This report was drafted by Alyssa Kohn.

Our August 6 meeting was high-energy, not very August at all. 

Reprise: What are we trying to do?

The Downtown Bikeways group goal is to showcase the demand for completing the city's protected bikeway network. We need to connect existing bikeways to one another and to create a fluid network in and out of downtown Minneapolis safe for all types of bike riders. We're focused on two corridors, 9th and 10th Streets going east and west across southern downtown, and LaSalle/Blaisdell and 1st connecting downtown to the heavily car-free neighborhood of Whittier to the south. They are on the city’s bikeway plan. We are demonstrating these are needed sooner than later and to spur action for implementing them.

This map (by Jess) shows the motley bike design that exists on the LaSalle/Blaisdell and 1st today. 

Red=No cyclist accommodation

Orange=Sharrows or a bike lane

Yellow=A buffered bike lane without bollards

Light Green=Bollard-protected bike lane

Dark Green=Off street trail

This post was written by Will Delaney, Associate Director at Hope Community, Inc. Our Streets Minneapolis and Hope Community  have been working together to make Franklin Avenue a safer street since 2008.

This June, the rebuilt Franklin Avenue bridge over I-35W re-opened after being closed for more than nine months. Neighbors from Ventura Village/Phillips can finally head back to the Electric Fetus and Mia, and folks in Whittier and Stevens Square can more easily get back to the American Indian Cultural Corridor and Peavey Park.

Franklin Avenue is a Hennepin County highway (Co Road 5) running through Minneapolis, parallel to and a couple blocks south of I-94. It’s the front yard to single family homes and many apartments. It’s also a major commercial corridor that runs across South and Southwest Minneapolis, connecting Lake of the Isles with the Mississippi River, and a host of destinations in between. When I-35W was built, it opened a chasm between Phillips and Whittier, with Franklin being one of a handful of connection points between.

Our Executive Director, Ethan Fawley, will be departing Our Streets Minneapolis in late August to become the Vision Zero Coordinator for the City of Minneapolis working on transportation safety.