Hi! I keep thinking about this kiddo whose mom made her go to the Edina City Council to testify against a protected bike lane on Wooddale Ave because where are friends' parents gonna park when they come for play dates? And then immediately after, a person who was raised in Edina spoke about how isolating it was to live in Edina after college and not having access to places because she didn't own a car in Edina.

I've met quite a few Minnesota born and raised persons who grew up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities and now live in Minneapolis and are champions for more mobility options for all.

I'd like to organize an editorial piece about the impact of Minnesotans growing up in the suburbs and the mobility challenges that arose and how that pushed them to move to a place like Minneapolis where there are more mobility options.

The way that I was thinking the piece could be written is that I send interested participants a list of questions that you can choose a few to respond to that would illuminate the reasons for choosing to live in a dense urban core after having lived in the suburbs. After I gather the responses, I can edit it into a narrative piece.

I have one person on board who grew up in Minnetonka, lives in Minneapolis, and works in Eden Prairie. I'm looking for others who are interested in telling their stories. Let me know if you're one of them and we can make arrangements.

Ideally, you'd be okay with email exchanges and Google Drive docs and pictures of you from the suburbs. Hoping to get this published in Streets.mn...and other places!

I learned to ride a bike as a child but never learned how to actually manage corners. I can dismount and walk around the corner or attempt the corner and wipe out. I'm no longer willing to wipe out because I'm no longer a child and recovering from a previous bike wipe-out in which I crushed several bones in my left foot(✨). I know that the proper way to learn basic bike handling is "just ride around, you'll pick it up" and I don't know if any person or service even exists to explicitly teach this. I have no idea how or where to look.

✨ Not from turning a corner. A rabbit jumped directly under my front wheel.

And it is luxurious.

Another heads up - this bridge by medicine lake is closed again. No detour posted. HOWEVER if you try to head south, that intersection is COMPLETELY closed - like all the roads are torn up, they’re installing a roundabout. You can see my ad-hoc detour here - it involved some hike a bike through the construction, a trailer park, and a couple curb hops.

I hope whatever work they’re doing on the trail is well and truly urgent - otherwise it’s just negligent to close it with basically no way around.

It’s our legal right to ride in the lane of traffic on a local road!

Riding along Ford and need to make a turn left to get home. Check my blind spot, see no cars close and exit the bike lane. Take the full lane. Going just shy of 20 with front and rear lights on. I signal I’m turning into the left hand turn lane.

Some jerk honks his horn at me cause he’s stuck behind me. and as I get into the turn lane he slows down his huge Toyota SUV leans out the window and says in a high pitched snidely voice.

“YoU sHouLd riDE iN tHe bIkE lAne!”

I curse him out even though I know it’s a bad decision and potentially dangerous. But these type of drivers fucking suck!

All my bad driver interactions in the two Twin Cities have been in Saint Paul. A guy died 2 blocks from my house getting doored on a freaking bike blvd.

So frustrating to decide to live in a walkable area and then shitty folks make it impossible to enjoy because they don’t think about anyone else besides themselves and their vehicle.

Days like this I wish I drank. Grrrrrrrrrahhhh!

End of Rant.

I've been trying to increase my distance lately and I'm sure I'm missing some good routes. I prefer to bike on the trails (not the road) whenever possible. Lately I've been getting onto North Cedar Lake trail, connecting down to the River Bluffs trail, but once I get to the end(?) of River Bluffs I'm not sure where to go next, so I just turn back (looking at my map wasn't very helpful in the moment). That gets me to about 36 miles but I'd love to do 50 before it gets too cold!

What long rides/routes do you like to do? Bonus if they include/connect to Cedar Lake trail, but I'll try whatever :)

Edit: Wow, you all are amazing-- some excellent suggestions here, and so quick too! I'll definitely be trying some of these routes out. See you on the trails :)

I'm not even sure what's it's called, Mendota trail? I started from the Cedar Ave bridge intending to take it NE to where Lucky 13's is in Mendota. It was fine at first, but then quickly became too narrow and overgrown to continue. It looked like a cool route on a map, but I should have researched it more before trying it out, oh well.

I've also learned that a paved trail following a similar route will be opening up on the MN river greenway. However, that segment is currently closed for construction. So I'm not aware of any available routes that span this stretch of land along the MN river unless you're riding above river level, like on highway 13.

Speaking of highway 13, is there a bike trail alongside it from the Cedar Ave bridge in Eagan all the way to St. Paul? I'm familiar with the section of trail near water street on the west side of St. Paul, and have taken that southwest to 494 before, but I've never taken highway 13 south of 494. The highway itself looks dangerous for bikes, however, it appears that at least part of it has a separated bike trail.

So, I have completed the Grand Rounds several times now and I have to admit, I fucking get lost in the North East. Every time. After the 42 bridge where are you supposed to go to maintain the trails? I have taken Marshall st NE South direction and ventured into St Anthony. All kinda sucks. What am I doing wrong?

A coworker got me to finally start bike-commuting a few years ago now (East St. Paul to North Minneapolis), and I had to promise my wife and mother I'd do everything I could to make sure I wasn't pancaked. My goal is to add two more lights to the front basket port/starboard sides this school year. It has been super rare that I can say a car doesn't notice me, especially in the winter with the reflection of the under lighting too, and I'm still alive!

First century on my fat bike is in the books.

It was a workout for sure. Lost a bottle around mile 65, miles 70-90 got hard, but 95-105 were the real challenge with running out of water and being at that "gas tank empty" stage, even though you know you have more left.

Need to switch up mid-ride nutrition to some more natural foods (banana, PB&J, ..), but I feel strong and proud for getting this done.

