IN THIS ISSUE

Welcome to the Second Issue of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition newsletter.

As we are heading into the end of summer there has been much activity in the Minneapolis and because of the activity getting the second MBC newsletter published has been challenging.

We are featuring the Strategic Planning Process as the feature article because this activity will shape the future of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition.  

UPCOMING EVENTS:

 Volunteer Meeting:  Our next new volunteer meeting will be Thursday, August 26th from 5:00-6:15 p.m. at the Minneapolis Central Library, Room N-202.

TLC's Moving Minnesota Forward Celebrate Transportation Choices Sunday, August 22, 12-2:00pm
Program starts @ 12:30
Minnehaha Park Pavilion, Minneapolis (Just off the 50th St. Minnehaha Station on Hiawatha LRT).  We'll have a table so stop by.  Link to Moving MN Forward

Public meetings for Riverside Avenue reconstruction (see article below for details): Tuesday, August 24 at 10am at Augsburg College Oren Gateway Center (2211 Riverside Avenue) in Room 111     

Tuesday, August 24 at 6:30pm at Seward Towers East Advantage Center (2910 E Franklin Avenue)

The Greenway Challenge bike-a-thon on Saturday, September 25th is a great way to give back to the Greenway you use and love. All pledges raised for The Challenge go directly to keeping the Greenway safe, beautiful and accessible for all.
Register online at to support the Midtown Greenway Association's great work.

Public Meeting--Southern Bicycle Connection
Thursday, August 19, 6:30pm, Stewart Park Rec Center (2700 12th Ave S)
For full information on the proposed bicycle boulevard on 17th Avenue South along with bike lanes on parts of 24th Street, Bloomington Ave, 54th Street, 12th Avenue, and 60th Street, check out the City's website. This is a big and important project!

Take Action - Washington Avenue
REQUEST TO READERS:

Hennepin county is currently doing a mill and overlay project on Washington Avenue from 3rd Avenue South to 12th Avenue South, so adding bike lanes now would not cost the county any additional money!

	Most Dangerous Intersection
#1 Most Dangerous Intersection Almost Claims a Young Life The intersection of 26th Street at the Hiawatha Bicycle Trail, the #1 most dangerous intersection for bicyclists in Minneapolis, ( CIty Pages Link) almost claimed a young life when Aidan Sponheim was broadsided by a delivery van (Twin Cities Daily Planet Link). What will it take for the #1 bicycle city in America to place stop signs with flashing red lights to stop the car traffic at this busy 2000 plus cyclists a day intersection? And while we are on the subject of dangerous bicycle trail intersections, how about stop signs for car traffic at Midtown Greenway at 28th Street and Midtown Greenway at 5th Avenue. [BD]
	MBC Picnic
The Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition held its first picnic and was well attended by the Steering Committee and Action Group Volunteers. This was held on July 29.  We all want to extend a sincere thanks to Janne K. Flisrand who volunteered her back patio, drinks, barbecue and a cherry dessert.  [GR]
	Riverside Avenue reconstruction: upcoming public meetings are final chance to comment
The City is doing a full reconstruction in 2011 or 2012 of a one-mile stretch of Riverside Avenue from Cedar to Franklin. This is a great opportunity to ensure that the street is rebuilt to be bicycle friendly. There are two upcoming public meetings, which will be the final chance for the public to comment before the proposed designs go to the City Council for final approval: Tuesday, August 24 at 10am at Augsburg College Oren Gateway Center (2211 Riverside Avenue) in Room 111      Tuesday, August 24 at 6:30pm at Seward Towers East Advantage Center (2910 E Franklin Avenue)  On July 12, the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition was a co-host with Seward Redesign, Transit for Livable Communities, the African Development Center, and others of a discussion with community members and the city about the future of Riverside Avenue. You can read a full summary of that meeting from Steve Clark with Bike Walk Twin Cities.  At that time, the city had proposed some rough preliminary designs (available online) that include fairly standard bicycle lanes for most of the street, but leave a baffling 2-block gap in the bike lanes from Cedar to 20th Avenue. Everyone in attendance highlighted that gap as a problem that needs to be fixed. The engineering consultants at the meeting also suggested potentially having extra-wide and/or colored bike lanes to make it safer and also more accessible for cyclists that don't feel as comfortable sharing the road with cars. They said that Riverside would likely not be a good place for a cycletrack at this time because of the frequent and awkward intersections. Bike boxes were discussed as a possibility at the Riverside and Franklin intersection to assist cyclists turning left from Riverside onto Franklin.  The City will be presenting more complete and updated plans at the meeting on August 24 based on public comments to date. If you cannot make either of the public meetings, please let the project engineer know that you support bike lanes throughout. His e-mail is chris.engelmann@ci.minneapolis.mn.us. (He was at the July 12 discussion along with two other staff members involved--kudos to them).  [EF]
	Cedar Lake Bike Trail Extension
The Cedar Lake bike trail extension is literally in my back yard.  As I'm writing the article I'm witnessing dozens of construction workers and heavy equipment carving a space through the area where the NorthStar transit, commercial rail, pedestrians and bicyclists will all be converging.  This extension will allow an off road extension from West River Road, near the Federal Reserve, under the Twins Field and connect up to where the trail ends by Glenwood Avenue. [GR]

george.c.rosar@gmail.com

Editors George Rosar

Editors Sage Tauber

LOGO AND BRANDING

After some heated Facebook discussions about our announced logo contest, we've gotten some expert advice (thanks to Todd Zerger of the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition and BrainstormOverload for his time).  We are shifting direction.  We plan to ask for volunteers willing to offer pro bono design work to the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition to share some of their past work, and hope to partner with a designer who is a good fit for the organization on branding.

