A friend of mine alerted me to this video which I think has so many relevant and relatable things to say.  You see what happens to a culture (specifically in Brussels, Belgium), not only on a transportation level, but as a whole in its mentality when cars are prioritized.  The “Bicycle” Mayor of Copenhagen (2006-2010 ) Klaus Bondam is in this film and I found what he said spot on:  “Of course you have to love your cyclists, of course you have to love your pedestrians, of course you have to love the people who use public transport because they are contributing to the well being on tons of levels in the city…We really appreciate that you come here.”

It is a crime in my viewpoint that a country that hosts one of the greatest cycling events in the world, suffers from such problems.  I love my lycra, but I also like riding in normal clothes to do normal things on my bicycle.  Bicycling is about more than putting on your bike shorts once a week, it is about doing something that makes sense.  Bicycling takes care of you (mentally and physically), and when you are taking care of you, you are taking care of your society.

Mr. Bondam references Stockholm and how a city can change (ca. minute 15), I can say from seeing it firsthand – it’s a wonderful place to ride a bicycle.

Take a few minutes out of your day and watch this.  What do you think?  How can you relate?

PS ~ Want to know what it is like to experience the opposite of this?  Come spend the day with us on June 10th at Open Streets, an Initiative of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition.

HENNEPIN COUNTY COMMISSIONER DISTRICT 2 ELECTION INFORMATION

CANDIDATES
Announced candidates as of May 16, 2012:
Jill Davis www.jilldavis.org
Linda Higgins www.higginsforhennepin.com
Tonia Johnson www.johnson4d2.com
Paula Pentel www.paulapentel.com
Don Samuels www.samuels4county.com
Blong Yang www.yangforcommissioner.com

DISTRICT MAP
Map of new Hennepin County Commissioner Districts approved April 24, 2012

DATES
May 20, 2012 Hennepin County DFL Endorsing Convention at Edison High School (12:00 p.m.)
*Republican, Independence, Green, and other local party units have not announced endorsing conventions as of 5/16/2012
May 22, 2012 Candidate filing period begins
June 5, 2012 Candidate filing period ends
August 14, 2012 Primary Election
November 6, 2012 General Election

SURVEY RESPONSES
To educate the public about Hennepin County Commissioner Candidates and bicycle-related issues, the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition facilitated a candidate survey. Questions for the survey were developed by the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition. All candidates were invited to submit responses to the questionnaire.
The Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition will share candidates’ responses with members and the general public. The responses from candidates are below…

• All responses (as of 5-16-12)
• Jill Davis
• Linda Higgins
• Tonia Johnson
• Paula Pentel
• Don Samuels
• Blong Yang–response forthcoming

The campaign had many generous sponsors including three private contributors – Thank you to Liz, Doug and Michael for putting bike parking outside your favorite businesses.  The Alt was the first business to contribute and started our campaign with a bang by purchasing four meters.  The Calhoun Area Residents Action Group, Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association, Lyndale Neighborhood Association and the Uptown Business Association all offerred additional matches to make it even more attractive to businesses to purchase racks.  Please take time to thank the following businesses who also sponsored racks:

• The Citadel Office Building
• Galactica Pizza
• Herkimer Pub and Brewery
• High Point Center for Print Making
• Keep in Touch Massage
• Lake Harriet Spirits
• Muddy Waters Bar and Eatery
• Roam
• Schatzlein Saddle Shop
• Stella’s Fish Cafe
• Tatters Alternative Clothing
• The Rainbow Building
• Uptown Dental
• Uptown Hair District
• Uptown Pawn

Stay tuned – we’re moving on to other parts of the City!

At the Monday night meeting, Toole Design presented an overview of Franklin Avenue’s current condition for all road users.  In short, the quality of service for everyone traveling along Franklin Avenue is poor.  As reported at the meeting, the crash rate on Franklin is over 2.5 times the expected rate.  A solution raised by Toole Design and one that gained traction among most meeting participants involves performing a 4 to 3 lane conversion along many sections of Franklin. Designating the middle lane as a left turn lane will likely dramatically reduce the crash rate.  The loss of one motor vehicle lane should not have a significant impact on traffic volume and will free up space for bike lanes and motor vehicle parking.

Toole Design emphasized that they must consider constraints, both budgetary and spatial, when evaluating options for a safer Franklin Avenue.  Additionally, raising the quality of service to Franklin Avenue will require compromise from motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.   As they move toward a final recommendation to TLC, Toole Design will also be guided by public input generated during Tuesday night’s meeting.

