Minneapolis Joy Ride Tomorrow! (Saturday)

The Story Behind the Joy Ride

The Minneapolis Joy Ride sponsored by the Minneapolis Bicycle

Coalition is a ride that celebrates one of the very best bicycling cities in America, while looking to the future of bike amenities in our city. The ride is free, open to all, and moderately paced with activities and fun events at stops along the route.

The Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition advocates for a city where bicycling is encouraged and everyone feels comfortable riding. We're organizing this bike ride for people who share our vision of a city where:

• 
  riding a bicycle is joyful for people of all ages and abilities;


• 
  bicycles are the easiest way to make most trips, and navigating Minneapolis on a bicycle is intuitive;


• 
  Minneapolis neighborhoods are connected by a network of safe streets and trails that invite people to bicycle year-round; and


• 
  bicycling plays a strong role in helping people stay healthy and connected to their neighborhoods, supporting vibrant commercial districts and making Minneapolis a world-class city where people from all backgrounds want to live, work, shop and play.

We want to experience some of this vision on our ride. We have a few other things we hope will happen.

Minneapolis is one of the most diverse cycling cities in America, and we hope to build bridges between groups of bicyclists who don't

often interact, while highlighting our common interest in creating an even more inviting city for us all.

We will try out some of the infrastructure successes the Coalition has had and some routes we're working on.

And, well, we think it sounds fun. We want to celebrate what we all have in common. That we love riding our bikes.

More Route Details

Stops include:

1. Washington Avenue and 2nd Avenue S

• 
  Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition volunteers will discuss efforts to improve Washington Avenue

2. Venture North Bike Walk Center:

• 
  Casey will share a little about the Center, which opened last year


• 
  Sarah Stewart (Mpls Dept of Health) and Matthew Hendricks (Twin Cities Greenways) will discuss the work around a potential new "greenway" in North Minneapolis

3. Portland and Franklin:

• 
  Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition volunteers will discuss efforts to improve Park and Portland


• 
  Steve Clark from Transit for Livable Communities will discuss options for improving Franklin Avenue

4. Spokes Connect Bike Walk center

• 
  Sheldon Mains or Andrew Magill will share some about this brand new center, which opened this week!

Along the way, we'll ride on trails, bike lanes, protected bike lanes, advisory bike lanes, a greenway, a bicycle detour, and a few roads that need some improvements. Variety is the spice of life!

Route map: http://goo.gl/maps/BajQ5