VOLUNTEERS

DONATIONS

STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

We have started on a 2-year strategic plan to guide our future work as we continue to grow the organization. We'll be discussing stakeholders, goals, strategies, and implementation to help us toward our vision for a more bicycle-friendly Minneapolis. Specific topic areas will include communications, potential membership structure, ways to maximize volunteer opportunities, and many others.

We'll be seeking feedback from you in next month's newsletter and on Facebook. We hope that you'll offer your thoughts on how we can help empower Minneapolitans who care about bicycling. If you have any questions, you may contact Ethan Fawley at ethan@mplsbike.org.

Accomplishments:

• We thank the 19 key stakeholders and thought leaders who have agreed to serve as advisors and will offer advice during the strategic planning process. The full list is on our website (http://mplsbike.org).
• We also thank Anne Carroll from Carroll, Franck, and Associates, who will be facilitating our strategic planning meetings.

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ACTION GROUP: BIKE PLAN

Goal

The City of Minneapolis adopted a Bike Plan Map in 2001, and is now in the process of updating the map and developing a full Bike Master Plan. We're working to increase public outreach and input opportunities and are collaborating with the City to develop a strong existing conditions analysis to aid in future planning.

Visit our website to send an email to your City Councilmember to let them know why the Bike Master Plan is important to you, and to highlight issues that you think the plan should address:  mplsbike.org/content/bike-plan-email

•  Developed an outline of existing conditions that will be included in the plan.
• Working with the Mayor's office to ensure that there is more public outreach
• Raising awareness among the City Council about the importance of a Bike Master Plan

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A full network of bike lanes downtown to serve commuter, recreational and shopping trips to our city center, along with ample secure bicycle parking and strong connections to transit.

Over the past year, bicycle access to downtown has eroded and we are advocating for a reversal of that trend. We are working with the City to identify opportunities to close gaps in the downtown bicycle network to serve all types of cyclists. In addition to advocating for improved bicycle access to downtown, we strongly support improved transit and pedestrian connections. We believe a truly multimodal transportation system downtown will enable Minneapolis to support a vibrant economy, strong commercial and cultural center, and an increasingly residential population.

Join us to Accomplish the Following:

• Bike Lanes on 4th & 5th Avenues South.
• Bike Lanes on 5th & 6th Streets South.
• Bike Lanes along Washington Avenues to the West Bank of the U of M campus.
• Bike Lanes along 2nd Street under the 35-W tunnel to the East Bank of the U of M campus.
• Bike Lanes on 1st Avenue and Hennepin Avenues over the Mississippi and Nicollet Island into Northeast Minneapolis on East Hennepin and First Avenue Northeast from the river to Central Avenue Northeast.

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ACTION GROUP: BIKE PARKING

Goal

A small group has been meeting the second Saturday morning of each month at the Common Roots Common Room (26th and Lyndale Ave. S.) to work on increasing bike parking, particularly in the Uptown & Longfellow neighborhoods. We're currently contacting neighborhood associations to request matching funding. We offer volunteer resources on reaching out to businesses and landlords, as well as expertise in bike parking placement. If you have connections with your neighborhood association and can help us make contact, please let us know. We'd love additional volunteers to help with outreach and assessment.

"Lack of secure bike parking is the No. 1 reason that seasoned cyclists don't bike to work." Read the rest of Transportation Alternatives' Guide to Indoor Bike Parking. (Download PDF here)

Bike parking costs approximately $100/bike installed, as part of the city's contract.

Accomplishments to Date:

• The Uptown Association installed 33 bike racks throughout the greater Uptown area in the Lyn-Lake district over to Hennepin-Lake district, and up Hennepin toward Franklin.  Many of these were based on the Bike Parking Action Group's recommendations, thanks to the team who went on a rainy ride to assess the neighborhood.  Seven businesses also purchased additional racks through the Association's contract. 
  
• The Bike Parking Action Group also presented to the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association (the Wedge) to offer assistance on implementing part of their NRP Action Plan addressing bike parking.  They appreciated our offer of help, and we will work with them on developing a detailed plan and outreach.  If you live in a Wedge apartment building that needs better bike parking, please contact janne@mplsbike.org.

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ACTION GROUP: OPEN STREETS / CICLOVIA

During Open Streets/Ciclovia, a continuous loop or stretch of street is "opened up" so that all people can bike, jog, roller blade, and stroll with baby carriages and dogs. They can appreciate the architecture, the infrastructure, and the natural environment while letting their story-telling imaginations have a chance to be exercised. In addition, Open Streets provide people with opportunities to socialize and enjoy programmed recreational activities on neighborhood streets including yoga, dance lessons, aerobics, games, musical performances, bike repair and bike safety classes. Open Streets have been catching on in the United States. Cities that already have popular Open Streets series include Portland, Oregon; New York, New York; San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; Baltimore, Maryland; and Cleveland, Ohio.  

Open Streets began in 1976 in Bogota, Colombia as Ciclovia (which means "bike path" in Spanish).  Today, Bogota's Ciclovia draws more than 1.5 million residents per week.

Accomplishments to Date:

• We have performed several outreach meetings to representatives around the City, including the Downtown Neighborhood Group and the Longfellow Community Council.  
• Support from other offices organizations remains strong.  The mayor's office is in full support of having Open Streets happen. Additionally, TLC has indicated that they would like to explore the opportunity to help facilitate an event starting this year.  
• We are grateful for collaborative planning support from the Minnesota Environmental Responsibility Network (MERN).
• Coordination meetings with the City and department representatives to discuss possible route options and permitting.

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