winter Posts

In March 2019, we wrote a blog post laying out our priorities for the draft Transportation Action Plan (TAP). This plan will guide transportation policy in the city for the next ten years. Earlier this month, Minneapolis City Council voted to adopt the final version of the plan. You can find the final version of the Transportation Action Plan online now. 

Let’s take a look at the final version of TAP, and see how well our priorities are represented in it.

Minneapolis has a Complete Streets Policy that states that people walking and biking should be prioritized ahead of people driving in transportation maintenance. Yet the City continues to prioritize cars over more vulnerable road users when it comes to winter maintenance.

There are two ways we want City Council to act to make our streets better places to bike, walk, and roll in the winter:

1. Prioritize winter maintenance for biking, walking, and rolling in the 2021 budget

2. Add a strategy to the Transportation Action Plan to evaluate city-led clearing of snow and ice on the pedestrian priority network

Earlier this spring the City released a draft Transportation Action Plan. Once a final version is adopted, this plan will guide transportation projects in our city for the next ten years. At Our Streets Minneapolis, we’ve been following how the the Transportation Action Plan takes shape very closely. And, we think this draft is pretty good.

The City of Minneapolis released its Transportation Action Plan draft last week. This plan is an addendum to the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan that will guide transportation projects in Minneapolis for the next ten years.

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.

At their November 2019 meeting, Pedestrian Work Group members recognized the need to prioritize winter sidewalk maintenance in the 2020 City of Minneapolis budget. We support the additional resources for maintenance in the budget. Ash and Abigail Johnson, chair of the Minneapolis Pedestrian Advisory Committee met Council Member Linnea Palmisano to deliver over 300 postcards supporting improved winter sidewalk maintenance--just a fraction of the over 1,000 postcards we collected. Increased funding for winter sidewalk maintenance will likely remain in the budget--as revealed in the budget mark-up meeting December 6th.

Open Streets Minneapolis 

Open Streets Lyndale had a record turnout at 58k people, with 45k being the previous record. The Our Streets Minneapolis booth was busy and collected over 100 postcards for winter maintenance. The next Open Streets Minneapolis event is Open Streets Lake + Minnehaha on Sunday, July 21st.

The Our Streets Pedestrian Work Group (PWG) had a cozy meeting on March 18 at the Hennepin Central Library. Cozy as in our original room was taken, although we all fit in nicely in a smaller, nearby room. The library staff even provided some extra chairs.

A mid-February evening—in all of its snowy, frozen winter glory—found the Our Streets Pedestrian Work Group (PWG) once again at the Lakes and Legends Brewery in Loring Park. After kicking off 2019 with a rousing discussion of our new top priorities, group members built on that momentum with a meeting that centered around winter sidewalk maintenance.

Hey, Minneapolis! How are those winter sidewalks treating you these days?

With a whole lot of recent snow and ice, it’s been hard to get around on our sidewalks. Whether we’re walking, rolling, or using transit, we need our sidewalks to be better cleared of snow and ice, and in a much more timely way.

Our systems and norms are still prioritizing the movement of cars and trucks over people. We’re still clearing streets ahead of clearing sidewalks.