Downtown Bikeways Volunteer Group is Back: How You Can Make Bike Connections from Downtown to S Minneapolis

Last week, a group of volunteers met over pastries and trail mix to talk about how we can make sure downtown is a safe place to bike for all people.

We spent time getting to know each other, learning why we each want to improve biking downtown, and - most importantly - what skills each of us brings to show the city how important it is to make these improvements. Volunteers settled on one major goal for the group: Make sure every meeting makes progress toward improving bikways in downtown.

How are we going to do that? How can you get involved? Read on to find out.

What does the downtown bikeways volunteer group do?

In this group, volunteers find new and inventive ways to show the City that there is huge demand for safer places to bike in downtown Minneapolis. If city leaders know there’s demand for safer bikeways, they will build them. In the past, this has included collecting postcards, writing blog posts, and hosting community meetings and bike rides that educate neighbors on upcoming bike projects.

All of this is accomplished by volunteers who both drive our monthly meetings and work in smaller groups between meetings. Each monthly meeting is focused on making concrete progress toward improving biking in downtown, and we make sure your time isn’t wasted.

Want to attend our next meeting? We want to make sure the date and time works for you! Fill out our quick doodle poll by noon Monday (March 19th) to let us know when you’re available.

What projects are we working on?

At the last meeting, volunteers focused on making improvements in these three corridors:

• 9th St/10th St - Connections across the southern end of downtown from 1st Avenue to Park Avenue
• Grant St - Connections from Loring Park to LaSalle and 1st Avenue and to the existing protected bikeway on 3rd Ave
• LaSalle-Blaisdell/1st Ave S - Connections from downtown through Loring Heights and Stevens Square to Whittier

Even though these three corridors are already on Minneapolis’ Protected Bikeways Plan, the City hasn’t made protected, safe places to bike on these streets. We hope the conversations our volunteers are driving will push the City to start making these improvements by 2019 or 2020.

Is having a safe place to bike on one of these streets really important to you? Email facilitator Janne Flisrand and tell her which corridor you’d like to help with. She will connect you with the volunteers who are working on that street.

How can you get involved? And when’s the next meeting?

More volunteers means more conversations that push the City to make our streets safer!

The easiest way to join the group is to come to our next monthly meeting. We’ll catch you up on what the group has accomplished so far and learn how you want to contribute to these conversations.

When is the next meeting? We haven’t decided yet, because we want to know when you can come! Fill out our quick doodle poll by noon on Monday, March 19th and let us know when you’re available.

Where is the next meeting? That’s also to be determined, but it will be in a location that’s accessible to all in the southern part of downtown.

We look forward to meeting you and learning how you’ll join us in make better places for biking happen!