Word on the Streets

Minneapolis BAC Wants $750,000 Protected Bikeway Fund

At its November meeting on Tuesday, the Engineering Subcommittee of the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) passed a motion to request $750,000 for a protected bikeway fund in the 2014 City of Minneapolis Budget and continue to recommend it fund the North Minneapolis Greenway as its highest priority.

This model illustrates the concept for a linear park design replacing a low traffic street in North MInneapolis.

The full BAC will have to approve the motion to make it official. Last year, the BAC asked the city for $500,000 for a Cycle Track Fund, but that item was not included in the city's budget.

Minneapolis Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Sean Murphy pointed out that the idea buttressing the request is that the 2025 Climate Action Plan the city adopted calls for thirty miles of cycle tracks by 2025. The Cycle Track Fund was intended to keep the city building cycle tracks on schedule. Currently, the city has less than one mile of cycle tracks (1st Ave N between Washington and 8th). The BAC figured the city should be building at least 3 miles of cycle tracks per year to keep that timeline and hoped $500,000 would be enough to get that pace started.

David Peterson, the Minneapolis Public Works city planner tasked with bicycle infrastructure, said the bare minimum necessary to build a cycle track is $120,000/mile, but that would cover only painting and traffic posts.

Members agreed that more money would be nice to fund further enhancements, such as trees or traffic signals. Moreover, having a bigger fund may allow even more than 3 miles of cycle track per year.

Bike advocates have made cycle tracks a focal point because most bicyclists find them safer and more comfortable to use than unprotected lanes. The MBC’s own blogger extraordinaire Janne gave cycle tracks in Chicago a glowing review.

The subcommittee agreed to use the phrase "protected bikeway" rather than cycle track to allow greater flexiblity with funds.

Perhaps the high turnover at the city council (7 of 13 members are new) and a new mayor will give protected bikeway funding a better shot in the 2014 budget than in the 2013.

In addition to the funding request, the meeting also covered the Intercity Regional Trail, which will connect Minneapolis to Bloomington via Richfield. Engineering Subcommittee members saw the plans, which are soon to be finalized, and got their last chance to offer alterations.

The subcommittee members reviewed the 2013 and 2014 Repaving and Sealcoating Lists to discuss the Minneapolis Public Works recommendations for bike improvements. Franklin Ave SE (the infamous hill east of the Mississippi heading into Saint Paul) garnered some discussion, and members decided to up the recommendation for a bike lane only on the uphill climbing side to bike lanes on both sides.

Minneapolis Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Sean Murphy ran through the list of the 2014-2018 Capital Improvement Program Projects with new bike components. Minneapolis Public Works is seeking to add close to 7 miles of bike facilities to the bike network through the CIP projects. 26th and 28th St in South Minneapolis and 26th Ave N account for the bulk of the proposed bike facilities.

The subcommittee also briefly touched on the Minneapolis Complete Streets Policy.

BAC members did not go into detail on the North Minneapolis Greenway, which had been covered previously. For more on that greenway (specifically reservations some have because of greenway-induced gentrification) check out the article Scott wrote back in July.

posted by | November 14, 2013

You'e got questions? We'e got answers.

When I first started volunteering for the Coalition, I can't tell you how many questions I had about this organization.

I couldn't help but wonder about what other organizations that we were involved with, who to contact with specific questions, or how to get started on a project I was interested in.

One of the resources the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition has been developing is a FAQ Page -- which would be used to help our volunteers and members find the resources that they need quickly. The questions above will be addressed, but I am curious about the questions you have about the Coalition.

What questions do you want to see in our FAQ?

posted by | November 12, 2013

A streetcar next to the Midtown Greenway?

On November 6, 25 transit enthusiasts huddled in Harriet Brewing's cozy tap room to hear Mike Mechtenberg talk about buses, rails, and bikes in Midtown. Mike, a project manager at Metro Transit, presented the transportation options that Metro Transit is considering for Midtown, and their relative strengths and weaknesses. After his presentation, Mike fielded some questions from the audience.

The Midtown Corridor alternatives analysis

The study Mike presented (here's a PDF of the alternatives analysis) focused on the Midtown Corridor, an east-west strip of Minneapolis including Lake Street and the Greenway from West Lake Street just northwest of Lake Calhoun to Lake and Hiawatha.

There are a lot of options here. In the initial stage, Metro Transit evaluated the following transportation modes: enhanced bus service, dedicated busways, streetcars, and light rail transit (LRT). They considered these transit modes both on Lake Street and in the Midtown Greenway trench. After an initial screening, they ruled out everything but enhanced bus service on Lake Street, and everything but a streetcar line in the Midtown Greenway.

Enhanced bus service on Lake Street

In the Midtown Corridor, the 21 bus spends 64% of its time sitting still, either at red lights or at stops waiting for passengers to board, pay, and disembark. Enhanced bus service would cut down on this unnecessary wait time by giving the bus signal priority (holding a green light a little longer if a bus is coming), allowing offboard payment at stations, running buses that are easier to get on and off, and stopping less frequently (every half-mile). According to the report, these changes would cut the travel time from West Lake Street to Hiawatha from 42 minutes to 30 minutes. A way to boost ridership would be to extend service east of Hiawatha. An extension of the enhanced bus line could run across the river to Saint Paul, and up Snelling Avenue to the Green Line station at University Avenue. The project is expected to cost $50 million to build.

Streetcars in the Midtown Greenway

Metro Transit is considering putting a streetcar next to the bike and pedestrian path in the Midtown Greenway trench. A streetcar is like an LRT car, but usually a little shorter — 60 to 70 feet long, instead of 90 feet, and can reach speeds of 45 mph. The trains would run every ten minutes and the stations would be every quarter mile from West Lake Street to Hiawatha. This would connect the Southwest LRT to the Blue Line LRT, running by some of the densest neighborhoods and largest employers in Minneapolis. Since the Greenway is mostly below street level, streetcars could zip along unimpeded, and make the trip from West Lake Street to Hiawatha in 13 minutes (which is faster than driving a car, according to Google Maps). The project is estimated to cost $200 million, and we could pay for it with a regional sales tax or a public-private partnership, as Seattle has.

So how would this impact cyclists? Mike admitted that cyclists would be rerouted from the Greenway during the construction period, but he assured the audience that the permanent impact on the Midtown Greenway path would be minimal. Except for the tunnel under Hennepin Avenue, where the path would narrow from 20 feet wide to 15 feet, most conflicts could be resolved by moving the path slightly or merging the two streetcar tracks to a single-track for a stretch. Mike said the sensation of riding a bike next to a train on the Greenway would be similar to riding the LRT path along Hiawatha north of 28th Street.

Get involved

Do you have concerns or questions? Check out the Midtown Transitway website, or send Mike Mechtenberg an email at [email protected]. There will be public meetings on November 20 at Intermedia Arts and November 21 at the Colin Powell Center at Cristo Rey High School. Metro Transit expects to select a locally-preferred alternative in January or February of 2014.

posted by | November 11, 2013