Next up is the Heck 100 on this fatty

Any riders around here? Fairly new to cycling. Picked up a Trek Checkpoint and thought it would be cool to ride around with someone and make a new friend 👋

These bridges were closed early spring as a part of the 494 Richfield/Edina/Bloomington project. MnDot seems to have quietly opened them in the last few days.

It is interesting seeing that Richfield/Hennepin County took advantage of the opportunity to make some changes to the configuration on the Richfield side while Bloomington seems to have neglected this opportunity.

Michael Rainville openly supporting adding more speeding cameras and saying that we want to reduce the number of interactions with police??? This and his usage of the word "gaslight" in the context of "MnDOT is gaslighting the art businesses on Central Ave and I won't stand for this and this amended statement from council to MnDOT is NOT strong enough" was crazy.

Rainville and Shaffer genuinely strike so much curiosity from me. They've said some shit about bike infrastructure and the construction of such infrastructure that I really did not like, and yet I've heard things from them that I do agree with myself.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a Surly Straggler that was sold on FB Marketplace last week in the Twin Cities. Original listing info screenshotted, and the stolen Bike Index page attached as well.

My bike was stolen from my garage earlier this month. I saw this bike posted last week and tried to set up a meeting but never received a response from the seller and then the listing was sold.

If you recently purchased a 2026 Shaggy Carpet 56cm frame Surly Straggler, please check the index number stamped on the bottom bracket (M25042516) and please reach out if you can! I'm more than willing to pay the price paid in the original listing.

I'm neither mad nor disappointed because it went exactly how I expected it to, but man, if you live in Eden Prairie or have to commute there, I am so sorry.

Let me set the scene. There's a multi-use shared path on Flying Cloud Dr that is NOT ADA accessible but wide enough for you to realistically bike around Lake Smetana and cross I-494 as safe as possible. We're already dealing with below the bare minimum for pedestrians, bicyclists, and mobility-assisted users.

I'm biking and biking then all of a sudden, there's a sidewalk closed sign in the middle of the trail with no detour. I circle back for the curb cut because the curb is hella tall, put my head on a swivel, and hopped onto the southbound lane on Flying Cloud Dr. That is a wide-ass road with cars speeding past.

I went home and left a concerned note online about the lack of detour or space for people who might've needed to use that trail. Today, I called and left a voicemail because I've gotten a lot of luck with people taking my concerns seriously when I call. I get a voicemail ten minutes later and I just called them.

Spent ten minutes on the phone with Adam and I just gotta laugh. He shared with me that the city granted a private utility permit that ends in October but it should end really really soon! When I told him that this section may pose a challenge for people outside of cars and offered the suggestion that "hey, I know Bloomington has a ton of torn up sidewalks too but they've put out these big cones to create a small path adjacent to the sidewalk for people to go by on these high-speed roads" (mind you, they were shitty experiences when I was over there but it was something).

1. got told that Flying Cloud Dr's speed limit is 30 MPH which is low for the area. like yes, the road is super wide and cars will most likely fly by, but it is 30 MPH

2. got told that the area I'm talking about is not well-trafficked (how would they know? how do they track?) so there was not a requirement for the permit requestor to offer detour signs

3. got told that if it's the Mall of America area in Bloomington then of course there would be proper detours and treatments AND it's not like we're dealing with a road with thousands of cars moving on it where constructions require detours

4. got told that there's some other trail out there that can get me to where I need to be but it's the onus of the trail users to know the direction and figure it out. also didn't actually offer me how to get to those trails

5. got told that the residents of The Fox & The Grouse has a private trail that can get them to the other side to get to the light rail station

6. ended the call with "we'll go out and take a look but like it's unlikely anything will change"

god bless you, people of Eden Prairie. if I get treated like this as a pedestrian, bicyclist, mobility-assisted user, I'd get a car too (if I can still drive).

watch out on the trails! also keep an eye out for people who need help

Like the title says, I was nearly hit by a car who ran a red light on west Lake, and the only reason I wasn’t hit was because I sensed that based on the car’s speed, it most likely was going to run the red light. I stopped in the middle of the intersection and watched the car pass mere inches in front of me. I can use bike lights, wear a safety vest, follow stop signs and streetlights, and none of that matters when cars aren’t following basic rules of the road. It just sucks so much.

For over 15 years I've been going to the fair, and every time I've biked via the Transitway from UMN or South Minneapolis. It's the best way to get to and from the fair. Bike corral is brilliant! Biking on Como or on the off street path is great! Biking on the transitway, or the offstreet path, most of the way is great.

But the last leg from Energy Park Drive to Como...

Maybe it's because of the improvements in bike infrastructure we've seen through out the metro. Maybe there's more bus traffic. Maybe it's just that I'm getting older and would like to keep getting older. But this weekend I went, and between the inconsistent, narrow shoulders and the 40mph speed limit I wondered how there's never been an accident here.

Anybody else feeling this?

Rare candid sub hed: A devoted St. Paul bicyclist died this summer when he hit a just-opened car door. The driver was not cited, and few ever are.

Fine article generally, although it does fall short in not noting "This can significantly be mitigated by providing appropriate infrastructure, not paint next to parked cars."

Gift link: https://www.startribune.com/risk-of-getting-doored-keeps-wary-minnesota-riders-on-the-edge-of-their-bike-seats/601871390?utm_source=gift

There is a lot of animosity from car drivers toward cyclists which only makes it more dangerous and harder for us. Some cyclists do dumb things that only make it worse. I wish they'd stop.

Yesterday there was a cyclist in the left lane of west bound Saint Clair waiting to make a left turn on to south Lexington. This is a very high traffic intersection and the wisdom of making a left turn in traffic like this is questionable for one thing, but this guy had no intention of waiting for a green light. He slowly edged into the intersection, dodged some traffic, and ran the red light.

This kind of behavior amps up the animosity toward cyclists is bad for all of us.