Sunday, March 25, 2012

Bikeway blues?

The Jefferson Avenue Bikeway is a project that seems to have been going on for years. It was originally going to go pass through a completely different route but local opposition made the city of St Paul move it to Jefferson. There is much to tell in all of this about conflict between non-cyclists, cyclists and city planners. There has been a lot of drama and, to my mind, an excess of 'input' from the various parties that has resulted in a less-than-optimal use of money and possibly even a compromised final design. But, there are many voices on both sides and the project is regularly referred to in the media as 'controversial.' Read some comments online and you will realize Minnesota nice only goes so far.

The saga deserves more attention, but for now I just have a few pictures to show what a section of the bikeway looks like today.

In observing this project I have learned that a bikeway means a shared car/bike route. Otherwise, the only indication you are on a something other than a street is signage.




Look closely for the bike icon in this picture.


Another way in which this isn't an ordinary street are the half removed 'sharrows.' I say only half removed because you can still see them. As part of the agreed plan, the residents in this specific section did not want sharrows. The city's contractor placed them here because the rest of the bikeway has them. Seems logical, right? Once the complaints came in the city tried to cover them up, with limited success. This of course prompted more complaints about wasted resources. You can only imagine!


 Otherwise, this is a street. It has stop signs, car parking, shared lanes and all of the other stuff a residential street has. In my mind the primary benefit of this type of bikeway is just the formal recognition of bike traffic. The jury is out on if this creates safer conditions or encourages more use.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Summer in...March?

I can't say anything about the last 2 weeks of riding other than that it has been great. The temperatures have been between 50 and 75 degrees, very little precipitation, and the bike is humming. The strange part: its March. Last year at this time we were still under feet of snow, the roads were icy, and it was an un-wunder-winterland.

I get to cross the Mississippi every day on my commute and the river is a great marker of the seasons. Typically this time of year the ice would start to break up, forming weird puzzle patterns of ice, water, and snow.  Biking along the Mighty Miss in the Spring will also often include a fair amount of fog as the water warms and the cold night air makes mist come off the water. The year 2012, however, has been more impatient: we went right into summer. No icebergs, slushy slow thaws with slick morning black ice, or freak snowstorms. I am a skeptic of the 'season skipping' theory but I have to admit the sudden appearance of open water on the river makes it feel like May.


The sky was gorgeous this morning too.

It's amazing how much more of the weather you notice biking. Since any change in the weather impacts how you ride, you pay so much more attention. This year, it has just been a gorgeous show.

Friday, March 16, 2012

You can see the weirdest things

One of the things I love about biking is how in touch with your surroundings you can be. If I drove to work, I would be in touch with: a) the interior of my car, b) anger management techniques. Note I am not anti-car, but anti-car-commute having had 40+ mile commutes in the past.

I was a bit surprised riding on the Midtown Greenway several days ago to see a curious, humanoid towering over a dumpster. See him? He seems like a he for some reason.


This building is used by a local theater group Bedlam. I haven't been to one of their productions but from the looks of it, you might be in for something fun and certainly non-traditional.


Why does this seem like something that would've been 'relocated' back in the college days?

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Varied terrain, white knuckles

We received a bit of snow this week, at the very end of winter. This was forecast to be the storm of the year: 12+ inches of snow, 20mph winds, slow commutes, mass hysteria. It turned out to be a bit less than 4 inches of thick, sloppy snow, all of which made for a quite unstable riding surface.  The first couple of miles I ride are on street and the route was gross slush with hard chunks of ice frozen to the pavement. When it is like this I will usually ride on the sidewalk and stay as far away from cars as possible. The snow was so wet today that this wasn't an option unless I wanted to push the bike the whole 8 miles to work. I didn't leave early enough for that so I rode out in the lane in the tire tracks which were pretty clean.

I got through the white knuckle part and made it to the West River Parkway trail which had been plowed at some point during the storm.

I ride fatter tires in the winter but not "fat" tires and you can see the difference in this picture. The weaving dark lines are from what are probably chubby mountain bike knobby tires. They break through the snow to the pavement but in the process push the bike all over the place (notice the crazy weaving). The wide, straight, and light colored lines are from true fat tires - 4" wide wheels probably from a Pugsley or Mukluk. These babies go straight as an arrow; the rider was probably sipping coffee too. I might have to get one of those...

I passed some of the Minneapolis park staff plowing a narrow detour on the trail with snow blowers.Who can complain with hand grooming?


I made it to work fine, slower than usual but in one piece. Had I taken the bus or driven I would have wondered how it would have been and would have missed the exercise and fresh air. Despite the negotiating of the route and occasional trudging I didn't regret riding, just that a fatter bike might have made it easier.