No Bikes on the Bridge
September 12th, 2008
By Scottie Tuska
As you probably know by now the Washington Avenue Bridge is not being so kind to the bicyclists of our fair campus. Now you will be ticketed $80 if you try to ride through the enclosed walkway. Here’s what I sent Vice President O’Brien and President Bruininks:
To whom it may concern,
You claim to be caring for the safety of your students, yet you have the entire lower deck open for traffic. If all was fair, there would be further restrictions on the car deck in order to accommodate bicyclists. Your stopgap approach to the situation denies our rights as bicyclists and equal citizens on campus. This sounds all too similar to the University’s attempts to deny campus a logical light rail route. You again and again put the rights of motorists above everyone else. You raise tuition, you bend over to horrible student aid that puts us in debt (for your betterment), while you build a stadium on the back of the students and double the cost of the UPass over my four years of education. It boggles my mind that you can’t have six feet of bridge space designated for bike lanes. If we don’t have access to the upper deck nor the lower deck than how are we supposed to accomplish a safe and intelligent commute. Remember we are all students on the top of the bridge, that is who you serve.
Sincerely,
Scottie Tuska
Here’s what the vice president said to all the students:
Dear University Community,
Thank you to everyone in the University community who has shown patience and understanding regarding the Washington Avenue Bridge situation. When Hennepin County restricted the width of the path across the bridge to 14 feet, we knew that it would be a tight fit inside the pedestrian enclosure. But it has been encouraging to see people cooperating to make a difficult situation work.
Unfortunately, a number of campus bicyclists continue to ignore the requirement to walk their bikes across the bridge. Their decision to disregard signs at the bridge entrance, e-mails and enforcement efforts by the University of Minnesota Police Department puts pedestrians and other bicyclists at risk.
Therefore the next step is for the UMPD to write tickets to bicyclists who insist on riding across the bridge. Enforcement will begin in the coming days and each ticket will cost the offender $80. This is
certainly not a step we want to take but one that is necessary to ensure the safety pedestrians and bikers.
While Hennepin County has put repairs on the fast track, we can expect to live with the bridge restrictions for the rest of the school year. Rather than writing tickets, I would hope that simple good judgment and respect for each other’s safety will encourage campus bicyclists to comply with this short term solution to a difficult problem.
What do you guys think? Is this the way it should be or just the way it is.
Tags: Bikes, President Bruininks, Vice President O'Brien, Washington Avenue Bridge
Comments & Discussion
I don’t want to be a dick, but there is a typo in like the third line of your letter to the man.