The Downtown Protected Bikeways work group would like to thank the City of Minneapolis Public Works employees that recently restored the bollards to 26th Street!

Up until a week ago, there were only thirteen plastic bollards designating the bike lane on 26th Street between Blaisdell and Lyndale as protected. On the eight block stretch of 26th Street between Lyndale and Hennepin, there was just a single bollard. Most of the missing bollards were accidentally taken out by last winter’s snowplowing, and had been missing since February. Many of our work group members had stopped riding on 26th Street as a result - 26th Street just didn’t feel protected at all any more.

Join us this Sunday August 4th for Open Streets Northeast! Open Streets Minneapolis events are free events that temporarily close major thoroughfares to car traffic, opening them up for people walking, biking, rolling, and playing. Check out the Open Streets Northeast Facebook page or the event webpage for more details. Here are the things that I am most excited to see at Open Streets Northeast!

This blog post is based in part on a presentation Elissa Schufman & Emily Wade gave at the City of Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting held on June 26th, 2019. 

At Our Streets Minneapolis we firmly believe traffic enforcement is not a good strategy to make streets better places to bike, walk, and roll. 

We know that this sets us apart from many local and national advocates who believe law enforcement is key to making streets spaces for everyone. Here in Minneapolis, the idea that we need more police enforcing traffic laws is popular in conversations about blocked bike lanes and the City of Minneapolis Vision Zero Action Plan. 

Given what’s going on with these conversations in our local community, we wanted to explain why we think traffic enforcement is a bad strategy in a bit more detail.