A meeting today allowed me to retrace part of Dennis Dumm's last ride down Park Avenue.
1. Here's the view down the bike lane nearing the fateful intersection. Note the standard bike lane sign.
The Strib news report said:
Ryan Moffett, of Minneapolis, said he had been riding behind Dumm for several blocks before the accident and saw him waiting for a stoplight in a bike lane next to the truck.
2. Accident reconstruction marks on the pavement seem to confirm that account.
They show the paths of the cyclist (left) and the rear wheels of the truck's trailer.
Dennis appears to have started from somewhat behind the crosswalk. He was barely in the intersection when he was struck. [Click to enlarge.]
3. Two blocks farther down Park, near the reddish billboard seen in the earlier photos, signs clearly signal where left turners should move into the turn lane.
This is at 11th Street, the first one-way artery into downtown, and a more likely place for left turn traffic to intensify. There was no designated turn lane at the intersection where the accident occurred.
4. This style of sign is seen elsewhere on one way streets downtown where the bike lane is on the left.
The yellow background indicates caution, and the graphic serves as a warning of the danger to bikes and vehicles.
5. A right-lane version of the same yield sign design, from St. Paul.
From reading comments and message boards such as Minneapolis Bike Love over the last few days, it's clear that both cyclists and drivers don't know the law. Even a bike shop owner — whose site was my source for checking the statutes — had it backwards in a comment. [Correction: My recollection of where I found the link to state statutes was wrong.]
Such confusion isn't helpful to cyclists or drivers, but neither is poor roadway design that adds bikes into the traffic flow as an afterthought.
If auto lanes were as inconsistent and in such poor shape as the places cyclists are expected to ride, even anti-tax drivers would be ready to pay for improvements.
Meanwhile, we're on our own.
