Acknowledging you have a problem is often the first step:

This sign and several similar ones (the first one says “Next 38 miles”) are not on a little-used byway but rather on Interstate 94 in Wisconsin. It is indeed a little rough — Roadguy watched some motorcyclists bounce as they cruised over the bigger bumps — but frankly, it’s pretty smooth compared with I-94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

And that bit of highway, in turn, is pretty smooth when compared with a stretch of local roadway that alert reader Craig dubbed “insanely bad”: W. 29th Street between Lyndale and Dupont in south Minneapolis. On Friday, I rode through there on my bike, FlipCam in hand, and recorded 30 seconds’ worth of video. Those prone to motion sickness might want to avert their eyes, but I invite others to try to spot anything that isn’t a pothole or a patch:

Next time I’ll probably walk instead of bike — FlipCam video gets a bit pixelated even at low speeds. But you get the idea that it’s one rough road.

The new Freewheel Midtown Bike Center had its grand opening this morning on the Midtown Greenway. It was the second time this week that Roadguy had to get up at an unnatural hour to attend a bike-related event, but once again, it was worth it. There was a good crowd outside…

… and plenty to see inside, from merchandise…

… to secure parking spots for 150 bikes…

… to the almost-famous bike shower:

(There are private showers for people as well.)

Commuters kept whizzing by during the speeches, but an hour later, all was peaceful:

Things should pick up again this afternoon — there’s an open house from 4-7ish p.m., complete with bands, popcorn and stuff on the grill. (My news story about the center is here.)

And if you haven’t had enough bike-related events this week, there’s another in just a few days:

All I’m sayin’ is Portland better be watching in its rearview mirror.

One more quick post about Monday’s event — Roadguy didn’t have the presence of mind to record his remarks after the race (nor did he remember half of what he said), but alert reader Matty captured the two minutes on video:

Thanks again to Matty for sharing; more of his transportation-related videos (and a few others) are here.

Alert reader Matty was assigned to follow R.T. Rybak’s bicycle in Monday’s Great Commuter Challenge, and he managed to not only keep up with the superhuman mayor but also take video along the way. Here’s the result, complete with a fitting soundtrack:

The guy with me at the end is the intrepid Nick, and unfortunately I didn’t actually show him how to use the non-intuitive video camera that I had handed to him, so we got zero minutes despite his efforts. Thankfully, Matty had no such troubles capturing the event.

Roadguy, R.T. Rybak, Toni Carter, and Lea Schuster of TLC are drawn toward the morning sunlight in Merriam Park. (A better photo is here.)

A BIT MORE CHALLENGING THAN IMAGINED

The broken gas pump was not a good omen.

This morning’s Great Commuter Challenge was sponsored by transit and biking advocates, and as the only contestant driving a carbon-spewing car, I didn’t expect them to make it easy for me. But sabotage a gas station?

No, no, of course they didn’t do that. But pulling up to a pump with no nozzle was just one of the reasons I lost to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who rode a bicycle, and Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter, who took a bus and light rail.

The not-exactly-scientific-but-entertaining race was organized by Transit for Livable Communities, with help from public agencies including Metro Transit and the Minneapolis bicycle program. My prescribed route from St. Paul’s Merriam Park to the Minneapolis Central Library downtown required me to put a gallon of gas in my car, buy a newspaper at the Lake Street light-rail station and pick up some tickets at the Bedlam Theatre box office in the Cedar-Riverside area.

All three contestants had more or less the same 6-mile route (a map is here). Carter was absolved of the fuel stop, but Rybak was instructed to grab a snack along the way.

We were under orders to obey all traffic laws, including speed limits. As my mother said, “Well, what kind of commute is that?” But after Rybak’s driver’s-license dust-up last week, we all wanted to be model citizens.

IN FIRST PLACE, FOR A BIT

After I found a functioning gas pump, I cruised past the mayor as he was finishing up his espresso chocolate chip scone, and I had excellent luck hitting green lights all along E. Lake Street.

