Ride Boldly! || Bicycle Safety, Advocacy & Events in Minnesota

October 27, 2010
by julie
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Bike Lanes As Cyclist Hazards

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Yesterday, a cyclist was killed while in the bike lane at 1st Avenue North and 5th Street in Minneapolis. While details remain sparse, the cyclist was in a bike lane painted to the right of the road, and was struck in a classic right-hook as the vehicle in the ‘car lane’ to the left of the bike lane made an (apparently legal) right turn.

Today’s coverage is focusing on the fact that the bike in use was stolen. While that’s regrettable, it may suggest that the individual in question wasn’t an experienced cyclist. Hard to say. It certainly doesn’t take away the fact that a death is a terrible thing.

More importantly, something like this brings a bit of attention to the idea that bike lanes are a suggestion, not an edict, as to lane placement for the savvy cyclist. When a bike lane is striped exclusively to the right of ‘car lanes,’ many cyclists stay in the bike lane at intersections at their own risk. Very often, the first ‘car lane’ to their left is a lane with the dual option of a motorized vehicle going straight, or going right. Depending on lane placement, what color the light is, car and bicycle arrival times at intersection, and the stopping point of the cyclist in the bike lane, this can create a dangerous blind spot in which the bicyclist is taken out by a right-turning vehicle who may not be able to see the cyclist – even if they’re looking for one.

Typically, I tell people that if a bike lane is striped as the curb lane to the right of a vehicle lane with option, pull into the main lane at a light – even if there’s no car there – or behind any vehicles already in that lane. If a rider insists on staying in the bike lane, I suggest not pulling all the way forward, but staying well back of the rear view mirrors of the vehicle for visibility’s sake. If the vehicle is one with a high clearance, like a truck, stay all the way behind it, even in the bike lane.

There are ways to engineer bike lanes so that the right-hook risk is minimized, but it’s rare to see it happen in a backfill striping project. Failure to recognize the vehicle types and destination potential of the traffic around you as a cyclist can be fatal, even with a bike lane present.

October 8, 2010
by julie
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Ongoing Saga on Jefferson Avenue

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Bikeway Arrow Dramaz

I’ve written before about the saga of making St. Paul’s Jefferson Avenue an official bike boulevard. As I’ve noted, it was on a 1998 Twin Cities bike map as a good bicycle option. There’s been a lot of hand-wringing by some about how making it a bikeway is just a horrid idea, but, truly, it already is a bikeway.

Today’s PiPress actually addresses that fact in an opinion that mentions the Jefferson Avenue project:

Some of us who bike down Jefferson are amused that the attempt to make it a super-duper official bike route has been difficult and expensive. There is a $1 million plan in the works that would, as as we understand it, slow down or divert cross-town traffic. Part of the plan involves bike-lane marking and signage, some of which is already up. It could be very cool.

I still don’t quite get what the neighbors near Snelling who object to the bike arrows think they’re getting by doing so. The area is mostly a no parking zone already, so it’s not as though it preserves parking. Bikes are already using the wideness of the lane at will, legally. Yet, there is a huge objection to painting arrows.

It’s going to happen. And even if it doesn’t, arrows and signage are really not all that relevant – bikes are largely legal on most streets in Minnesota, save some that, truly, you don’t want to be on a bike there anyway, like interstates and expressways and inroads to toxic waste dumps. If anything, I think what signage sometimes does is create a perception that bikes should be on those streets with signs and paint, and not other streets, which is also absolutely not true. It also creates opportunities for people to stand up and hate on the legality of the bicycle on the streets.

Check Out Jefferson Yourself!

Jefferson’s a lovely ride this time of year. You can get onto Jefferson from Mississippi River Boulevard and ride up through the neighborhoods of St. Paul.

Pop left a block on Lexington and turn right on Lombard.

Swing another right on Ben Hill Road to check out the statues of Winnie the Pooh and his friends at one of the big houses on the hill.

