Bike lane plan has more problems than solutions
By Jim Galewski | Just Jim

A plan that would convert Wabasha Street from Huff to Vila streets into a “bicycle boulevard,” has hit the Winona City Council agenda.

Councilmembers George Borzyzkowski, James Kahl and Deb Salyards were quoted that there may be some objection to turning a 10-foot width of the road into a bike-only lane connecting the east and west campuses of Winona State University.
To account for the lost road space, Wabasha Street would either become one-way for vehicles or lose on-street parking on one side of the street, under the two options suggested by city planners.

Before I give this issue any more ink, let me state what a dumb idea this is.

It has so many flaws I don’t know where to begin.

I would imagine the folks who live on Wabasha Street have some objections and some better points. I hope they make the flaws they find in this idea known and let the council know this idea belongs in the trash.

While the bike route is part of the city’s Comprehensive Plan, the plan is just a document the city drags out when it wants to find support for a project. If the plan opposed the bike-lane idea, you can bet the city would keep the plan tucked up behind its ignored downtown parking studies.

First, there isn’t a law made or an ordinance written that a bicyclist has followed or obeyed. I don’t think I stopped for more than a handful of stop signs in my biking career. Those stops were probably to avoid being run over by a motorist.

The city’s plan is to direct bicyclists toward Wabasha Street. That’s not the most direct route between campuses. If I were riding a bike between campuses, I wouldn’t ride six blocks out of my way to ride on a street riddled with stop signs and almost a half-mile longer to school.

If by some miracle, the city can train bikers to use Wabasha Street, how many bikers are we talking about? In the dead of winter, I counted fewer than 100 bicycles on the west campus. Even 300 bicyclists don’t warrant condemning more than a mile of Wabasha Street.

The bike route may mean Wabasha Street becomes a one-way street and parking will go away on one side of the street. I would assume the bike lane would go away in the winter. Just how many months would this potential bike route be used?

Maybe in April, when it doesn’t snow, and half of May. In the fall, bikers would have another month and a half.

So for a few hundred bicyclists, for three months of the year, we will drastically change Wabasha Street, and all the residents on Wabasha Street will have to adjust their routes so we can have a dedicated bike route very few bicyclists will use.

The more I consider this issue, the more it stinks.

If it comes up again, council members deserve no peace. Their phones should be ringing off the wall.

WSU is an important part of this community. It has changed the character of the neighborhoods surrounding it already. The Wabasha Street bike route would further divide the community and doesn’t provide a worthy answer to addressing the bicycle traffic between campuses.

Change you want, change you’ll get

During the election season, I heard from many limp-wristed Christians why Barack Obama’s social justice initiatives would outweigh his stand on women’s reproductive rights.

I heard that no one “wants” to have an abortion. The next line in the argument is how many soldiers — more than 4,000 — have been killed in the Iraqi war.

I would argue no one wants to go to war. And while no one wants to have an abortion, it has become the option for the inconvenience of becoming pregnant.

Right now, Obama’s administration is exploring ways to undo Bush-era rules on abortion, birth control and other medical practices.

This week, the outgoing Bush administration will finalize a regulation establishing a “right of conscience” allowing medical staff to refuse to participate in any practice they object to on moral grounds, including abortion but possibly birth control and other health care as well. Officials in the incoming Obama administration have begun considering how and when to undo it.

Losing more than 4,000 soldiers in five years is indeed a tragedy.

We have just put a man into office that will help us kill more than 4,000 babies a day. Defend that kind of social justice. There’s a phrase, “If you’re pregnant, it’s a baby.”

For this new administration, the killing of the unwanted babies, the unborn, will escalate to holocaust proportions.

Galewski is the retired editor and Opinion page editor of the Winona Daily News. His views don’t necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper. If you have an idea or tip about a Winona issue, call (507) 452-3960 or e-mail editor@luminet.net.

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