We Like It Here

This afternoon brought a couple inches of snow to Minneapolis and St. Paul. Today would probably have been a good day to use my bus pass; I’ll be checking road conditions before committing to a full bike ride tomorrow morning.

I headed out about 5:30 PM, and made my way to Kellogg Avenue. Along the river, between the Science Museum and the Excel Center, the road was mostly rutted ice and snow. After skidding a few times, I made my way to the sidewalk; since there weren’t any pedestrians out and the sidewalks were clear, I made pretty good progress to the hill past the History Center.

Once I got to the top of Cathedral Hill, I found that the bike path along Summit Avenue was buried under snow drifts. The automobile path, of course, was pretty clear, whether from traffic or plowing I’m not sure, so I made my way into the traffic lane, staying as far to the right as I could without putting myself into the drifting snow; I wanted to stay upright, but I also wanted to let cars get by me safely.

When a fine upstanding citizen in a black car decided that he needed to pass me on the right, swerving around a parked car ahead of me in his race to the red light at Dale Avenue (he won; hooray), I decided that I didn’t feel so bad about slowing traffic. This was a good time to claim the lane.

West of Lexington Avenue, things improved a bit. The bike lane was still adrift in snow, but there were fewer ruts and I was able to move into safely until Fairview Avenue. West of Fairview, it was back to ruts and bumps where the bike lane used to be, and I took the car lane again; only one of my fellow road users felt the need to honk as they went by, and I choose to interpret that as a cheerful beep of solidarity instead of pique at being briefly delayed behind me.

Normally I turn up Cretin Avenue and connect to Marshall Avenue, but given the state of the roads and traffic I decided to take my chances with Mississippi Boulevard instead. Alas, the river trail was a mess; I walked my bike up the hill at the end of Summit, then made my way onto Exeter and Dayton; the roads were covered in snow, but relatively smooth.

The Lake Street Bridge looked like a mess, and I didn’t relish the idea of trying to cross to the westbound bike lane without a traffic light, so I took the south sidewalk across the river. The wind had blown drifts against the railing, but it was mostly smooth going. Indeed, the sidewalk on the south side of Lake Street was so nice that I decided to stay there until an uncleared pedestrian ramp turned me onto 44th Avenue.

My neighborhood was a little rough, but not bad: snow covered, but not slippery, with a few ruts curbside but little enough traffic that I just stayed in the car lane. My ride is normally about 30-40 minutes, but took over an hour tonight.

Summit Avenue is a night plow route, I think, so I’m hoping that the good folks of St. Paul Public Works will have the bike lane cleared tomorrow, in addition to the main road. Even a foot of clear pavement in the bike lane would be a huge help.