Advocacy Posts

The new protected bike lanes on Washington Avenue have the potential to be great, but poor bicycle signals are making it confusing and less safe for everyone. 

Our Streets Minneapolis is actively working to support and improve the Comprehensive Plan, Minneapolis 2040. As someone who supports our work, we ask that YOU provide your comments on the plan, either at a Comprehensive Plan Comment Party, or online.

The deadline is coming up soon, on Sunday, July 22nd, so it’s time to type.

We’ve got detailed instructions on how to comment, tips on what you might want to suggest, and some writing from other progressive groups if you want more context or wonkery.

Parties are scheduled for 6:30-8 on Wednesday, July 18th in Northeast and 4:30-6:15 on Sunday, July 22 in Seward on (more details below). Parties are fun… and sometimes life or introversion gets in the way of attending. Here’s a guide to how to comment from home, or the bus, or while waiting for a friend.

Deadline: Sunday, July 22

On July 9, the Downtown Bikeways volunteer workgroup came together again to show the City of Minneapolis how much support there is for safer biking in downtown. Over the last month, we’ve made great strides toward showing finding that interest in residents and visitors of downtown Minneapolis. (Check out our June update here.) Read on to learn about the interest we’re creating and how we’re going to use it to get protected bikeways on 9th/10th St and LaSalle/1st Ave.

Our Streets Minneapolis encourages members and supporters to weigh in on Minneapolis 2040. We are also commenting as an organization. We talked about why the Comprehensive Plan matters to Our Streets here, and we shared how it might affect you here.

People also want to know what our priorities are, so we’re sharing our top five issues here.

One: We support the goals and priorities shaping the plan and feel it needs to go further

The way we build our streets and neighborhoods shapes our days. It determines whether we have a real choice to walk, roll or bike as we run errands, go to work, or visit friends and family. It ups (or eliminates) the odds of bumping into our neighbors, or chatting with passers by.

All images from https://minneapolis2040.com unless otherwise noted

• Are our neighborhoods complete, with access to employment, retail services, healthy food, parks, and other daily needs via walking, biking, and public transit?
• Can all Minneapolis residents afford and have access to a quality home throughout the city?
• Do people of color and indigenous peoples feel safe [re: police and from crime] in every neighborhood? Is the air safe to breathe in every neighborhood so human-powered travel is safe?
• Does a well-designed physical environment in Minneapolis foster positive interactions? Does it promote commerce, pedestrian activity, safety, and health?

These are questions Our Streets Minneapolis works on.

Dedicated volunteers chose to spend a beautiful summer evening indoors at the Dunn Bros. near Loring Park, working to make more downtown bikeways a reality. We began with an ice-breaker question: “What do you adore about summer in Minneapolis?” Not surprisingly, most answers had to do with perfect weather for biking, plus a dash of lake fun.

After recruiting volunteers to serve as photographer, timekeeper, and meeting report writer, we moved on to corridor reports. (You can review May’s meeting report here.)

You may be blocking out memories of our six months of winter, but winter time in Minneapolis too often means navigating snowy or icy sidewalks, snow-blocked curb ramps, and disappearing bike lanes. Thankfully, the City of Minneapolis is looking to improve the winter experience for people who bike, walk, and roll. Public Works recently released a Pedestrian and Bicycle Winter Maintenance Study and Supplemental Report on Sidewalks. Here are some takeaways:

I think a lot about the future of our city. Will we choose to address our worst-in-nation racial disparities? Will we plan proactively for our changing climate? Will we invest heavily enough in safe transportation choices that everyone has real choices? If we don't, what does that mean for our children's health, access to opportunity, and lives? 

That's the reason I advocate for a better city. I'm thinking 20 years out, doing my part to shift from old habits to calling out racist policies and creating a community equitable for every single person. 

That's also why I think Minneapolis' Comprehensive Plan, branded Minneapolis 2040 is important. It's our city envisioning the future we want, planning a path to get us there -- and inviting all of us who live, work, or play to weigh in. 

So, what's the big deal with the plan? 

After a three year study period of the area, a one way delineator-protected bikeway is to be installed on both University Ave and 4th St SE. These new lanes will continue the work of the Bicycle Master Plan from Hennepin County, Minnesota Department of Transportation, and the City of Minneapolis.

Portion of University Ave and 4th St to become protected bike lanes.

When it comes to bike-friendly rankings, Minneapolis has long outperformed our climate, even before we began serious investment in safe spaces to bike. That’s a result of the incredible Minneapolis Park trail network. The Park and Recreation Board got an early start building bike trails along Kenwood Parkway in 1895 and along Lake Harriet in 1896. (Check out more of our city’s early bikeway history in this chapter of the Minneapolis Master Bike Plan.)

The Grand Rounds was created as a recreational network. Because it circles the whole city (save the unfinished section in northeast/southeast) and connects to Downtown along the river, it puts most Minneapolitans close to a continuous protected bikeway with access to every corner of the city. When I moved to Minneapolis in 1996, the parks were great, and the streets… well, while rideable, they weren’t for the timid.