Things started to go downhill at the Lake/Hiawatha intersection.

My attempt to walk across Lake Street to buy a Wall Street Journal took two tries, after the first push of the pedestrian button didn’t produce a walk signal. A few minutes later, I waited through two cycles of a stoplight when the arms came down at the freight train crossing.

An impatient SUV in front of me eventually blew through the red arrow, but I had a judge/monitor in the front seat next to me: Nick Mason, a member of the city’s bicycle advisory panel.

I started to have a sinking feeling — I’d already seen Carter hustling from the bus to the train station and watched Rybak zoom onto the bike trail that runs along the light-rail line.

I was pleased to find a parking spot about a block away from the Bedlam Theatre. Not bad — but not as good as the wide-open lot right next door. I must confess to some jaywalking — or rather jayrunning — at this point, with poor Nick jayrunning behind me.

Carter’s tickets were brought to her when her train stopped at the light-rail station next to Bedlam, saving her six to eight minutes over visiting the box office and waiting for the next train. Bedlam offers a $2-per-ticket discount to patrons who arrive by transit or self-power.

THE FINISH LINE

We’d all left Merriam Park at 7:40 a.m. Rybak arrived at the library at 8:11, Carter four minutes later, and yours truly five minutes after Carter.

Considering the somewhat stacked deck (in the real world, I could’ve bought a Wall Street Journal at the gas station and hopped on the freeway), my showing wasn’t too bad, and besides, the broader point was to call attention to the benefits and viability of alternative transportation. Carter spoke of how nice it was to be able to actually read her newspaper and chat with others on the bus and train, while Rybak, a triathlon-competing 52-year-old, is more fit and vibrant than your average teenager.

I got my heart rate up, too, but mostly while waiting for stoplights.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Roadguy couldn’t operate his video camera (or any other) while driving, but a couple dozen pix, taken by intrepid Nick, are here on Nick’s Flickr site, and the Rake has more here. Also, alert reader Matty was there shooting video, which should be available at some point soon. Oh, and here are the books I had to return to the library:

Here’s Roadguy’s column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve already read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below. Thanks.

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

Alert reader Dennis was in the HOV lanes on Interstate 394 last week when an officer pulled over the vehicle he was riding in.

Dennis was surprised, but he wasn’t alone: He was a passenger on a SouthWest Transit bus. “I thought we would have to pass the hat for the driver,” he said.

Len Simich, the transit agency’s CEO, confirmed the incident and said the driver got a warning for going about 5 miles per hour over the 55 mph limit.

“Sometimes the drivers will get going with traffic, but if they’re exceeding the speed limit, they’re subject to being pulled over like you and I,” he said.

Any driver who garners two on-duty traffic convictions in a three-year period would be fired, Simich said, but it’s pretty rare for a bus driver to even get stopped — he couldn’t recall it happening in his 11 years with the agency.

Dennis couldn’t recall it happening in his 10 years of bus commuting, either. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

NO PHOTOCOP THIS YEAR

After last week’s column about PhotoCop, I checked in with Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, who authored a bill to make red-light cameras legal in Minnesota. He said Thursday that the measure did pretty well — making it through three committees and losing by only one vote in a fourth — but it’s done for this time around.

The legislation would have kept PhotoCop-issued violations off driving records. Thissen expects to try again next year.

In the meantime, the cameras in Minneapolis, which have been turned off for two years because of court rulings, will continue to serve as technological scarecrows: they look like they can get you, but they can’t.

A VERY SPECIAL ROADGUY

On Monday morning, Roadguy will be taking part in the Great Commuter Challenge sponsored by Transit for Livable Communities.

I’ll be driving my car from a park in St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis and will stop for a few mandatory errands along the way.

My competitors are Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who will be on a bike, and Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter, who will be walking and using transit. (Our modes of transport were chosen before R.T.’s driver’s license thing came up.)

There will be a special-edition Roadguy column in Tuesday’s paper (and at www.startribune.com/roadguy) about the experience — unless I lose terribly and am too depressed to write.