You can cruise all the way down to the river by going right at the bottom of the hill on St. Clair, and then take the Shepard Road bike path – newly remodeled near Crosby Farm! – all the way back up to Mississippi River Boulevard to rejoin Jefferson.

It’s a nice little loop, although there is a bit of altitude change. The downhill is much steeper than any of the climb, and the trees are really colorful right now!

August 24, 2010
by julie
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St. Paul Flashback: 1998 Bicycle Routes Map

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Yesterday, I posted the Chain Gang 1998 map of Minneapolis bicycle routes. The other side of this fold-up map features the equivalent for the Saint Paul side of the river. My scan accidentally cut off a wee bit of the bottom, but I assure you it’s not a cataclysmic loss.

Here ’tis:

In all seriousness, not a lot has changed. We picked up an additional bridge at I35E a few years back, which has been awesome, but most of what’s on this map remains a good option, and while there are a few streets not marked that also work, they haven’t been significantly re-engineered since 1998. Unlike the Minneapolis map, the Saint Paul map includes numerous streets without striped bike lanes.

Note that Jefferson is marked as a good bicycle route as far back as 1998. This is interesting in light of recent debate about making Jefferson a ‘bicycle boulevard’ – maps like this support my assertion that all such a move does is codify it with some parking changes and paint, but that cyclists have been using it as such for years.

To say that not much has changed is not to say that improvements haven’t occurred – see also the update to the Shepard Road path as an example. However, it’s generally been fairly easy to navigate St. Paul via streets and bicycles for some years, and arguably the arterial options haven’t needed to be changed much.

August 23, 2010
by julie
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St. Paul Finally Fixes Mississippi River Trail

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I was along Shepard Road in Saint Paul this weekend, and saw a beautiful sight: The section of trail between the Highway 5 bridge and the I35E bridge is being regraded, widened, repaved, and generally upgraded from ‘OMG suck’ to ‘pretty darn nice.’

The river paths are popular with many recreational cyclists, and the shoulder on that part of Shepard was no great treat for condition either – keeping in mind that many bicycle riders wouldn’t go near it regardless, due to Shepard’s high speed limit. However, it was consistently strewn with debris and glass, and featured some pretty epic cracks and potholes.

The upgrades to the path are basically eliminating the shoulder, which will be a bit of a nuisance for the more serious, road-oriented cyclists who have been willing to deal with the somewhat questionable shoulder conditions as a trade-off for speed (and avoidance of the really crummy trail condition + inexperienced/slow riders). However, the trail upgrades are pretty considerable: The trail has been widened, and along most of the route features separated bicycle/pedestrian paths. Foliage has been trimmed such that it won’t stab people. New lighting is being installed, as is new fencing. Landscaping will be ongoing, given that August/September is not the best season for some of that work.

The project, given that it has included moving the roadway railing, regrading of the trail area, and protection of the cliff to Crosby Lake, has cost about $1.6 million dollars. The bulk of funding via the the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and DOT grants.

The big grand opening of the trail is scheduled for September 8, but with cooperative weather the trail should be done by Labor Day.

August 23, 2010
by julie
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Minneapolis Flashback: 1998 Chain Gang Map

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Back in the day, Metro Commuter Services had a program called the Chain Gang. This really doesn’t exist as such any more, and some of the services provided in the program either are being offered through other agencies or not at all. Probably one of the nicest pieces was that Chain Gang members were eligible for an emergency ride home if they commuted by bike and something happened.

In the process of going through a desk drawer to try to find something, I came across this treasure of history: The 1998 Chain Gang guide to Minneapolis Bike Routes! It doesn’t include downtown as an area of the map, and simply notes that there are ‘designated bike lanes throughout downtown.’

This map is clickable to get an enlargement:

A few notes:

The Cedar Lake Trail is there, but not the Greenway – Phase I didn’t open until 2000.
Mapping is based solely on bike lane striping or trails, thereby leaving out numerous arterial streets that have seen long use by cyclists such as 28th Avenue and 42nd Street.
A separate map exists for Saint Paul that was the reverse of this map that I will post separately.