A Bike-partisan Evening.

Instead of engaging this evening in a symbolic show of bipartisanship — which is people who'd like to stab each other in the back pretending they won't — I decided to engage in a nonpartisan documentation of universal symbols: Bikepath markings.

Minneapolis is old school in its iconography on older trails, portraying only the bike and placing one icon  between lanes, rather than twice to indicate direction of the lane. The icon's smaller size, minimal lines and  placement save considerable paint over other designs.

Minneapolis follows the European style, if not the approach to marking lanes. This illustrative mark is not only more elegant than the ones that follow; it is scaled for decoding by a pedestrian or cyclist, not a faster-moving car.

A rider is not not essential to conveying the concept of a bike lane, yet all subsequent icons emphasize the person. This one, along St. Paul's Summit Avenue fills in oval tires. Here, a higher paint-to-pavement ratio is justified because the bike lane is a marked portion of the roadway.

This version, headed the other direction on Summit, shows how variation creeps into what is apparently the same stencil. The figure appears to be leaning forward more here, and the elliptical wheels seem to be going faster.

Now we are on the Midtown Greenway with some of the newest versions of lane iconography. Note the figures head to the left, and their bodies and wheels are bisected to accommodate the stencil.

Is the difference here simply the camera angle or are the rider and wheels separate stencils placed by the painter each time, accounting for slight variations in the geometry? Certainly, the head is less ditto-like.

Heading over the Sabo bridge, the style changes momentarily. Riders suddenly acquire rounded noggins and wear helmets. I have no idea if this has anything to do with federal funding.

The mushroom-headed stencil rider alternates with a recumbent rider laid down with a rubberized, nonskid material. So nice to see safety and differently abled cyclists receive their due, if ever so briefly.

On the west side of the bridge, we return to the ditto- headed rider, who is now facing right and riding a transected wheel that looks like a life ring. This guy accompanies me all the way to Dean Boulevard, where I pull off to the old bike trails and the traditional symbol.

On my way over to St. Paul, I was riding on the West River Road north of the newly connected I-35W bridge. A driver indicated to me that I should be on the bike path, where the speed limit is 10 mph. Already cultivating a non-partisan frame of mind, I resisted indicating to him where I thought he should be, and now I dedicate this  post to all those angry drivers out there. I mean, look at all the confusing signals we have to contend with.

Comments

[Michael B. Brodkorb]

Come on now...you showed up for a few minutes.

[Charlie Quimby]

I tried. I really, really tried. But I saw the TV camera and logos and decided it was just not my scene.

[Michael B. Brodkorb]

There was one TV camera, which I posted about yesterday. The laptop was set up by Billy's to allow people to blog. Based on the comments tonight, we will be having another event soon. Hopefully you can stick around and talk.

[Chris Truscott]

It was a lot of fun. I can't wait for the next one.

[Charlie Quimby]

Careful readers will notice that I tend to frame things here in apolitical or conservative/libertarian/centrist/progressive terms and apply party labels for party actions. This is not a DFL or Democratic blog, and I actually make an effort not to think about issues in those terms.

I'm totally fine in dialog with conservatives and I will respond to your off-line invitation, Michael. In fact, I biked seven miles out of my way to walk into Billy's.

But I turned around and walked out because it struck me inescapably that a show of "bi-partisanism" sponsored by two parties' back channel mouthpieces doesn't really speak to me or my politics.

And it was a beautiful evening outside.

[barbara]

Proud on ya, Charlie. You have class and integrity. Unlike . . . oh, you know.