Bikeways for Everyone February Meeting

On 18 February 2013, the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition Bikeways for Everyone Committee had their February meeting.

1. Street-to-Greenway Conversion

Matthew gave an overview of the first streets considered for Street-to-Greenway conversion: Humboldt and Irving Avenues from the Grand Rounds in the north to Plymouth/7^thStreet in the South. The conept converts a street into a park and bikeway, which Matthew described as Milwaukee Avenuemeets Midtown Greenway. There is support with neighborhood groups, the Minneapolis Health Department, and the Minneapolis Department of Public Works. Also, mailings were sent to every resident, and the feedback has been mostly positive. There is a surveyup until February 22^ndfor interested people to take (like you!) You do not need to be a North Minneapolis resident to take the survey. This project is the baby of Twin Cities Greenways.

Chrissy presented her research on precedents. Overall, she found that the process for street-to-greenway conversion was different in every case. The question now is should there be a unified and codified policy in Minneapolis?

2. Calendar of Bike Meetings throughout Minneapolis

David is almost finished with a calendar of all bike-related meetings in Minneapolis. This will go live on the mplsbike.org website soon!

3. Municipal Election Candidate Questionnaires

Jim is putting candidate questions for elections for City Council, Mayor, and Park Board. He is focusing on creating ward-specific questions. Amy will present a caucus primer at the March meeting to help citizens learn how to participate in caucus. This is a great way to learn how to be civically engaged on issues you are passionate about!

Reminder: Ward caucus dates vary by ward, but if you follow this link, it will bring you to a caucus finder: http://caucusfinder.sos.state.mn.us/Street.aspx?M=CTY&rq=27Hennepin&ModeType=2

4. Winning Campaigns

Robin spoke on the training at the Alliance for Biking and Walking. The result is Bikeways for Everyone.

5. Bikeways for Everyone

The goal is to create 30 miles of cycletracks and greenways to connect the city. This is a non-reactive approach to advocacy; that is, instead of waiting for roads to be considered for redesign, we will create a procedure for determining which roads are best for cycletrack or greenway consideration.

The first two big opportunities are Washington Avenue South and Minnehaha Avenue.

We went through the various tools of advocacy and acknowledged which are being used adequately, and which need some work. Communications is working on a website for Bikeways for Everyone which will launch soon. Communications also has a handle on social media. As far as media relations, Mike will compile a list of newspapers and local media to get letters to the editor and opinion pieces in. We need a person or people able to commit to showing up to the various public meetings (city and county) and report back on them through our blog. There will be a committee to create events and to get into existing events for publicity. We are organizing people to meet with City Councimembers, County Commissioners, candidates, and neighborhood groups.

6. Washington Avenue and Minnehaha Avenue

We will need people to write letters to the editor, opinion editorials, a blog post for when the next public meeting is announced, and another plog post briefing the meeting.

Hennepin County is reconstructing Minnehaha Avenue from Lake Street to Minnehaha Falls. The Bike Advisory Committee favors the addition of a cycletrack (to replace the existing bike lanes). Fortunately, the county has already presented a cycletrack as an option. Matthew met with CM Sandy Colvin-Roy whose ward the southern half of this project runs through; she was open to supporting the idea.CM Gary Schiff (northern part of project) is supportive. You can learn more about the project proposals here: http://hennepin.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/4-Ch-4-Projects-Minnehaha.pdf See page 116 for photos of Minnehaha.