Friendly Fridley - Justin Foell

This is a response to my position (and the resultant comments) on 61st Ave in Fridley and the crash that happened there in November, 2017. As politics seem to go these days I was labeled as “a liberal taking advantage of the tragedy to get bike lanes added.” So let’s talk about local politics… there is no need for partisan rhetoric in regards to local issues. I won’t even use the phrase bi-partisan because “bi” means two and putting people entirely into one of two different boxes is both unfair and unreasonable. Local politics do not cover divisive issues like health care, same-sex marriage, abortion, etc. We’re talking about roads and schools, parks and plows.

But to placate John, let’s talk about a conservative approach to the problem with 61st by visiting my favorite street in Fridley, Oakwood Manor. If you ever want to visit either and compare, here they both are on a map:

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A Trip Down Oakwood Manor

Oakwood Manor sounds fancy, like you’d expect mansions, or at least McMansions out here in the burbs. But it’s the same types of homes you’ll find everywhere else in town. What is striking about Oakwood Manor is the road width:

From curb-to-curb it is 24 feet:

I can’t find any information in the City Code that would disallow a road this narrow. But according to the zoning glossary, it could be considered an alley because it’s less than 30 feet wide.

Compared to 61st

61st Avenue on the other hand is 24 feet just for the travel lanes:

Add generous 9-foot shoulders, and the full road width is 42 feet.

Road Width – Cost of Materials and Human Life

Why is road width important? Two reasons:

The city is going to eventually go broke trying to maintain its road inventory with limited capital. Roads will follow the same fate as our water infrastructure. Road assessments are not going to get cheaper.
Road width has an incredible effect on the way people travel on it.

On 61st, I had proposed adding bike lanes to 61st as a simple solution to an existing right-of-way. Narrow the lanes with paint to at least make it feel narrow. Put some s#!t in the way. It’s cheap to add paint to an existing right-of-way and repaints happen far more often than rebuilds.

But what if 61st Avenue was narrowed to better reflect that it is adjacent to two parks, the middle school, the high school, and the community center? It could look like Oakwood Manor. Here’s what Oakwood looked like on a spring day in 2018. There’s a car parked on the street and someone is walking in the street.

The 24-foot width doesn’t prevent on-street parking, it actually helps. It will simply narrow the road further which will create a more constrained environment – one in which drivers will instinctively slow down. The best part? This road will cost much less both to construct and maintain.

Why is going smaller never an option? Let’s put the “conserve” back into conservatism and try something bold like this. You won’t have residents complaining that you’re taking away from their property for the right-of-way, you’d be giving them more!

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I thought about posting this to streets.mn as part of their Bike To Work Week series. But I’m going to go beyond their editorial policy and name names. These terrible drivers need to be outed to their neighbors and peers. So here it is, my own Bike To Work Week Wall of Shame.

Normally my commute just consists of me walking down the stairs to my office.

But there were plenty of other trips to be taken during Bike to Work Week that I consider commutes – whether they were to school, the grocery store, or piano lessons. Here are some of the speed bumps I encountered on the way.

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The Plow Guy

In early May I rode with my son to and from school. They were make-up days for the mid-April blizzard that interfered with our 30 days of biking plans. On the way to school I noticed a guy on our route taking the plow off of the front of his truck. He obviously plowed driveways with his vehicle in the winter.

On the way home from dropping Jules at school, I was traveling on Able Street southbound in Fridley. As I approached West Moore Lake Drive I noticed that the plow guy was now in his truck, waiting to turn right on Able Street. Here is my route in blue and his route in red:

He waited for me to pass – I had the right of way. But I could tell he was already impatient. He was one of those drivers that never fully stops on a right turn. His truck just kept rolling. I wondered had slowed down, if we would have simply crashed there in slow motion.

I kept on, and he pulled behind me. Sensing his impatience ahead of time, I took the lane (near the middle of the road) because in 200 feet I’d be turning left on Moore Lake Drive and then on to the shoulder where quick-tempered drivers like him could safely pass.

At one point I believe he actually tried to pass me on the left in the 200 feet from Carol Drive to Moore Lake Drive – I didn’t look back, I was busy pedaling hard so he wouldn’t run me over and kill me.

Once on Moore Lake Drive, I went to the shoulder and he shouted some unintelligible curse-laden something-or-other about “cars” (that’s all I could make out).

Recourse

What could I do? It clearly was harassment. Remember how I saw him taking off his plow? With a little research I found his business, Greenmakers Lawn Care & Landscaping, which has a commercially driven vehicle – the very truck he was harassing me with. So I filed a complaint with MnDOT. Let me tell you how good it felt to hit submit on that form. If you’re ever harassed by a commercial driver you should use this tool.

To my surprise MnDOT actually called me on the phone to speak about the incident before they followed up with the driver. 💯

The Navigator

The next story is from the other side on East Moore Lake Drive. I’ve complained about this road before because 1) it needs a road redesign and 2) I was almost right hooked there. This will make two near right-hooks.

I frequently ride in the road on E. Moore Lake Drive. There is a bike trail on this stretch, but it is in such terrible shape that it will rattle your brain loose. I’ll take the ultra-smooth road, plus there’s an extra lane here that doesn’t get much use.

