In recent weeks, people have occasionally gathered on a pedestrian overpass between Nicollet and Portland avenues on Interstate 494 to show support for their preferred presidential candidate.
The supporters have held up signs and banners, and waved and hollered from the bridge deck linking Richfield with Bloomington near a Menards and Taco Bell. In turn, motorists passing below have slowed to glance up, further exacerbating poor traffic flow problems in the vicinity due to road construction.
“It’s a bad place to be having a demonstration,” said Drive reader Dan Blaylock, of Richfield, who has driven through the area when demonstrators have been present. “Watch your back end. I have seen several near misses and one rear-end [crash]. Drivers are distracted as they look up, and when somebody looks up and stops, there isn’t time to react.”
On Saturday, a handful of people displayed white supremacy messages on banners hanging over Interstate 694 in Vadnais Heights. Ramsey County deputies spoke with the group, which then took down the banners and dispersed, according to a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
And a similar scene unfolded last month when hundreds of demonstrators in support of Palestine made their way across a pedestrian bridge connecting Loring Park with the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden near the Walker Art Center.
Traffic on Hennepin Avenue and Interstate 94 below was at a crawl, and some drivers peered up and honked in approval. Minneapolis police at the time were responding to a fender bender in the area, but it was unknown if the mishap was related to the march.
Blaylock surmised demonstrations like those are another form of distracted driving and wondered if there are any laws prohibiting that kind of behavior.
The Drive took Blaylock’s question to Lt. Michael Lee of the State Patrol, who said his agency does get calls from concerned motorists who witness such actions.
