State of the Art Bike Projects Coming to the Minneapolis Area

“Minneapolis is the number two bike city in America. Portland, watch out,” Mayor RT Rybak confidently warned from the old transit waiting area in the Oak Street parking ramp on University of Minnesota campus. The Mayor was addressing an attentive crowd made up of scores of bicycling enthusiasts, elected officials, and media who had gathered to hear about two forward-looking bicycle projects that are being funded with money from the Bike Walk Twin Cities initiative.

The first project is called bike sharing. 1,000 specially-made bicycles will be available at 75 kiosks around Minneapolis for users to retrieve with the swipe of a card. When the user is done, the bicycle can be returned to any of the other kiosks around the area. This system is popular in many European cities but has not yet been attempted on this scale in the United States.

Mayor Rybak expressed a combination of relief and excitement at the prospect of bike sharing coming to Minneapolis: “I am tired of people coming back from Europe and saying ‘Gee, they have this great idea in Paris or Barcelona. It’s too bad that will never happen in Minneapolis.’ It’s going to happen in Minneapolis.”

The mayor was joined at this event by University of Minnesota president Robert Bruininks, who was equally excited about a project coming to the U. “I said, ‘We gotta have one of these on campus!’” Bruininks recalled to the full room of cyclists, media, and advocates. “And of course I got the standard stock answer, ‘We’re already working on it. Thanks for the great new idea but you’re about a year late.’”

The idea President Bruininks had was for a facility similar to the Midtown Bike Center he had seen on the Midtown Greenway. When the President brought it up, the University of Minnesota Bike Center had already been well into the process of applying for $524,000 in Bike Walk Twin Cities funds.

The Bike Center, which will be housed in the Oak Street Ramp’s old transit waiting area, will be a hub for bicycling activity on campus. It will also feature what is known as an RFID bicycle commuting benefits program. RFIDs are small electronic tags that are affixed to registered users bicycles and when a person commutes across campus, a series of RFID receivers, installed at locations around campus, will read and wirelessly transmit the tag information to a server accessible to users and the institution.

In addition to the RFID system, the center will include an electronic bike trip-planning kiosk, 24-hour accessible secure bike storage, changing facilities, repair service and bike retail opportunities, as well as public meeting space. Construction could start as early as next month.

These grants are the third in a series of awards chosen by Transit for Livable Communities’ board of directors since 2007, when Bike Walk Twin Cities launched.

“We’re very excited to be part of a national movement that is looking to the future and pushing for innovation in transportation,” said Lea Schuster, executive director of Transit for Livable Communities. “These projects provide Twin Cities residents with more opportunities to get around town while saving money, staying healthy, and helping to reduce global warming pollution.”

Other projects announced today that will receive Bike Walk Twin Cities funds:

  • Saint Paul – Bicycle boulevard from the Mississippi River on the west to Lexington Avenue, and continued as bike lanes along Jefferson Avenue to the Sam Morgan trail; installation of sidewalks to fill current gaps
  • Edina – Bikeway facilities for Wooddale Ave./54th Street/Valley View Road
  • South Minneapolis - Cedar/17th Ave. S./Bloomington Ave. corridor biking and walking improvements
  • Minneapolis – Pedestrian enhancements on 5th Street NE and 7th Street N

Transit for Livable Communities Hosts Series of Webinars

On Wednesday, February 18, Transit for Livable Communities hosted the webinar “PEDSAFE/BIKESAFE,” which featured a presentation by Charley Zegeer and Libby Thomas from the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. They gave an overview of The PEDSAFE and BIKESAFE programs, which are safety resources that provide interactive pedestrian and bicycle crash analysis tools that allow the user to assign specific crash types using crash data. This service helps practitioners identify effective bicycle and pedestrian safety strategies through measures such as engineering, education, and enforcement.

PEDSAFE/BIKESAFE was developed for the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. This system is hosted on the websites of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center.

Materials from the presentation are available at the APBP website.

Check out the Bike Walk Twin Cities calendar for more webinars.

I'm Mad at Mr. Plow

From Jaméz Smith, Bike Walk Twin Cities Administrative Assistant.

Walking down 42nd Ave on my way home after work last night, I was impressed with the amount of sidewalk clearing that had occurred in response to yesterday’s snow storm. The snow was still falling at 8pm, and yet many home-owners had not only managed to clear the snow from the walks in front of their homes, but those on corner lots had even cleared access to the crosswalks.

Walking up 42nd Ave on my to work this morning, I was highly disappointed to see that in clearing the roads for automobile traffic, the snow plows had dumped snow back onto the sidewalks, and completely blocked crosswalk access, negating the diligent efforts from the previous evening.

What’s the point of requiring homeowners to clear the sidewalk in front of their homes only to have that work undone to clear the roads?

I walked up to a woman bundled from head to toe as she was re-shoveling her walk. I thanked her for her work and shared my frustration.

“Yeah, it happens every time.” She said, stopping to catch her breath in the 2o weather. “But what can you do?”


Monthly Bike and Pedestrian Getting Under Way

In addition to our annual fall bicycle and pedestrian counts, Transit for Livable Co has initiated monthly bike and pedestrian counts at 6 key locations. Like the annual fall counts, these monthly counts will be conducted on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of the second week of each month from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Conducting these counts monthly will help us better identify the seasonal impact on bicycling and walking in the Twin Cities. If you are interested in volunteering with the monthly counts, please contact Tony Hull.

Major Taylor: The Fastest Man Who Ever Lived

On February 24th, in honor of Black History month, the Bike Walk Ambassadors partnered with Major Taylor Bicycling Club of Minnesota to introduce 150 young men and women at Battle Creek Junior High School in St. Paul to legendary bicycle racer Major Taylor. Overcoming the Jim Crow laws of his era, Major Taylor established several world records during his 16 years of competition. In the 168 races in which he competed, he finished first in 117 and finished second in 32.

Students learned about this great American athlete and also participated in bike skills competitions and signaling drills. “The goal is for youth to learn about overcoming obstacles and how biking can be a great addition to their lives” explained Lynnea Atlas Ingebretson from the Bike Walk Ambassador Program.

Battle Creek teachers Dewayne Combs and Rene Combs, who bike commute to school most of the year, support year-round bike education for the students. Students will be learning more and adding active commuting into their lives throughout the spring.

Major Taylor leaves a wonderful legacy, to learn more visit http://www.majortaylorminnesota.org/aboutmt.htm. If you are interested in Bike Walk events for your group, school, business, or community of worship visit www.bikewalktwincities.org.