Going the wrong way on a two-way — on a bike
Posted on June 24th, 2009 – 3:03 PMBy Roadguy
As Minneapolis celebrates another biking honor (one of the top ten bike-friendly cities in the world), let’s have a look at what Roadguy saw last evening while sitting at a light on Hiawatha Avenue:
The light had obviously turned green by the time I took this picture, but it seemed wise for me to wait a bit longer, what with a bicyclist headed toward oncoming traffic. I had been watching his meandering approach from some distance, and he was riding closer to the middle of the lane for most of that time.
I suppose there was a chance that he was a Briton accustomed to driving on the left, but I’m thinking alcohol played a key role in his decision-making. This was his next low-speed maneuver:
It was a pretty sad sight — unkempt, unhelmeted guy wandering toward and in front of traffic on a 40-mph four-lane road. I hope he doesn’t read this article about bike-related beers…. I’m pretty sure he’d already had enough.
9 Responses to "Going the wrong way on a two-way — on a bike"
Whenever I see a bicyclist riding on the wrong side of the street, I always feel like yelling at the cyclist to let him/her know.
The biker rider is especially stupid since there’s a trail on the west side of the road (along the rail) that runs the length of Hiawatha.
I always wonder about the whole Briton thing — When I walk my dog on the paths around town, there are at least 2 people every day who are walking on the wrong side of the path and refuse to move over upon approach. I have to yank my dog over and walk around them. What is the deal? We do not live in London, Dublin or Sydney, right?
esayer, that’s not a briton thing, it’s a self centered jerk thing.
Looks to me like he’s not travelling along hiawatha, but crossing hiawatha. Not by a method I would particularly endorse, either.
This AM on MPR there was brief mention of a cyclist on one of the freeways causing a snarlup. I thought she said 494 & Franklin, which makes no sense. Did anyone hear anything about that?
He really was coming down Hiawatha, but I couldn’t get my camera out in time to capture his middle-of-the-lane, heading-straight-toward-oncoming-traffic antics.
The MPR story about the freeway bicyclist is here.
Just to focus on the positive briefly: Minneapolis named one of the world’s 10 best cities for cyclists!
http://wcco.com/health/minneapolis.bicycle.city.2.1058716.html
Yay!
People like this usually don’t observe or care about news.
Regardless of this bikers choice of crossing areas, it is painfully clear from Roadguy’s blogging that he spends very little time commuting by bicycle in MPLS. Your blog is pretty good, when you stick to subjects you have experience and knowledge in.