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting and offered their input.   TLC expects a final recommendation from Toole Design by mid to late summer when TLC will host another public meeting to disseminate and discuss the study results.

Having lived in the Whittier neighborhood until just last year, I would sometimes take Franklin during my bike commute to the University of Minnesota. While this wasn’t my route of choice, I made it somewhat tolerable by taking 24th Avenue over 35W and on to 11th Avenue, and then 11th Avenue to Franklin to avoid (in my opinion) the worst parts of Franklin.

Last week’s petition meet-up was at Franklin and Nicollet Avenues, and it had been longer than a year since I had taken Franklin west of Cedar Avenue. That evening, I decided to take Franklin from Cedar west to the meet-up at Nicollet. Unfortunately, I didn’t get far and opted to bail at 11th Avenue. The following situations unnerved me enough to get as far away from Franklin as possible:

Cedar Avenue approaching right turn lane for Franklin Avenue. This is close to where the bike lane on Cedar peters out. Car traffic tends to be very heavy and fast, and zips quickly into the right traffic and turn lanes.

1. Passing through Cedar Avenue and turning right/west onto Franklin: A lot of bicyclists use 20th/Cedar Avenue to get to Franklin. If you’re not familiar with this route, it is a thoroughfare from the UM’s West Bank that has wide bike lanes and initially only moderate levels of automobile traffic. As it approaches Franklin, however, and crosses Minnehaha Avenue there is an awkward intersection (near Taco Bell) where the bike lanes disappear and car traffic picks up. While driving through this intersection to get to Franklin, car drivers typically float from the left lane into the right lane and, in my experience, don’t always notice bicyclists traveling in the right lane. I have had a few close calls in this intersection, which is why I chose to ride in the right shoulder/turn lane last week like many other bicyclists. While sticking to the far right, I encountered cars that zipped very quickly into the right turn lane headed for Franklin, many of them too close for comfort.

Franklin Avenue between Cedar and Hiawatha Avenues. While there aren't a lot of cars in this photo, traffic on this stretch of street is heavy and fast-moving during the weekday rush hour. This coupled with the poor pavement conditions and parked cars does not leave a lot space for bicyclists to comfortably ride.

2. Taking Franklin between Cedar and Hiawatha Avenues: On this two lane stretch of westbound road, car traffic tends to zip through at very high speeds. If you’re bicycling in the right lane, drivers often tailgate or pass while leaving only inches between you and them. If you try to move to the right shoulder, the ride is less than ideal with bumpy, cracked concrete, buses stopped at the Hiawatha light rail station, and parked cars. I tried to stay as close as possible to the right shoulder, but found myself moving too close for comfort into the traffic lane due to the poor conditions of the shoulder.

Franklin Avenue after it narrows from two lanes to one lane. When cars are in the mix, there's very little opportunity to move to the right due to the extremely poor pavement conditions.

3. Taking Franklin between Hiawatha and 11th Avenues: To me, this was the most nerve-racking part of the commute. While crossing under the Hiawatha bridge, Franklin narrows from two lanes to one lane. Cars must merge right, often doing so quickly and at the last minute. At this point, my survival instincts kicked in and I moved as far to the shoulder as possible. But, once again, I could only move so far due to potholes and poor pavement conditions. Within a couple of blocks the right shoulder narrows significantly, and I was within inches of moving or parked cars. So, I kept as close as possible to the right shoulder, endured cars traveling very close to me for a few blocks, got into automobile traffic as close as possible to 11th, and turned left onto 11th. I ultimately went several blocks out of the way to get to our petition meet-up spot, taking the 24th Avenue pedestrian overpass over 35W (which arguably has its own safety issues) and then 24th Avenue on to Nicollet and Franklin.

Franklin Avenue gets more bike traffic than any other street in Minneapolis without bike lanes. It is a major east-west thoroughfare that connects many businesses and neighborhoods. When Hennepin County added bike lanes to Franklin Avenue east of Minnehaha, it made that area of Franklin safer and more accessible to all users. I hope you’ll join the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition and me in urging the county to extend bike lanes the entire length of Franklin.

Want to get involved? Contact volunteer@mplsbike.org.

Can this urban freeway be transformed? We think so!

So what can be done now and how can we make it happen? There were two recent articles on streets.mn that offer some good options (from Brendon and from Bill). We’re taking those ideas and building on them with what we think is a viable solution that can be done this year.

