Roadguy had heard about the “Share the Road” event for months (his readers had, too), so when the magic date rolled around on Friday, he headed over to West River Parkway in Minneapolis to check out the myriad offerings. They included:

Girl Scouts with Burma-Shave-type signs to encourage drivers to slow down:

(Troop 1076’s message: “If you can/ read this sign/ you’re doing/ just fine” — speedwise, at least.)

Law-enforcement types on horses:

(Note that the horses were not in motion while the officer used his cell phone.)

A very large fish out of water:

(That would be Freddie the Catfish, a mascot of the National Park Service, the agency that oversees the Mississippi River Gorge, which begins just beyond the roadway and paths behind him.)

Public officials waxing poetic about safety, neighborhoods, the greater good, and the environment:

That’s Scott Vreeland, a Park Board member who might look familiar and who spoke about the rewards of driving at or below the speed limit: While riding his motorcycle along the parkway, he spotted an eagle flying over the gorge, right there in the heart of the Twin Cities, and he noted that speeders miss out on the kinds of experiences that the parkway was designed to provide.

He’s right — the parkways were built many decades ago for the primary purpose of recreational driving, and now they’re often crowded with commuters’ vehicles, bicyclists, joggers, skaters and pedestrians, all vying for limited space during an era with limited public resources for improvements. For the “Share the Road” event, community groups joined with MnDOT to call for calm and to raise awareness of the existing laws, which, as we know, are far from universally understood. (For last month’s Roadguy post about the parkway, click here; for a quick review of selected bike-car laws, click here.)

Organizers of the event knew that no one would show up for a mass scolding, so they mixed the educational components with healthy servings of levity. For example, kids got to shake hands with Elmer the Elm:

(That’s Elmer, the Park Board mascot, on the right; the event’s emcee, Gary Hendlin, is at left.)

Perhaps the most intriguing attraction was the opportunity for people of all ages to help make bicycle-powered smoothies:

Riding the bike is Gabriella, who happens to work in IT for MnDOT and is president of the Birchwood Cafe’s bike team. She also commutes 13 miles each way to work via bike, so she didn’t even come close to breaking a sweat as she pulverized some bananas and strawberries. Behind her is Ashley of The Hub Bike Co-op, which provided the exercise bike, the blender and the ingredients.

After attending the main event at E. 27th Street (at the Midtown Greenway’s eastern end), Roadguy got on his bike and headed down the parkway to check out some of the other sites and sights. There were additional low-tech Burma-Shave messages, a tent offering lemonade and cookies, and a high-tech electronic reminder that drivers should ease up:

(Roadguy always forgets that school buses are allowed on the parkways. They seem a bit out of place, given the truck ban, but families with kids live on the parkways, and the kids need to get home.)

Roadguy’s southernmost goal was the 44th Street tent…

… which was across the street from the Becketwood retirement community. Earlier that day, alert reader Dob had written to tell me about a challenging crosswalk right in front of Becketwood:

Just add foliage

There are a number of issues. The double-S curve, the concrete curved wall that you can’t see around … the lack of signage for motorists approaching around the wall northbound … and the crosswalk sign placements. The one for northbound drivers doesn’t let you know there is a crosswalk until you curve around to it. … From the other direction, the crosswalk warning sign is right at the crosswalk and has a tree branch hanging directly in front of the sign to obscure it from motorists!

Residents have said that they assume [that] each time they cross may be their last. One of the residents, Bob, said he has often thought of laying a manequin down with fake blood on it, to make people think. …They are a lively bunch….

Roadguy was a little disappointed that they didn’t actually go ahead with the mannequin, but he did get to meet a few Becketwood residents, including one named Mary. Mary said that she’d talked to some police officers and that the best thing to do would be to move the crosswalk a half-block north, to a straighter part of the parkway. Given the lack of funding for even basic paving of the paths, such a request might be a long shot, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.

Also at the tent was Dob herself, who demonstrated another challenge of the crosswalk signs:

As Dob put it: I have to bend down and stick my head in the street to see around it. It was also the rare situation in which wearing yellow to improve one’s visibility was actually counterproductive. But the shirts are pretty nice:

As Roadguy headed back up the parkway, he noticed another multimodal transportation challenge:

There were runners right next to the two-way bike path, and occasionally on the bike path, a situation that would then prompt a biker or two to ride over onto the walking path, creating hazards all around. Roadguy understands that runners prefer dirt to pavement, but all the veering reminded him of something else Dob had said in her e-mail:

Becketwood seniors … no longer feel comfortable using the walking path. They say that years ago, everyone said, “on your left” or a clear audible signal when they passed someone, but now nobody does. They said they admit that their hearing might not be what it used to be, but people are not trying to be audible. Mumbling something as you are already whizzing by is not sufficient or appropriate. They said residents have been bumped and even knocked over by hit and run offenders. Really sad.

Roadguy would like to note that a lot of seniors can still hear better than just about anyone with a cranked-up iPod blasting into their ears. Regardless, we’re all better off if our retirees are out getting excercise, and if they can barely get across the street and then find themselves in danger once they do, you can see why they might opt to share a couch instead.

So, there’s plenty to be done, but the “Share the Road” event was billed as a kickoff, so we’ll see where the momentum takes the several dozen people who were involved. They’ve got the attention of some elected officials, too — City Council Members Cam Gordon and Gary Schiff and Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin were among those in attendance (if you’d like to hear their remarks, click here for a YouTube video shot at the event by alert reader Matty). And you probably have a few remarks of your own, so please share them below — in the same civilized manner in which you no doubt share the road.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 6:05 am and is filed under Scenes and stories, Transportation conversations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.