naisme
04-19-07, 08:40 AM
Nice article on biking in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with Earth Day events for cyclists.
http://www.twincities.com/ci_5698762?source=rss&nclick_check=1
http://www.twincities.com/ci_5698762?source=rss&nclick_check=1
Advocacy & Safety - Get into action Twin Cities
Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.View Full Version : Get into action Twin Cities
N_C
04-19-07, 08:57 AM
Is there an option where I don't have to register or sign in?
wheel
04-19-07, 11:15 AM
Is there an option where I don't have to register or sign in?
can you just cut and paste
can you just cut and paste
N_C
04-19-07, 11:19 AM
can you just cut and paste
Are you asking me or the OP? When I access the web site I am taken to a log in page.
Are you asking me or the OP? When I access the web site I am taken to a log in page.
CaptainCool
04-19-07, 11:43 AM
Sharing the road, sharing the future
As gas prices rise and global warming concerns intensify, bicycle enthusiasts say it's time to change the way mass transit developers and planners, civic leaders, cyclists and drivers think about getting around the Twin Cities.
BY MATT PEIKEN
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 04/18/2007 11:47:43 PM CDT
David Blessing grades St. Paul a "B" on a scale for bicycle commuting. The only thing keeping it from an "A?"
"Downtown bike commuting is insane. You take your life in your hands every time," says Blessing, a longtime local cycling advocate who manages the nonprofit Sibley Bike Depot, a community center/bike shop for enthusiasts located in downtown St. Paul.
As Earth Day approaches this Sunday, Transit for Livable Communities - a St. Paul nonprofit that encourages walking, biking and mass transit - is promoting bicycle commuting and improving conditions.
And by touting the benefits of cycling rather than beating up on motorists, insiders hope to elevate cycling in the myriad discussions of Twin Cities transit and change the way developers and planners, civic leaders, cyclists and drivers think about getting around the metro.
"Driving is just an involuntary reflex for most people," says Steve Clark, who oversees the biking and walking leg of TLC.
"Some barriers are practical and real, but for a lot of people, it's more psychological - they've just never really thought about it," he says. "We want them to think about it."
TLC oversees the local operation of the federal Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program, which Congress launched in Minneapolis and three other American cities to encourage biking and walking.
Born from this program, Bike/Walk Twin Cities is a four-year, $21.5 million pilot program to create "livable streets," pedestrian districts, off-road trails and other projects to make biking and walking easier and safer.
The program focuses on Minneapolis and any community with a direct connection to the city, including St. Paul. Nearly 70 applications from city and county agencies came in for the first round of funding.
Proposals range from marking bike lanes and turning problem intersections into roundabouts, to creating pedestrian malls and plazas. Last winter, TLC gave $200,000 to the city of Minneapolis to expand parking options for bicycles.
MAKING ROOM
There is room for improvement in the core cities, as well as the surrounding suburbs, advocates said.
"There are still some places around town you just can't get to with adequate space for cyclists," Clark says. "And it's when you get beyond the core cities where you really start having major obstacles."
Blessing's "B" grade plays out on maps marking existing cycling routes in downtown St. Paul. According to Metropolitan Council maps, only pieces of Kellogg Boulevard and Jackson Street are rated as bike-friendly, with virtually every other street making up a patchwork of "planned" bike routes. For now, there's no funding or political movement to upgrade those roads.
Blessing's partner, Katherine Banbury, doesn't let that stop her. She bikes to work daily from her home on St. Paul's East Side to her yoga studio in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis.
"Inconvenience isn't something I base my decisions on - it's a value of mine - so I just make more time and make it work," she says. "I just love the idea that I'm not just getting on a bike to have fun, but that I actually have a mission."
It was only in the early 1990s that St. Paul and Minneapolis took steps to accommodate cyclists with its first bike lanes. Now, rising gas prices and wider alarms about global warming have lent renewed credibility and urgency to a tired message and rejuvenated cycling advocates in their mission to think of bikes beyond recreation.
The latest census data show just 2.6 percent of people in Minneapolis and 1.9 percent in St. Paul commute to work by bike, according to Erik Hansen, a longtime cycling advocate in Minneapolis.
Bicycle advisory boards to the St. Paul and Minneapolis city councils are lobbying to ensure that any transit and redevelopment plans accommodate cyclists. Their efforts continually come up against two strong realities: making room for cyclists often conflicts with parking and pedestrian needs, and building bike-friendly features into existing roads is always more difficult than doing so from scratch.
