Net Density

A bike boulevard in Berkeley, CA. CC licensed by flickr user Elly Blue

The Jacobean at the City of Lakes Urbanism blog has a good summary:

2010 will bring about several new bicycle projects in Minneapolis. Thanks in large part to funding from the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTP), the city will fund the construction of 35 new miles of bikeways this year, most of which will come in the form of bicycle boulevards. Bicycle boulevards are a fairly low-cost form of bikeway which mostly involve improving existing low-traffic streets for use by cyclists. Common bike boulevard treatments include traffic-calming measures, improved crossing safety measures at high-traffic intersections, way-finding signs, and pavement markings to indicate to motorists that the space is intended for frequent use by bicyclists. The city has a nice two-pager explaining the bicycle boulevard concept (check it out here).

The city has a map of proposed improvements here.  In terms of my backyard, I applaud the improvements to Bryant, but I’m somewhat confused about the reason for not including the section between the Greenway and 49th in the bike boulevard plans.  I believe this area sees significantly more bicycle traffic than south of 49th.  My guess as to why it isn’t included is a political issue that starts with “p” and ends with “arking”.

Tags: bike, minneapolis, transportation

Rendering from Midtown Community Works Partnership of potential overhead lines

The Office of Energy Security has released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Hiawatha Transmission Line Project, Xcel’s plan to run high-voltage lines along the Midtown Greenway (careful, the PDF is huge and will bog down even newer computers).  They have also announced a public meeting to take comments on the document on February 10th.

The DEIS does identify above-ground lines as having negative impacts on visual quality, being inconsistent with local urban design standards and potentially discouraging additional residential and commercial development nearby.

As I understand it, although the EIS has to identify mitigation strategies for the impacts of the project, it does not require that these mitigation measures be implemented if the project is approved.  From this TC Daily Planet article, it sounds as though the PUC may have the final say about mitigation, but I assume that the Department of Commerce is the responsible LGU, and would also have to approve a route and mitigation measures.

Either way, the public meeting is a chance for anyone to comment on potential additional impacts, whether the scale of impacts has been adequately measured, and the effectiveness of mitigation measures identified.  This is a good time to get involved.

Tags: bike, energy, hiawatha project, midtown greenway, xcel

Minneapolis is the #2 bicycling city in America. But up until a few months ago, there was no organized group to lobby for the rights and interests of bicyclists in the city.  Sure, there are some related groups like the Midtown Greenway Coalition and forums like Minneapolis Bike Love, but no group that was organizing cyclists to lobby the city for better infrastructure and promote cycling-related events.

Well, since they have a Facebook page, I’m calling it official.  The 4th meeting is January 9th and the Central Library.  I know that one of their top priorities will be bringing a ciclovia, or car-free day to Minneapolis in the spring to coincide with World Health Day.  This would mean opening up one of our cities major roads to pedestrians and bikes, and closing it to cars for a whole day.  Think of it as a big party in the road for a whole day. Another issue will be advocating for improvements to bike infrastructure in downtown.

Watch the video below for more information on World Health Day and check out the Facebook page.

Tags: bike, car-free sundays, health, minneapolis

A disc-shaped addition to your bike’s rear wheel which helps you up hills with an electric assist.  Also connects to your smartphone to do many other amazing things I don’t quite understand. I question why they chose to show this on a fixed-gear bicycle. Everyone knows people who ride fixed-gear bicycles would never admit they needed an electric motor to help them up hills.

Tags: bike, hybrid

From TC Streets For People and Minneapolis Bike Love:

There are several transportation advocacy goups in the metro, but one does not yet exist to represent cyclists of Minneapolis. Given the recent redesign of Downtown’s streets, the vibrant local bicycle culture, the high density of bicycle commuters, and the fact that Minneapolis is touted as the #2 Bicycle city in the US, it seems the time has come to develop an organized advocate for our interests.

An organizational meeting will be held at the TC Streets for People offices to get the ball rolling. Anyone interested in helping develop this organization is welcome.

Saturday, October 31st
11am
Colonial Warehouse
212 3rd Avenue N., Suite 515

Tags: bicycle, bike, minneapolis

The new bike lanes on First Ave in downtown Minneapolis are a complete disappointment and drivers don’t seem to even notice they are there.  The bike lane is much too narrow and the “buffer” between parking and the bike lane may as well be non-existent.  As TC Streets For People points out, this design has been used successfully in other cities, but the buffer and bike lanes are much wider.  As the picture to the right shows, in Portland, there is a much clearer separation between parking and bike lane, maybe 3 or 4 feet, so even if drivers miss the mark, they are not in the bike lane.  This extra space also allows automobile passengers to open their doors without endangering a cyclist.

