DULUTH – Alice Tibbetts slipped into all the gear she wears to make herself more visible to vehicles as a decades-long, year-round bike commuter: bright yellow jacket, reflective vest, several lights and a reflective helmet.
Duluth bike group asks for safer roads after cyclist dies crossing Mesaba Avenue at rush hour
Vibrant Streets Duluth wants right-of-way enforcement and a transportation commission, among other safeguards for those using roads.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 20, 2024 at 12:18AM
“The question is, would this have saved me from a driver going 42 miles an hour down Mesaba [Avenue]?” she asked, referencing a commuter-heavy road. “The answer is no.”
Tibbetts and other members of Vibrant Streets Duluth, a chapter of the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, hosted a call to the city of Duluth, St. Louis County and the Minnesota Department of Transportation for improved safety Thursday afternoon in response to the Dec. 4 death of a cyclist who was struck by two cars and killed as he crossed a high-traffic highway here during rush hour. The group is asking for speed monitoring or flashing beacons at dangerous crossings, enforcement of pedestrian right-of-way laws, data-driven solutions and a city transportation commission.
Steven Edward Hoover, 60, was hit at 5 p.m. as he crossed Mesaba Avenue below First Avenue W. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to a news release from Duluth police.
The day after Hoover’s death, members of Vibrant Streets Duluth visited the site of the crash to clock traffic using a radar gun. Forrest Vodden, the group’s chairman, said it wasn’t a scientific study, but a 15-minute sampling found most drivers exceeding the speed limit by 8-10 miles per hour and some drivers surpassed 50. The speed limit on this stretch is 30.
“We just wanted to get a feel for the speeds at that time of day at that location,” he said.
The transportation commission could be a reality. In his state of the city speech earlier this year, Mayor Roger Reinert noted that Duluth has 39 boards and commissions and he was looking to the city council to align and reform some of these groups. At the same time, he suggested the formation of a transportation commission that would offer input on streets, sidewalks, bike lanes and other paths.
City Councilor Mike Mayou, who was at Vibrant Streets Duluth’s event, said he could see such a committee developing within the next six to eight months, if not sooner. The logistics of it still need to be planned.
Hoover moved to Duluth in 2019. He enjoyed cartography, sports and hiking. He had just gotten engaged. Tibbets read a letter from his sister Lisa Lehne, who wrote that biking was his primary source of transportation. He would call her from Skyline Parkway, the beach, the Aerial Lift Bridge and describe his view.
“When our family first visited the crosswalk where Steven was killed, we watched in horror as people on foot and on bikes crossed this dangerous site,” Lehne wrote. “We are grateful to all the efforts to make it safer.”
On Saturday at 2 p.m., Vibrant Streets Duluth plans to place a white-painted ghost bike, a popular form of memorial, at the spot where Hoover died.
The FBI has identified a person of interest in the case.
