The Bikeway - September 2016 - Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition

In This Issue:

Protected bike lanes on University Avenue and/or 4th Street SE
Connecting Washington Ave to the University of Minnesota with protected bikeways
Downtown Bikeways Ride
Franklin Bridge Reopening Celebration!
Here's Your Ticket! Bicycle Citation Report Event
Pedestrian Advocacy
3rd Avenue Protected Bikeway Lanes to be Extended Next Year!
Protected Bike Lanes and Illegal Parking
Marshall St NE

University Ave/4th St bikeway, Downtown bikeways ride and more!

September 2016

Protected bike lanes on University Avenue and/or 4th Street SE

University Avenue and 4th Street SE both currently have bike lanes. However, as early as next year, one or both of those lanes could be upgraded to protected bikeways! There are two options on the table - a two-way bikeway only on University Ave and one-way bikeways on both University and 4th. Both would connect from the Oak Street bikeway (to be extended) to the future protected bikeways on 10th Avenue.

We're collecting input on people's bicycling preferences between these two alternatives before the release of a parking and traffic study being done now. Read more about the tradeoffs with either design and take the survey about your preferences! You can also stop by and see us at Open Streets Oct. 1 at 15th Avenue and University Ave.

Connecting Washington Ave to the University of Minnesota with protected bikeways!

We are inches away from having protected bikeways next year on Washington Avenue from Hennepin Avenue to the U of M campus. Volunteer Tyler dives into the details on how we hope Hennepin County will not leave a big protected bikeway gap from 5th Avenue to I-35W. Let's get this done!

Join us next week on the downtown bikeways ride to learn more (details next).

Downtown Bikeways Ride

Join us for a fun and informative ride covering new and future bikeways in downtown. There is so much happening! See it for yourself, share your thoughts on some projects, and learn how you can get involved. We'll end with optional food, drinks, and discussion.

Meet up: Starting at 5:30pm at NE corner of Gold Medal Park

Program starts at 5:45; ride rolls out at 6pm

The ride will be about 5 miles.

Ride ends at New Bohemia, 233 E Hennepin Ave.

New routes covered:

11th Ave S protected bike lanes

6th Street/Vikings Stadium trail

Park and Portland protected bike lanes

3rd Avenue protected bike lanes

1st Ave N reconfigured bike lanes

Hennepin Ave bridge buffered bike lanes

Potential future routes covered:

Washington Ave

Grant Street

Hennepin Ave

Hennepin Ave/1st Street NE

Other News

Franklin Bridge Reopening Celebration!

The Franklin Bridge (and the protected bikeways and trails leading up to and connected to it) is finally open to cars, and mostly open to bikes and peds. This is something to celebrate!

Join us for a celebration on Saturday, October 15th starting at 10am for fun games and entertainment, followed by a bike/walk parade across the bridge at 10:30am!

More details and RSVP here.

Here's your ticket! Bicycle Citation Report Event

A team of Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition volunteers recently completed a research project where they collected data from all bicycle-related citations given out between 2009 and 2015. Volunteers researched such topics as gender, race, and the type and location of citations and arrests.

See their final findings and read the report at the release event on October 3rd - you must RSVP for a seat since space is very limited!

Pedestrian Advocacy

Last month we announced our intention to expand the scope of our work to include pedestrian issues and advocacy!

We know people who bike, walk, and roll have shared interests in safer, more vibrant streets. We’ve worked side-by-side with pedestrian advocates on many policy and on-the-ground projects around the city, and this change will formalize work we’ve been doing already to support walkability.

We want to hear what you think about this expansion! Read more and give us your feedback!

3rd Avenue Protected Bike Lanes to be Extended Next Year!

A few weeks ago we celebrated the completion of the 3rd Avenue protected bikeway, running through the heart of downtown! While it was a great event, even better was an announcement at the event by Mayor Hodges that the protected bike lanes would be extended across the river next year, connecting to Northeast Minneapolis!

Thank you to all the volunteers and members who pushed for a safe route through downtown for bicyclists!

Protected Bike Lanes and Illegal Parking

If you ride around Minneapolis streets on a regular basis, seeing a car stopped in the bike lane is a fairly regular occurrence. With more protected bike lanes being built across the city, we're hearing from more and more people who are facing obstacles such as stopped vehicles in these lanes (particularly Downtown).

While we are working on a longer-term fixes (including immediate changes on 11th Ave S), we encourage you in the meantime to report all instances of vehicles in bike lanes to 311 (via phone or app) so that they can track where violations are occurring.

Marshall St NE

Local neighbors, Hennepin County staff, and other stakeholders have been working for more than the year to move forward a protected bikeway on Marshall Street NE.

We had hoped that it could come in 2020 or 2021 as part of a reconstruction of the street, but the County opted against applying for funding. We're disappointed by this, but as committed as ever to connecting with people about this critical potential connection.

The Bikeway - September 2016

by Alex Tsatsoulis

on September 29, 2016