My grandfather warned me to be careful on my bike as I left his place today, saying "some drivers get angry at bikers."
I explained to him that this is no accident. In fact it is very predictable that drivers will get impatient sharing the road with bikes. Individual drivers, however, are a minor nuisence. The greater evil here is Minneapolis' failure to conform to safe bicycle streets ALL ACROSS THE MAP. Sure, residential streets are narrow, with few cars and therefore safe for biking. The only problem is that they often are interrupted by freeways, buildings, etc... However, Franklin Avenue west of Chicago is still four lanes with no space for bikes. Cars are given no visual stimulation to slow down or share the road. Twenty Sixth and Twenty Eighth Streets are worse. Commercial corridors like Franklin can very easily be made safe for bicyles. Witness the transformation of Franklin east of Chicago. Cars are kept where they belong by striping and bumpouts, and traffic is calmed through visuals that tell them to slow down (i.e., trees, crosswalks, and artwork. Pedestrians and bicycles have plenty of space. Another fine example is Nicollet between 40th and 46th. I biked there yesterday and was happy to see the continuous striping that clearly keeps cars into one lane either direction and out of the bicycle and parking lane. Glenwood, Plymouth, Lake, Central, Chicago, and many others deserve the same treatment. None of them are wide enough to accomodate four lanes of traffic safely - all of them must be calmed and made safe for biking. Bicyclists are hit because of bad street planning which tries to force four lanes down city arteries. We must calm these thoroughfares one by one - "no street left behind." Jeff Carlson, Whittier __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
