’t pay their way, or that bicyclists don’t belong on the road – with lots of links to facts and figures.

Good stuff.

September 18, 2008
by julie
Comments Off on News & Nonsense

News & Nonsense

  • The League of American Bicyclists ranks Minnesota 5th out of 50 states in the Bicycle-Friendly State Program. Woo. West Virginia? Totally last.
  • Arden Hills wants to make County E between Lexington and Hamline all pretty, and add some bike lanes. Once pretty, they want to re-name it to Lake Johanna Boulevard. (PiPress)
  • HAY LOOK! A bridge reconnecting I35W. (Strib)
  • Richard Dean Anderson, aka MacGyver, talks about how to make a torch out of a bike it’d have to be made of magnesium. BAD IDEA. (I count this as metro news, because per Wikipedia, MacGyver was born in Minnesota.) (Popular Mechanics)
  • Find out how walkable your community is based on WalkScore.com‘s standards. Note that their standards may be daft, as they claim I can walk to the Caribou that is 0.84 miles away, but, trust me, not so much since there are no sidewalks. They also claim the U-Haul Store is a ‘clothing and music’ store. Uh….
  • They’re still trying to figure out how to finish the Cedar Lake Trail around the new Twins Ballpark, aka Target Field. (here)
  • They’re still repairing the MN 43 bridge in Winona.

September 14, 2008
by julie
Comments Off on Update: Washington Avenue Bridge

Update: Washington Avenue Bridge

In the comments of my last post – concerning repairs to the U of Minnesota’s bridge over Washington Avenue – Hugh states that the bridge can be ridden over.

Actually, it can’t. The University has asked that bicyclists dismount and walk over the bridge. Due to many students and other users not doing so, they plan to have the Kampus Kopz write $80 tickets to users caught cycling over the bridge.

The U expect the restrictions to be in place throughout the school year.