Dakota Rail Regional Trail

The Dakota Rail bike trail officially opened this summer and it’s proven to be very popular. It’s also one of the reasons I wanted to start this site. Don’t get me wrong, I think the trail is great and I appreciate the fact that it runs right through our neighborhood. It’s nice to jump right on the trail from our road and go, no need to pack up the bikes or cross high-traffic roadways.

My aggravation and burgeoning anti-cyclist feelings, stem not from the trail but from some of the cyclists that use the trail. Since opening, I’ve almost ran over several cyclists that didn’t even look for traffic, let alone hit their brakes when crossing Sandy Lane / Montclaire at Cty Rd 15. There’s a stop sign there, why don’t you stop? In one instance I was turning right onto Sandy Ln from 15, some old fart looked right at me and proceeded to blow right through the stop signs. I had to jam on my brakes to avoid running this asshole over. So, I laid on my horn to let him know he messed up. Then, to my astonishment, he gives me the finger! Luckily, I had my window down, so I yelled “That’s not a cross walk asshole!”. He just kept right on going.

My wife had a similar and somewhat more disturbing experience. She honked at a couple of cyclists that blew through the stop signs in front of her, causing her to jam on her brakes. As she’s waiting to turn on to 15 from Sandy Ln, the male rider of the couple approached her car and started yelling and swearing at her. He said something to the affect that there’s a cross walk there. My wife normally would’ve torn this guy a new proverbial asshole but my daughter was in the car with her at the time. I couldn’t believe this guy had the balls to harass my wife and daughter when he was the one in the wrong! I hope to meet this prick some day.

We called the Mound Police Department to verify that we are actually in the right. The person we spoke to verified that bikes need to STOP at the stop sign and wait from traffic to clear before proceeding across the road. Wow, what a concept. They also confirmed that they’ve received countless complaints that were similar to ours. The officer recommended we also send complaints to the Three Rivers Park District.

It seems that the complaints have been heard! The white “boxes” that were painted on the roads to look like cross-walks are starting to be removed. These were never cross-walks, hence no need for the white boxes as cars are NOT supposed to stop at bike crossings!

I’ll end my anti-cyclist rant for now. I’d like to direct one last statement to all cyclists that use the Dakota Rail Trail: I don’t expect you to make a complete stop at every stop sign on the trail. BUT. You need to slow down, look BOTH ways for traffic and STOP if you see a car. Just like the law states, very simple.

Info from the Three Rivers Park site:

“This 13.5-mile trail offers a spectacular view of Lake Minnetonka and follows the route of the former Dakota Rail Corridor through St. Bonifacius, Minnetrista, Mound, Spring Park, Minnetonka Beach, Orono, and Wayzata.”

Here’s a link to the Three Rivers Park page where you can download a map:

http://www.threeriversparks.org/trails/dakota-rail-trail.aspx

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