A transformed Park and Portland using just paint, flexible plastic posts, and portable planters! (Thanks to Brendon Slotterback (http://netdensity.net))

Key features:

–Remove a traffic lane that isn’t needed. The core of this proposal is transforming one of the car lanes into space that adds to the neighborhood, pedestrian, and bicycling environments. Park and Portland are both currently three lanes in each direction; yet, they carry no more than 13,000 cars a day at any point (and much less at most points). Basically, that means that there is one wasted car lane. It’s not needed to move cars. Have you noticed that there is never any congestion on these roads except periodically where cars are turning? It’s not your imagination! These roads were built before there was an Interstate 35W, and there simply isn’t the traffic demand to warrant 3 lanes each. With a 11 feet of extra space to play with (the width of one of the traffic lanes), there is plenty of space for transformation!

–Move the bike lane to the right side and use the parked cars as a protective buffer. The existing 5-foot left-side bike lanes are not a very comfortable place for most cyclists, and there are common safety problems where drivers turn left. We propose moving the bike lane to the right–where drivers have come to expect cyclists to be. And we propose moving the bike lane between the curb and the parked cars. This is similar to the bike lanes on 1st Avenue North, although this would be much better. There is more space (when we take the lane), so there can be a wide bike lane and an adjacent buffer zone to prevent worries about dooring from the parked cars. Well-designed parking protected bike lanes in other cities have drastically increased biking and improved safety. To greatly reduce the likelihood of drivers parking in the bike lane, we’d strongly recommend using flexible posts to clearly separate the bicycling area. Note that we recognize that intersection treatments will be important to successfully implementing such a design safely–intersections have been done well elsewhere and they certainly can be on Park and Portland.

A parking-protected bike lane in Chicago uses white flexible posts to clearly separate the parking area from the biking area. (Photo from City of Chicago)

–Provide planters on the right side of the street to extend pedestrian realm. One of the challenges with providing parking protected bike lanes on Park and Portland is that there is an existing 6.5-foot wide concrete edge on either side of the road that isn’t in great condition and would mean a rough bike ride if there were bike lanes there. While the road is being repaved this year, repavings do not include concrete area, so it will stay rough. We propose getting around that while greatly enhancing the attractiveness of these roads by using the right-side concrete area as a place for planters. A lot could be done with them–they could become community garden space, or just have flowers. They could also be removable if the County prefers to take them out in the winter to ease snow maintenance.

Benefits:

• Greatly improved bicycle environment that would attract more cyclists
• Traffic calming
• More green space and potential community garden space
• Reduced pedestrian crossing distances because of the planters

Next Steps:

We have already started encouraging the County to consider this idea–and to create a community engagement process for this project to envision a new Park and Portland. While this implementation is scaled to fit with a repaving project (in a repaving project the curbs do not change, so the width of the road stays the same), such a change is far beyond what is typically done for road maintenance projects. So, it will take commitment from the County to use this opportunity as the time to make change. People have been talking about the desire to make Park and Portland more neighborhood friendly for decades–what better time to do it than now when the road will already be under construction!

We plan to soon start engaging the City and local neighborhoods more–we’ll keep you posted as things unfold.

Volunteers needed!

To be successful in achieving something like this vision, we will need to do a lot of outreach to neighborhoods and local residents. And we need volunteers to help with that! If you are interested, please email volunteer@mplsbike.org.

In the long-term, Park and Portland could be transformed like 9th Ave in New York

Before: 9th Avenue the Urban Freeway (Photo via Streetsblog)

• The BAC supports the Minneapolis portion of the Three Rivers Park District’s Intercity Regional Trail Master Plan provided that: the preferred cross-sections for Cedar Ave and 58th Street are utilized; the shared trail is increased from 10-12 feet where a separate trail and walk are not provided; a realigned entrance to Old Cedar Ave is provided to calm traffic; and where possible a buffer is provided between Old Cedar Ave and the trail from the 5-8 Club to the Bloomington Ave Bridge. For more, check out Adam’s recent blog post. 

• The BAC supports encroachment permits for the ZAP Twin Cities Program: The Transportation Management Organization–an agency that works with downtown employers to promote sustainable commuting options–has received grant funding to implement an innovative program called ZAP in partnership with Dero Bike Rack Company. ZAP will aids in bike counts and enable employers to provide robust incentives to employees for bicycling to work. Unfortunately, there have been some hurdles to installing 9 ZAP counters around the city. This resolution supports a permitting process that would remove these barriers.

• The BAC applauds Target, Brookfield, and Lunds for the awesome bicycle facilities they are planning to install at their downtown locations.Target, for example, is planning to install 150 new indoor bike lockers.
  

