MnDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation) is hosting public meetings around the state to talk with the public about how we can fight the climate crisis and reduce emissions from transportation by 80% (or even 100%!) by 2050. These meetings are part of a project called Pathways to Decarbonizing Transportation. As part of this project, MnDOT is meeting with local community members and stakeholders. Our Streets Minneapolis is one of the stakeholders that participated in this engagement process from the start.  

I attended the Twin Cities public meeting on Tuesday night at the Minneapolis Urban League in North Minneapolis. Despite the heavy rain and thunderstorm, there were nearly 100 people in the room and good energy. Staff from the Great Plains Institute shared their models of how we can dramatically reduce emissions through mode shift, vehicle electrification, and other strategies.

The Downtown Bikeways crew volunteered in a couple of different ways on Twin Cities Bike to Work Day on May 17th. One of our members led a Bike to Work ride with Council Member Palmisano from Ward 13 in South Minneapolis. Several other members staffed Bike to Work Day “pit stops” along the Downtown-Whittier corridor during the morning and evening commute. Everybody reported having a lot of fun! At the last Downtown Bikeways work group meeting, we all shared our insights from the event.

A number of folks from the Downtown Bikeways workgroup attended the May 16th CLIC hearing to express our support for creating a protected bikeway from the Whittier neighborhood to Downtown. We joined six or seven members of the Northside Greenway Now group in asking CLIC to create safer spaces for bicyclists and pedestrians. (If you didn’t get a chance to check out the Northside Greenway demonstration project in 2016, you can read more about this really exciting project here.)