Portland's Cycle Track

Part of this “failure” is undoubtedly due to drivers confusion about the new design, and their desire not to park in what they think is a driving lane.  The city didn’t help matters in this regard by making the right lane no parking on weekdays and allowing parking during evenings and weekends.  Hopefully in the future, they will be much stricter about enforcement of parking in the bike lane, but its discouraging to have a facility open only to have it immediately fail.  Roads would never be designed in such a way.

So what could be better?  In an effort not to be totally negative, here are some ways the city could make the First Avenue bike lanes better:

1. Get rid of the on-street parking.  If the parking doesn’t need to be there during the week, why does it need to be there during the weekend?  The ramps nearby are less full on the weekend anyway.  This would also make the design less confusing.  Without the parking, you could narrow the thru-lanes and maybe add a bike median.
2. Bollards.  A simple solution that would require no reconfiguring or re-stripping would simply be to add some bollards along the double white line that is supposed to separate the parking from the bike lane.  Drivers would understand not to cross the line if there was a physical barrier.  These wouldn’t even have to be substantial, maybe just some plastic ones with reflectors.
3. More paint.  Paint the entire bike lane yellow or green, or some solid color.  Drivers know that they aren’t supposed to drive or park on painted things.  This is a cheap way to make people pay more attention to the lane if the current design can’t be changed.

Tags: bike, bike lanes, minneapolis, portland

Where can Twin Cities residents with kids in child care commute actively?

One of the easier ways to incorporate more physical activity into your daily life is switching from an auto-powered commute to a foot-powered commute.  This might mean walking to transit or biking to work.  Although many people’s commutes are bikeable, if you have kids, the availability of child care near you can mean the bike stays in the garage.

In the first post of this series I proposed that child care needed to be within 1/4 mile of your home in order to make an active commute feasible.  So how accessible is child care in the Twin Cities?  Where are the best and worst neighborhoods for parents who want an “active” commute?  I think I have some answers below the break.

Read more »

Tags: active living, bike, child care, gis, minneapolis, saint paul, walk

Bike Pittsburgh has done some data mining on the American Community Survey data to develop commuting data separated by mode from the 60 most populus cities.  To display the information, they created a nifty dynamic spreadsheet in Google Docs that allows you to sort by mode. Also check out their table on commuting trends by gender. New research says we need to figure out what women want if we want to increase bicycle commuting.

Number one bicycle commuting city?  Portland, of course.  But number two?  Minneapolis.  In 2008, 4.3 percent of workers who lived in Minneapolis commuted by bicycle.  We beat out (by a good margin) warm and sunny places like San Francisco, Sacramento and Oakland. We also rank in the top ten in walking to work and are 12th in public transit. Good work Minneapolis, and look out Portland, we’re gunnin’ for you.

Tags: bicycle, bike, census, commute, minneapolis, portland, transportation

CC licensed by flickr user insidestory

Two weeks ago I attended an Active Living conference sponsored by Blue Cross.  In general it was a great conference, especially when RT and Al Frankin showed up to ride bikes around the conference hall.  Besides the sessions and the food, one thing I really enjoyed was being able to ride my bike to the conference for two days.  I no longer work close to where I live, and I’ve missed it.  I took it for granted when I could do it, and didn’t ride nearly enough.

However one thing I realized over the course of two days was that even if I worked within an easy ride of my house, and even if I had good lanes and paths, I probably couldn’t do it if there wasn’t daycare close to my house.  By close I mean within a quarter mile.  A number of factors converge to make this the case, which I think are likely common to many households:

• My significant other cannot pick up and drop off the little one everyday.  Schedules and basic fairness make this so.
• Young children don’t like to do anything for 30 minutes.  This includes ride in a bike trailer.
• I’m not interested in hauling my daughter in a bike trailer through rush hour traffic for 30 minutes.  I consider myself more committed to the cause of active living than most, but for the average person, there has to be no concerns about safety, especially when it comes to kids, if they are to change their habits.

On the other hand, if there were some options for daycare within a short walk of my house, I could ride home, walk to the daycare and pick up the kid.  In the morning I could walk or bike the short distance.  A quarter or a half mile means between a 5 and 10 minute walk each way, not a big deal, especially in the summer.

We know that long distances between origins and destinations, and a lack of mixed use contribute to reduced walking and biking for transportation purposes.  Lack of easy access to child care services can be a consequence of both of these things, and I believe a barrier to more non-motorized transportation.

What does this mean for planning our cities?  Well, if you let the market for daycare centers work on its own, it will likely be driven (no pun intended) by accessibility by car, rather than accessibility by foot or bike or transit.  Child care may be more widely spaced, and perhaps in larger centers, rather than more tightly spaced in smaller centers.  These are assumptions, which I hope to test with some real data from my city.  Then I’ll explore some ideas for what might make things better.  Stay tuned.

Tags: active living, bike, child care, daycare, minneapolis, mixed use, walk

This is as close as I could get to the new bike/pedestrian underpass that is being created under the Twins Stadium. Inviting, yes?

Tags: bike, minneapolis, stadium, Twins