Minnesota needs vulnerable road user protection laws

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Most of the time, when a pedestrian or cyclist is seriously injured or killed by a motor vehicle, we label it “an accident.” As long as the driver isn’t drunk and doesn’t flee the scene, he or she can expect to pay a minor fine, at most, and will suffer no criminal penalties. It doesn’t matter if the driver was texting on their phone, speeding, running a stop sign, turning right-on-red without stopping or other reckless or illegal driving maneuvers. Their liability insurance will cover payouts to the dead or injured and, after answering a few questions from the police, they are often allowed to continue on their way. If you want to murder someone and get away with it, just hit them with your car and say, “it was an accident.” Continue Reading

OPINION | Improving bike-safety along Franklin Avenue

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The Twin Cities feature hundreds of miles of bike lanes, boulevards, and paths, and Minneapolis is often lauded as one of the most bike-friendly cities in the U.S. But the city faces a number of challenges when it comes to creating and maintaining bike-safety on its streets – especially because many of those streets fall under the jurisdiction of multiple agencies. Coordinating much needed initiatives to improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians therefore requires cooperation at the municipal, county, and state level.

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Saint Paul crafts an “8-to-80” bike plan

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After years of lagging behind its neighbors, Saint Paul has finally come up with a bike plan. I’ve written many times about why this is important. For example, see these two pieces on the Nice Ride disparity between the downtowns, or this one on the great Saint Paul bike boulevard backlash, or this one on the angst-inducing state of many of the city’s main streets. But now, after years of starts and stops, Saint Paul has finally released its official draft “bikeways plan” for public review. Continue Reading

How a “safe” cyclist can still end up dead

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Last night, I quickly blogged about media coverage regarding the death of Marcus Nalls, hit and killed on his bicycle by a drunk driver. John Iverson killed Nalls on Franklin Ave.–one of the busiest and most dangerous roads that bicyclists utilize in the Cities. Although my argument remains the same today, I want to take a bit more time here to talk about how news media frames bicycle-related deaths. Continue Reading