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UPDATED  Three things that happened Monday: Police released a description of the motor vehicle in a Sept. 11 hit-and-run that left a 65-year-old bicyclist dead on a St. Louis Park street. Minneapolis was honored as the nation’s seventh-most sustainable city, due in part to a bike-friendly reputation strong enough to rank second in “Top Cities for Bicycling.” And a 63-year old man riding a bike was killed at a relatively quiet intersection in Blaine in a crash with a pickup truck.

Over the summer I started noticing more bicyclists who appeared to be in their 60s or older. Not only the elegantly aging dudes in colorful racing duds on expensive models, but guys no one would call “fit,” wearing everyday clothes — the types you didn’t used to see so many of toodling along on one- and three-speeds, probably saving gas or bus money. Might be worth investigating sometime, I thought, once we’re done with conventions and Alaskans and Depressions.

Now, for the second time in two weeks, a man in his 60s has died on his bike in a crash with a motor vehicle on a suburban Minneapolis street. Jimmy Nisser, the hit-and-run victim, was riding to work. Authorities haven’t released details about the man in Blaine yet but the pickup driver is cooperating with them. Meanwhile, lying in critical condition at Hennepin County Medical Center is 54-year-old Rodney Scroggins, another bicyclist who fell to a hit-and-run (in North Minneapolis on Sept. 17) and who was also riding to work.

As local bike enthusiasts mourn and memorialize, they also lash out at a culture that puts the interests and safety of people who travel in motor vehicles above their own. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) keeps statistics that show crash fatality rates among retirement-age bikers at or near those of (presumably more adventurous) teenaged and middle-aged riders. Some dispute the dangers, asserting that other vehicles carry equivalent risks but without the health benefits of what the NHTSA calls “pedalcycling.”

In any case, the recent proliferation of bicycles and scooters — likely a function of high fuel costs — means it’s up to drivers of cars and bigger motor vehicles to develop habits of higher awareness in order to truly share the road.

UPDATE: Two more bicyclists have been killed on Twin Cities streets since this article was posted five days ago. Nicholas Morton, 18, was killed Tuesday when a truck hit his bike near Fifth Street and Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. Minneapolis Police Sgt. Jesse Garcia told the Star Tribune he attributed Morton’s death — the fourth bicyclist fatality in the metro area this month — in part to a general lack of awareness that “there are more bikes on the road.”

And on Saturday, Virginia Heuer-Bowar, 51, died after a sports utility vehicle struck her at about 8:15 a.m. near the corner of Summit and Snelling avenues in St. Paul. A “ghost bike” memorial ceremony for Heuer-Bowar is set for 6 p.m. Sunday near the site of her death. 

Meanwhile, authories have identified the bicyclist who died in Blaine as Blaine resident Dale P. Aanenson, the Star Tribune reports.