On this particular day I was riding with my son to piano lessons. Thank God I took the lead here. This woman who was going to the strip mall crossed right in front of us. I swear if I leaned over the handlebars I would have been able to touch her car.

I decided to take action and follow her for a chat. “Can you do that?” my son asked. “Watch me.”

I pulled up behind her car and snapped this photo just as she got out:

I told her that she pulled right in front of us almost causing a crash. I reminded her that we had the right of way and that she can’t turn in front of us from the left lane, cutting us off. Then I gave her a chance to reply by asking “What were you thinking?!?”

“I was navigating”

She replied as she gestured to the phone in her hand.

So this is what it’s come to. We’re all going to get run over by idiots who can’t take their face off of a screen for even the shortest of drives. Be safe out there everyone – stay vigilant and get home safe!

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Update

Saturday June 2nd, 2018 is National Trails Day – the original date for our bike tour, but there’s 100% chance of rain, so we’re postponing until June 16th.

As a belated part of that nationwide festivity, Fridley is putting on its 6th annual bike tour! Check out our past events, it’s a family friendly ride as always.

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Est. Moving Time	Distance	Elevation Gain
00:17:16	4.32	127.24
hours	mi.	ft.

Est. Moving Time	Distance	Elevation Gain
00:28:34	7.15	162.66
hours	mi.	ft.

It’s been a while since I’ve had to publish a “Fridley Hates Pedestrians” series. Maybe I’ve become complacent. Some road diets on county roads might actually come to fruition. In the meanwhile this happened:

Boy struck by SUV near Fridley Middle School

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It saddens and enrages me to read a story like this. This is a moment for our local government to act, and for our judicial system to stand-up.

Streets for People

61st St. NE in Fridley has 12-foot lanes. This is the national standard for lane width on the interstate highway (55+mph). We put that road between two schools, between the park and the community center. This is proof-positive that we care more about the vehicles going through this area more than our own children.

I’ve spoken to city staff about reducing the lane widths and adding bike lanes here and it may happen. This is really the only way to slow things down. The road needs to be narrower, or at least seem narrower (with paint). Then we need to “put stuff in the way.” Bump-outs, bollards, parked cars, and bike lanes are other great techniques for making the road busier. The more the driver must concentrate on, the slower he’ll go. It seems counter-intuitive, but the wide lanes, barren clear-zones, and open sight-lines have only made us all feel safer in our cars, which leads to driving faster.

I was recently delighted to see a Fridley planned restriping on a residential city street that included 10-foot lanes. This should be considered a new residential maximum lane width – we should go narrower for both cost and safety. But it cannot come soon enough, and it may already be too late for Duron Jr. He suffered severe brain damage from the crash.

Response & Enforcement

We need to stop the victim blaming. Whether or not the student was in the crosswalk is irrelevant. It was at 3:15pm after school got out and other students were present. I went to the site of the crash less than a week later.

It was 4:15pm and still light out even an hour after the crash.

So what is the response? Notice the plastic green fence above by the school sign. The schools put up this temporary fence following the crash to prevent students from crossing outside of the crosswalk areas. They went so far as to block their own walkways:

The fence is just another ugly fence that is added to the huge inventory of ugly chain-link fence here in Fridley.

This sends the message that “Streets are for cars, kids!” Especially the way we build them. Adding a fence is just putting lipstick on this pig and going in the wrong direction. We need to slow the cars, not impede the people. Drivers go way too fast here and simple police enforcement isn’t enough when lives are at stake…

I refuse to call this incident an accident because this was no accident. It was a crash. People will only change their behavior when there are real consequences – ones beyond the traffic stop. The perfect crime right now is to kill someone with your car. In New York, only 5% of drivers involved in fatal crashes are arrested. The Dutch wrestled with this in the 1970s with a campaign called Stop de Kindermoord (Stop the child murder). The uprising transformed the nation into a bicycle and pedestrian friendly mecca. In the Netherlands the drivers are responsible for their actions; manslaughter is murder – plain and simple. Here in the USA lawyers have invented terms like involuntary manslaughter and vehicular manslaughter that are labeled negligent acts. The driver was more than negligent and should be punished the fullest extent.

Right now you can do two things to help facilitate change:

Email Mayor Scott Lund – 61st is a city street, not a county road, so there’s no red-tape. It should be put at the top of the city’s restriping list.
Donate to Duron Jr.

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Normally I write about these rides before they happen, but this year we went old school. We printed over 1,000 of the flyer above and distributed them through Fridley’s elementary schools. I was excited to see it on the front of the take-home packet when my son brought it home.

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Justin Foell

Technology, Bicycling, Hobbies, Kids, Life.

Tag Archives: Friendly Fridley

My Favorite Fridley Street – Oakwood Manor compared to 61st Ave

A Trip Down Oakwood Manor

Compared to 61st

Road Width – Cost of Materials and Human Life

Fridley Hates Pedestrians – Bike-to-Work Week Impatience

The Plow Guy

Recourse

The Navigator

Fridley Bike Tour – New Date: Saturday June 16th

Update

Option A

Option B

Fridley Hates Pedestrians – 61st Ave

Boy struck by SUV near Fridley Middle School

Streets for People

Response & Enforcement

Fridley Bike Tour 2017 Recap