Much of Franklin Avenue looks like this stretch near its intersection with Park Avenue: two traffic lanes each way with little room for bikes.

To accomplish this, the MBC must build support, create awareness and educate the communities near Franklin Avenue…and we need your help. Volunteers are needed to connect with cyclists who regularly bike Franklin Avenue to sign a petition showing support for the project. We will host an information session Thursday, May 3 from 5 to 6 p.m. at The Nicollet, equipping volunteers with the information they need to talk with cyclists. We’re asking volunteers to either hit Franklin after receiving that information or at a time more convenient to help get petition signatures and inform bikers how to become involved in the efforts. Contact Will Cooksey, franklin@mplsbike.org, if you want to get involved.

If flagging down bikers on Franklin Avenue isn’t your thing, there are other ways to show your support. Transit for Livable Communities is hosting a meeting 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 7 at Philips Community Center (2323 11th Avenue S.) to discuss future bike and pedestrian improvements on Franklin Avenue. Please come share your ideas and show your support to make Franklin Avenue more bike-friendly.

Stay tuned for progress updates and more volunteer opportunities as we work to make Franklin a better place to bike.

At the most recent Bicycle Advisory Committee- Engineering Subcommittee meeting, representatives from the Three Rivers Park District were present to discuss design aspects of the Intercity Regional Trail. Stemming from Bloomington, the 7-mile trail will go through Richfield and Minneapolis. The BAC-Engineering Subcommittee was largely impressed with the trail’s Master Plan, only with a few small changes. Bikers can expect to see a shared-use trail stemming from Fat Lorenzo’s heading south, with some variations in configurations. Here are the specifics, as well as project updates on other fronts:

Intercity Regional Trail: From Fat Lorenzo’s to the north end of the Church parking lot there will be 10’ shared use trail with a 5’7” wide buffer between the cars and trail users. From 58^th Street heading south there will be a 10’-12’ wide shared use trail with a 5’7” wide buffer between cars and trail users. The BAC recommended paring back the road width by 2’ in order to maintain a safe buffer and to accommodate a 12’ wide trail.

Proposed Trail Route for the Intercity Regional Trail

Central Avenue: This project will include a mix of bike lanes and sharrows as part of a MnDOT mill & overlay. The recent update from MnDOT was that the extent of the bike lane has been increased. The new section with bike lanes will span from 2^nd street SE to University Ave, and head in the south bound direction.  There is no proposal from MnDOT for a bike lane heading north in that section, as there is parking on the north bound side of the street. On another note, MnDOT is going to use the Central Avenue project as a pilot for other projects, and will continually evaluate various aspects of the facility over time.

Washington Avenue: Hennepin County is working on redeveloping Washington Ave from downtown to 35W. Tasked with accommodating many, many stakeholders, officials were eager to get input from the BAC. This stretch includes heavy bus traffic, a historic district, and a high level of pedestrian interest. That in mind, the BAC recommended searching for a way to create a separate facility, that is one with a buffer zone between traffic, bikers, and walkers. Hennepin County will consider their options and report back later in the year. This project will be awarded next year, and start construction in 2014.

A good sign of things to come was a larger discussion on how the BAC and Hennepin County officials can maintain a collaborative and effective dialogue. We were able to discuss projects from this summer into the next 5 years. How’s that for preparation?

S-U-C-C-E-S-S?
Since February 2012, volunteers and MBC board members have been on a mission to increase bike parking in the Uptown and Lyn-Lake Business Districts.

Taking advantage of the conversion of meters to pay stations, Dero Bike Racks designed a “sleeve” to slip over the meter pole that accommodates two bicycles. The City of Minneapolis agreed to a 50/50 match with businesses to pay for the sleeves if the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition agreed to act as an intermediary and raise the funds . . . the race was on! To date, we have orders for 80 sleeves in the Uptown and Lyn-Lake Business districts. This increases bike parking by 160 spaces. With involvement by neighborhood associations (CARAG, LHENA, and Lyndale), we were able to significantly increase the number of racks when they offered an additional match to businesses. Watch for installation in the next months.

AND we are not done yet. We are now focusing on the West Bank, Downtown East and West, Dinky Town, and Stadium Village. The sleeves can be installed wherever pay stations exist (except Northeast where the design of the meters will not accommodate the sleeve). What can you do to help? Next week we will publish the names of all the businesses and private citizens that supported this initiative – make sure to stop in and thank them. Let them know that you ride your bike and patronize their business. Get involved with MBC by writing to volunteer@mplsbike.org