Our hearts go out to Minnesotans in wake of the I-35W bridge collapse that occurred yesterday in the city center of Minneapolis.
We received an email this morning from the city describing how it is encouraging people to bike and walk in the downtown area, as many of the major roads in and around the accident site are closed today.
Minneapolis had the second-highest bike-to-work rate in the 2006 SustainLane US city rankings, with 2.3 percent of city residents biking to work. In last night's news coverage of the tragedy, it was apparent how many people used bikes as a way of navigating around the gridlock that seized area roads.
The city also announced in today's email that "Stone Arch Bridge and Bridge #9 are also closed until further notice. Bicyclists and pedestrians who need to cross the river must do so at either the Washington Avenue bridge at the University of Minnesota campus or at the 3rd Ave Bridge in Downtown. Downtown bicycle commuters who regularly use West River Parkway are encouraged to use the LRT trail to and from Downtown."
May Minneapolis, neighboring St. Paul and all those injured have a speedy recovery.
Just received a link to this post via a comment at Hugg -- thanks for posting it, Warren. Last night, I wrote about the Star-Tribune editorial calling for greener transportation infrastructure in the wake of the bridge collapse at sustainablog... one way, perhaps, to pull something positive out of this tragedy.
Posted by: Jeff at Green Options | August 15, 2007 at 02:52 PM