Restaurants and bars have shut down, leaving thousands of Minnesotans out of work. Nursing homes, jails, even some apartment complexes have banned visitors. We don’t even have enough coronavirus tests to go around—or masks, or hand sanitizer, or toilet paper.

So it’s always nice when some happy side effect creates a silver lining on this otherwise dour, anxiety-inducing cloud. On that note, we are pleased to inform you that pedal pubs are temporarily outlawed in Minneapolis.

That’s right, the city's five-mile-an-hour, beer-swilling bar-hoppers are hereby banned from city streets until this whole pandemic thing is under control. Mayor Jacob Frey signed the order over the weekend, officially extending last week’s order to shut down restaurants and bars to include “any commercial pedal car licensed or required to be licensed by the city.”

The “I HATE the Pedal Pub” Facebook page rebroadcasted this news immediately to its 4,600 followers.

“I’m giving up atheism,” one commenter said, “Because there is a god!”

The mayor also tweeted about the move on Sunday, and the public responded with the level of sensitivity you might expect given the gravity of the subject.

Permanently I hope — jennifer hanson (@gopherpuckfan) March 22, 2020

Haha pedal pubs are cancelled! https://t.co/868vvFRmuy — Leah Preble (@LeahintheStreet) March 23, 2020

TBH, pedal pubs were a public health emergency years ago https://t.co/VSSViCHPjV — Tony Webster (@webster) March 22, 2020

Pedal Pub Twin Cities didn’t respond to interview requests, so it’s hard to know if they were doing much business at the moment anyway. This is March in Minnesota, after all… in the middle of an international health crisis, and on the cusp of a potential shelter in place order.

As much as the Twin Cities loves to dunk on its beer bikes—and oh Jesus, do we ever—we can probably agree we’d rather have six dozen of these rolling disasters spreading noise and vomit through our neighborhoods than be in our current predicament.

So let’s hope life as we knew it—yes, even the Pedal Pub—can return to us soon. In the meantime, enjoy the peace and quiet.