in the Duluth News Tribune
They are there every week on Minnesota Trunk Highway 23 south of Duluth -- Lance Armstrong devotees that glide and climb, two or three abreast, on their sleek and tres cher road bicycles.For perhaps a second, one might forget the rolling hills of the St. Louis River Valley isn't the French countryside.
The bicycle enthusiasts, though, say a 4-year-old edict by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to install rumble strips on newly rebuilt highway shoulders is disrupting their ritual rides.
Despite repeated complaints from a few dozen Twin Ports riders, the safety measure -- which alerts drivers, with vibration and noise, when they're about to veer off the road -- has become the norm for all highway construction or reconstruction, MnDOT officials say. The strips effectively keep motorists on the road and bicyclists out of their path, they say.
I tried to bve outraged on behalf of the cyclists, but the rumble strips actually protect THEM as well. I think the DoT could have given them a little more space, but it's not like they have nothing. Pace out four feet and ask yourself if the bicyclists are being unreasonable. I say yes.
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