Rendering of protected bikeways on Hennepin Ave

Working with our fantastic members, volunteers, and community partners, here are our priorities for bikeways and policies this year to make streets better in Minneapolis. 

Thanks to everyone who offered input in to our prioritization process--your input was very helpful and these priorities reflect what you told us should be the highest priorities--protected bikeways and work to advocate for priorities of low-income people who bicycle.  

Click on links below to learn more or visit our Projects page.

Protected Bikeway/Street/Greenway priorities:

• Northside Greenway. 
  The planned Greenway demonstration is successfully installed, Northside Greenway Council makes a recommendation for design based on meaningful and representative community input, and progress for finding funding is initiated to fulfill the community's vision.

• 3rd Avenue Protected Bikeway and Greening. 
  The City Council approves the redesign of 3rd Avenue in downtown, including the city's first planter-protected bikeway.

• Hennepin Avenue Downtown. 
  The City Council approves a general plan for reconstruction of Hennepin Avenue downtown that makes it a more inviting street for people, including the addition of protected bike lanes.

• Washington Ave Bikeway Extension. 
  Hennepin County and Minneapolis approve a plan to extend the planned (to open in 2017) Washington Avenue Protected Bikeway from 5th Ave S to the U of M campus in 2017.

• University Ave SE Protected Bikeway. 
  Meaningful community engagement begins to plan the details of protected bike lanes in the University Ave SE/4th Street SE corridor as part of an upcoming street repaving.

Planned 2016 Protected Bikeways (Click image to see interactive map).

• 18th Ave NE Protected Bikeway.
  The final details of the design for 18th Avenue NE live up to the neighborhood's vision for a great bikeway.

• South Minneapolis Greenway. 
  Support continued engagement around idea of a potential South Minneapolis Greenway. Note that supporting the community's final vision of the Northside Greenway remains our top greenway priority and the South Greenway will stay several years behind that project.

• Hennepin and 1st NE Bikeway. 
  The community vision for Hennepin Ave and 1st Avenue NE includes a protected bikeway along with other improvements to make these street more people friendly.

• Marshall Ave NE Bikeway. 
  Progress continues toward a plan to add a protected bikeway on Marshal Ave NE in the near future.

• 11th Avenue S, Blaisdell Ave S, Franklin Avenue bridge, Broadway Ave NE protected bikeways. 
  Great protected bikeways open on 11th Ave S in downtown, Blaisdell Ave south of 31st Street, on the Franklin Avenue bridge to Riverside Ave, and on Broadway Avenue NE.

• Protected Bikeways Funding for 2017. 
  The City Council adopts a 2017 budget with at least $1 million for protected bikeway implementation.

• Hennepin County “Enhanced Network” Plan. 
  Hennepin County approves the “Enhanced Network” bike plan (read more about it on our blog), and provides additional funding for its implementation.

• Olson Memorial protected bikeway. 
  Final plans for Olson Memorial rebuild as part of Bottineau Light Rail project include a great and connected protected bikeway.

Local Policy and Engagement Priorities:

• Priorities of Low-Income People Who Bike. 
  We will do meaningful outreach and engagement to better understand the advocacy priorities of low-income individuals who bike. Based on this input, we will adjust our future priorities.

2015 Minneapolis Bike Week Elected Officials Ride

• Equity & Bicycle Enforcement.
  We will work to improve bicycle-related enforcement issues from an equity perspective, including doing a report on police citations of people who bike and advocating as appropriate for changes to make bicycle-related enforcement more equitable.

• Minneapolis Complete Streets.
  The City Council approves a nation-leading Complete Streets policy for Minneapolis, that helps ensure better streets for everyone and better community engagement around streets.

• Improved Winter Maintenance. 
  The City of Minneapolis will implement an improved system of winter maintenance for biking and walking for 2017.

• Minneapolis Comprehensive Plan and Access Minneapolis Transportation Plan. 
  These upcoming plans further prioritize biking and walking, as well as health equity.

• Platinum Status Task Force.
  The City creates a task force to intentionally progress on bicycling in a number of areas so that we can compete to be a Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community by 2020.

State Policy Priorities:

• State Biking and Walking Funding. 
  Significant dedicated biking and walking funding included as part of a comprehensive state transportation funding bill.
• State Aid Standards Reform. 
  More flexibility is granted in the State Aid design standards to allow cities and counties to build more Complete Streets.

Other Bike Lane and Street Priorities:

• Franklin/Cedar/Minnehaha Intersection Redesign. 
  The County builds a great final design for the second most dangerous intersection for bicycle crashes in Minneapolis (and one of the worst for walking as well) that will great improve safety for everyone.

In 2016 we will work to encourage new riders to try biking.

• Franklin Ave bike lanes.
  Continue progress toward continuous bike lanes on Franklin Avenue by 2019.

• Thomas Ave N bicycle boulevard.
  The City Council's capital budget includes building the Thomas Ave N bicycle boulevard.

• 46th Street bike lanes.
  46th Street is repaved with bike lanes and a safer street for everyone.

• Nicollet Ave S bike lanes.
  Nicollet Ave south of 40th is repaved with bike lanes.

• 38th Street bike lanes.
  A meaningful step is taken toward bike lanes on 38th Street as outlined in recently created community vision.

• Minnehaha Parkway at Lyndale.
  Plan is approved to connect the Minnehaha Parkway trail under Lyndale Avenue so that trail users don’t have to cross the street.

Photos by Matthew Weber.