Word on the Streets

Northside Transportation Projects- Meeting Sunday, October 12

Do you live in North Minneapolis? Are you interested in the development of transportation options for North Minneapolis residents?

Get Involved

The North Minneapolis Bicycle Advocacy Council meets every 2nd Sunday from noon until 1:30 p.m. at North Regional Library (1315 Lowry Ave N. Mpls, MN) to discuss local transportation projects and their potential to help address devastating health disparities, provide more opportunities for safe biking and walking, and increase access to recreation amenities such as community gardens, picnic areas, public art, playgrounds, and bring better park & trail access to North Minneapolis.

Image of what 26th Avenue North Greenway could look like

posted by | October 08, 2014

BAC Gives I-35 Access Project Nod of Approval

The Engineering Subcommittee of the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Council (BAC) met in a new location to the Colonial Warehouse Building at 212 3rd Ave N, Suite 404. They will no longer meet at the Crown Roller Mill Building, although the time will still be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. each third Tuesday of the month.

Third Avenue North just outside the new meeting location is sporting a new parklet that members perused before the meeting.

September's meeting (on the 16th) was an information-heavy one.

First, committee members discussed planned upgrades on Minnehaha Avenue from 24th Street East to 26th Streeet East.

Second, they discussed a project on 38th Street East from Hiawatha Avenue to Minnehaha Avenue.

Lastly, Hennepin County Enginner Jim Grube and Jeni Hager from Minneapolis Public Works detailed the I-35 Access Project which includes to re-dos to the I-35 bridges on Franklin, 24th, 26th and 28th Streets. The plan also calls for a Lake Street Greenway Crescent to connect bicyclists to 31st Street (where the Bike Master Plan calls for a bike facility.)

This rendering shows the "Green Crescent" which with its bike and pedestrian paths will connect the Midtown Greenway to Lake Street.

Moreover a new transit station would be built at Lake Street and I-35 for bus connections. Grube noted it was 460 feet from the Midtown Greenway to the plaza of the transit station. Planners expect the transit station to be busy. During peak hours, Grube said 80 busses per hour will go through the transit station.

For bicyclists, the I-35 Access project should mean not only new surfaces on the four bridges, but also designs that would be compatible for proposed protected bike lanes on Franklin, 26th Street and 28th Street. Moreover, the pedestrian bridge over I-35 at 24th is getting a remake. The cage is coming down and ramps are planned to have gradual switchbacks to make the bridge more handicap accessible. Plus, the Green Crescent would provide better access between the Midtown Greenway and points south near I-35.

The I-35 underpass is not one of the Midtown Greenway's most welcoming spaces. The "Green Crescent" could change that.

The Engineering Subcommittee passed a motion in support of the concepts on the four bridges and the Greenway Crescent.

posted by | September 25, 2014

Help connect Franklin Ave. SE to St. Paul with a protected bikeway

Franklin Ave. SE is due to be resurfaced in the next few years, from East River Parkway to the city border at Emerald St. SE. This is our opportunity to build a high-quality protected bikeway on Franklin Avenue.

We need your help!

Come to a happy hour 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, to get more information and show your support for this project while connecting with other advocates for safer streets and connected communities. We’ll walk down the route of the proposed protected bikeway, and then talk about how you can get involved in making it happen. We’ll meet at the east end of the Franklin Ave. Bridge. After the walk, we'll head over to Stub & Herbs for refreshments and more conversation.

You can RSVP to the event on Facebook.

Why install a protected bikeway on Franklin Ave. SE?

There are a number of good reasons for installing a protected bikeway on Franklin Ave. SE:

Franklin without a Bikeway The current route from the Franklin Ave bridge to the city limit, using bike lanes. This is 1.7 miles.

The proposed new route. This is .7 miles. The current route takes bicyclists a mile out of their way.

Connecting communities: Franklin Ave. SE makes a needed connection between the Franklin Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River and to St. Paul. It will also be a great link between the University of Minnesota and the Prospect Park neighborhood, which is home to many University students, faculty and staff.

Current usage is high: Despite featuring a significant hill and no bicycle facility of any kind, this portion of Franklin carries 400 bicyclists per day near the bridge. This is actually higher than the bike traffic on 27th Avenue SE, which also connects to the bridge but only carries 330 bicyclists/day. Given the fact that the Franklin Avenue Bridge carries more than 1,700 riders per day, it’s reasonable to expect that a high-quality bikeway on Franklin Ave. SE will increase the number of people riding. The Franklin Avenue Bridge is slated to be retrofitted by Hennepin County in 2015 with protected bikeways, making Franklin Ave. SE a natural connection.

Traffic calming: As importantly, Franklin Ave SE has problems that a protected bikeway could help solve. It’s 32 feet wide, with parking allowed on both sides of most blocks. This means that traffic lanes are very narrow (eight 8 feet each), when parked cars are present. Few residents feel comfortable parking their cars on the street, so there is very little parking on the part of Franklin Avenue that's east of I-94. This leads to a situation in which the travel lanes are effectively 16 feet wide, which encourages drivers to speed. The protected bikeway will rededicate this underused space in a way that calms traffic.

What would the protected bikeway look like?

The current proposal is to install a two-way, physically protected facility on the north side of Franklin, all the way from Emerald to Thornton. As proposed, it would consist of two five-foot bike lanes, one in each direction, protected by a two-foot buffer with a physical barrier between bicyclists and moving cars:

In order to build a high-quality protected bikeway on Franklin Ave. SE, the underutilized space currently used for on-street parking will be transformed into a protected bikeway for most of the length of Franklin. According to a parking survey conducted in May by Council Member Cam Gordon’s office, every residence on Franklin but one has access to off-street parking, and the on-street parking east of I-94 is used very little. While there are approximately 111 on-street parking spaces on this section of Franklin, the largest number of cars observed parked here was three. That means that over 97 percent of the space is going unused, and just encouraging drivers to speed.

There is one exception: The on-street parking west of I-94 gets used during events at St. Frances Cabrini Church. The proposed solution is to use some of the boulevard space on the south side of the street between East River Terrace and I-94, in front of St. Frances Cabrini church, for a permanent on-street parking lane, and to allow parking in the protected bike lane in this section of Franklin during peak demand periods at Cabrini: Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. These are not peak commuting periods, meaning that both traffic volumes and bicycle volumes are typically lower.

Is this project likely to succeed?

Yes. The Prospect Park neighborhood has already supported traffic calming on Franklin Ave SE, and removal of parking from one side of the street. The council member for the area is Cam Gordon, one of the most bike-friendly members of the Minneapolis City Council.

But we need your help to make this happen. There will be a public open house later this year, and we need to make sure that people who bike this route are well-represented.

posted by | September 12, 2014