Downtown Posts

The Downtown Bikeways Work Group came together in January for their first meeting of the year and had a packed agenda. We kicked off the meeting by talking about fun things we did over the holidays. Group members are energized after the break and excited to get back into advocacy.

There’s a lot happening in the City that we’re engaging in. Folks talked about advocacy efforts including influencing Hennepin County transportation decision-making at the Franklin Avenue Open House, and the Lyndale Avenue S Community Forum organized by Commissioner Marion Greene.

From welcoming a new Executive Director to celebrating our 10th anniversary, 2019 has been a huge year for us. At Our Streets Minneapolis we are grateful for your continued support as we work for a city where biking, walking, and rolling are easy and comfortable for everyone. With only six staff this year, we depended on our local community to make this all happen. Thank you for working toward our shared vision of a city that puts people first!

Join us as we look back on all we accomplished together this year and look ahead to what we have planned for 2020. Plus, be sure to read to the end of this post for an update on our financial situation.

We kicked off our November meeting with a presentation from Kelsey Fogt, a Minneapolis Transportation Planner. Kelsey provided an overview of the upcoming protected bikeways project on 1st Ave S, Grant St and 2nd Ave S. The group was particularly enthusiastic about the elevated bikeway portion that will go behind a floating bus stop. We hope to welcome more Public Works representatives to future meetings!

Another summer of Open Streets Minneapolis festivities has come and gone, and during all the fun, the Downtown Bikeways Work Group collected some valuable data about people’s bike lane preferences. We set up a poster with images of the different types of bike lanes you can find in Minneapolis, and asked Open Streets Minneapolis attendees to place a sticker next to the bike infrastructure on which they feel most comfortable riding. Over the course of the summer, we received a whopping 1,742 responses to this question, and I’m here to report the final tallies. 

Pedestrian Work Group

The Pedestrian Work Group hosted a Walk & Talk on Lyndale Ave S in September. Folks can watch and read news coverage of the walk on the City Pages website. 

Our September meeting was on a soggy night, but we had a solid turnout, with nine folks braving the downpour to join us. Ash kicked off the meeting by recapping some of our successes from this summer: Park & Portland being repainted to have their buffers again, stopping the Federal Reserve parking garage from being built in the North Loop, and getting 26th St to be protected again with plastic bollards.

Come celebrate with us next month! 

Last month we decided to meet in July even though many attendees would be out of town for the July 4th holiday. We decided that we didn’t want to lose our recent momentum - and we didn’t! We have lots of exciting projects that we are working on, some of which we’ll share at a later date.

We started the meeting with introductions, welcoming one new member, and welcoming back one member from a previous era of the Downtown Bikeways work group! We shared some of our favorite biking related memories as an ice breaker.

Our June meeting started with everyone sharing their motivations for volunteering with the group, and a recap of our group’s efforts for Twin Cities Bike to Work Day. Read more about that here. 

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.

The Downtown Bikeways Work Group gathered and established some activities that they will be completing in the upcoming month.

There were several new folks at the meeting this month, so the beginning of the meeting was spent with introductions, understanding why new folks joined in as well as reviewing the Downtown Bikeways Work Group’s mission of advocating for protected bikeways on LaSalle/1st Ave and 9th/10th Streets.