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/7thStreet 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 22ndfor 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.
7. Join our Google Group for updates!
Our next meeting is March 18that Bryant Square Park Community Center in the crafts room.
Events/Outreach Planning Meeting
The second meeting of the Events and Outreach Planning group was held on February 13th, 2013 at Common Roots Café.
The Coalition’s Strategic Plan was discussed, in which the goals of events are defined as: advocacy, getting people on bikes, raising the profile of bike issues, building awareness of and support of the Coalition, building partnerships and networks, and fundraising.
The group was updated on the “Bikeways for Everyone” campaign, which has grown out of the city’s Climate Action Plan. One recommendation of the Climate Action Plan is to build 30 miles of cycletracks by 2020. The Coalition hopes that the recommendation will pass in late April, at which point a plan will be developed for cycletrack locations (commercial corridors and residential streets). There will then be a city/county demonstration project, and funding will need to be determined.
Possible outreach activities surrounding the Bikeways for Everyone campaign include:
-the campaign launch in early May
-temporary “pop-up” cycletracks as part of the Open Streets events in 2013 to educate and demonstrate the look and feel of cycletracks
-increasing Coalition membership
-meet and greets with neighborhoods and local businesses where cycletracks may be implemented
-candidate forums and bike rides (2013 is a municipal election year)
-connecting with existing events
The group then split up into three smaller groups, each addressing different types of events: rides, happy hours, tabling/power stations/etc.
Rides
This group plans themed rides encouraging people to ride, raising awareness of Coalition issues and bicycle issues in general.
Tabling
This group focuses on promoting the Coalition through tabling and power stations (strategically located in high bike traffic areas providing refreshments and information about the Coalition).
Happy Hours
This group focuses on organizing happy hour events featuring educational speakers from the bicycling community.
The meeting wrapped up with a note that although this group will not directly be planning Open Streets, volunteers are still needed and welcome to assist with those events.
