The Bicycle Advisory Committee’s recommendations for implementing the Bike Plan (which passed back in July) passed the Minneapolis City Council’s Transportation and Public Works committee unanimously today. You can see the full recommendations here.
There’s a lot of incredibly important stuff in this document, and you can see some highlights below the fold.
Among other things, the plan recommends that Minneapolis:
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Pass a Complete Streets policy -
Advocate for state standards that would allow for better streets for bicyclists -
Support a study on the economic impact of bicycling -
Hire a new full-time Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator (this is underway) -
Develop a process for converting low-volume roadways to greenway-style bike facilities (like Milwaukee Avenue) -
Reduce regulatory barriers to bicycle-related businesses -
Adopt comprehensive bicycle parking guidelines for City worksites -
Create a permitting process for closing streets to motorized vehicles for “Open Streets” events -
Fund the construction of the projects on the bike map, fund ongoing operations and maintenance to keep all bike facilities in the city ridable, and advocate for more funding for bicycle projects from the State and Federal governments -
There’s much more in there, and it’s all great. Succeeding on bringing any of these policy recommendations forward and gaining the Council’s support would be a big win; succeeding on all of them is massive.
Nick Mason, the chair of the BAC, did a great job presenting to the committee this morning. Public Works staff Don Pflaum and Heidi Hamilton worked closely with the BAC to come to consensus on the language that went to Council this morning. The BAC’s Engineering committee chair Matthew Hendricks ran the meetings where we came to agreement, and worked more than anyone to develop the final text.
I also think that this couldn’t have happened without the efforts of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition. The passage of a robust Bike Plan was our most important policy goal for the year – and as of this morning, we’ve reached it.
