Nicollet Mall, one of the most important streets in Minneapolis, is showing its age. Plans are emerging for a redesigned Nicollet to make it more attractive, vital, and efficient.
What does this mean for biking on the Mall?
Today
Nicollet has become a very important downtown biking connection since it was reopened to biking in 2010 as part of adjacent changes to Marquette, 2nd Ave S, Hennepin, and 1st Ave N. Nicollet has its challenges for biking--mostly that mixing with buses make it slow, especially with the total lack of stop light timing. But it is still the only north-street street really meant to support biking between 1st Ave N and 4th Ave S.
Tomorrow
Three firms vying to design the street offered their visions for Nicollet September 17th at the Guthrie. Any of these ideas can be incorporated in as part of the final design. We hope they'll take the best ones for biking.
The James Corner Field Operations Group (starts on page 43 here) includes cycletracks in their vision. A dedicated biking space would alleviate many of the challenges of the current Nicollet and certainly seems a smart choice. Their current design has it down the middle of the street--likely to limit interactions with bus/streetcar loading and unloading. Such a design has merit, but will need to be done well to make sure it is inviting.
Picture from James Corner Field Operations vision. Available:
http://www.nicolletmallproject.com/
The Tom Leader Studio/!Melk vision (starts page 85 here) includes a page (below) on increasing bike access, which includes new nice ride stations and bike parking. They do not include a separate bike lane (as shown in the second picture below).
Picture from Tom Leader Studio/!Melk proposal.
Available: http://www.nicolletmallproject.com/
Picture from Tom Leader Studio/!Melk proposal.
Available: http://www.nicolletmallproject.com/
The Daoust Lestage proposal (starts page 2 here) only includes a couple mentions of new bike racks. Bikes share space with transit in their proposal (below).
Picture from Daoust Lestage proposal.
Available: http://www.nicolletmallproject.com/
So, what excites you for the future of Nicollet Mall? Should we lock in with a cycletrack? Add new bike racks and Nice Ride? Both? Or something else?
