Witness: The struggle that is a bike lane in winter, via these (poor) images, taken from inside a car.

That glacier is the bike lane.

Now, certainly, over the railing is a well-cleared sidewalk. It is an option. It’s actually an appealing option. But if you’re coming right off Marshall, once you commit, you are committed to at least De La Salle, and if you don’t bail there, you’re there all the way over the bridge. Taking the lane is your only option.

I would like to encourage bikers, like the ones I saw this morning, to do such a thing. Trying to hug a glacier is going to get you killed, most likely by a Metro Transit bus. It will hurt. A lot.

And City of Minneapolis? I realize there are issues with “where to put snow” when clearing sidewalks and lanes on this bridge. I get it. But you really need to find a dumper to get the snow off the bridge entirely. Stick it in the river BEFORE it becomes a heinous black glacier that will melt into it.

Thanks.