Bike lanes (or lack thereof) in winter

Witness: The struggle that is a bike lane in winter, via these (poor) images, taken from inside a car.

That glacier is the bike lane.

This article is reposted from TCDP media partner Streets.MN. Check out the links below for other recent Streets.MN stories:

• The Great Streetcar Debate (Car Wheels on a Gravel Road or Your Father’s Magic Carpet Made of Steel)
• Seeking solace on a drive through rural Rice County

Now, certainly, over the railing is a well-cleared sidewalk. It is an option. It’s actually an appealing option. But if you’re coming right off Marshall, once you commit, you are committed to at least De La Salle, and if you don’t bail there, you’re there all the way over the bridge. Taking the lane is your only option.

I would like to encourage bikers, like the ones I saw this morning, to do such a thing. Trying to hug a glacier is going to get you killed.

And City of Minneapolis? I realize there are issues with “where to put snow” when clearing sidewalks and lanes on this bridge. I get it. But you really need to find a dumper to get the snow off the bridge entirely. Stick it in the river BEFORE it becomes a heinous black glacier that will melt into it.

Thanks.

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