METRO MISSION
In St. Paul, cycling advocates held their first "bicycle summit" last September, when about 100 people set priorities for the lobbying season ahead. They stressed a safe north-south route through the city, pointing to Snelling Avenue as the obvious corridor of choice, and urged elevating bike commuting in the planning for the Central Corridor along University Avenue.
Both are long shots, says Russ Stark, director of the Midway Transportation Management Organization, former chair of the St. Paul Bicycle Advisory Board and current candidate for a vacant City Council seat.
"The cities that are really successful about becoming more walkable urban spaces do a really good job with bikes, and not having any space at all for bikes on University is a big oversight," Stark says. "But I think we have a chance to get some ideas out there and do something before the pavement is dry."
In Minneapolis, Hansen has formed an organization working outside of the city-sanctioned advisory group to pitch the kind of bold and innovative ideas that, he says, aren't as politically digestible. He sees the Bike/Walk Twin Cities program as not just locally important, but a potential national model, and believes the core cities can boost commuter biking to 10 percent.
His group's first effort, "I Bike Downtown," is designed to bring bike commuters into the discussions of Access Minneapolis, a 10-year transportation "action plan" for the city.
"Access Minneapolis has done a good job of figuring out what transit users need, but not specifically what cycling commuters need," Hansen says. "Our goal is not to promote anarchy, but safe, predictable, comfortable areas for cycling, and we have to make that a metropolitan-wide mission."
"One person can take a whole car off the road," says Blessing. "That's a pretty big impact."
Matt Peiken can be reached at mpeiken@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5440.
TWIN CITIES BIKING GROUPS
Twin Cities Bicycling Club: http://biketcbc.org
Share the Road Minnesota: http://sharetheroadmn.org
Transit for Livable Communities: http://tlcminnesota.org
Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota: http://parksandtrails.org/mnlinks.html
Sibley Bike Depot and Minnesota Bicycle/Pedestrian Alliance: http://bikeped.org
Biking and Walking Solutions/Safe Routes Minnesota: http://saferoutesmn.org
Minnesota Trails: http://mntrails.com
City of Minneapolis bicycling info: www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles (http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles)
TO DO
Friday: Cyclists in St. Paul are meeting for a "Share the Road" event, where Summit Avenue meets Mississippi River Boulevard, from 3 to 6 pm.
Saturday: A "Midway in Motion" promotion kicks off from 1:30 to 3 p.m., when businesses around Cleveland and Marshall avenues begin discounts to customers who arrive biking, walking or riding a bus.
Sunday: A 1:30 p.m. panel discussion on "Creating a BikeableCity: An Earth Week Bike Activist Panel" brings Steve Clark of Transit for Livable Communities and others into Macalester College's Center for Religious and Spiritual Life. A bike ride follows at 3:30.
thx bugmenot.com
I've only biked in downtown St Paul once, and I didn't think it was that bad. I can see how it can be intimidating though, since there's often no place to bike but the middle of the lane.
As gas prices rise and global warming concerns intensify, bicycle enthusiasts say it's time to change the way mass transit developers and planners, civic leaders, cyclists and drivers think about getting around the Twin Cities.
BY MATT PEIKEN
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 04/18/2007 11:47:43 PM CDT
David Blessing grades St. Paul a "B" on a scale for bicycle commuting. The only thing keeping it from an "A?"
"Downtown bike commuting is insane. You take your life in your hands every time," says Blessing, a longtime local cycling advocate who manages the nonprofit Sibley Bike Depot, a community center/bike shop for enthusiasts located in downtown St. Paul.
As Earth Day approaches this Sunday, Transit for Livable Communities - a St. Paul nonprofit that encourages walking, biking and mass transit - is promoting bicycle commuting and improving conditions.
And by touting the benefits of cycling rather than beating up on motorists, insiders hope to elevate cycling in the myriad discussions of Twin Cities transit and change the way developers and planners, civic leaders, cyclists and drivers think about getting around the metro.
"Driving is just an involuntary reflex for most people," says Steve Clark, who oversees the biking and walking leg of TLC.
"Some barriers are practical and real, but for a lot of people, it's more psychological - they've just never really thought about it," he says. "We want them to think about it."
TLC oversees the local operation of the federal Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program, which Congress launched in Minneapolis and three other American cities to encourage biking and walking.
Born from this program, Bike/Walk Twin Cities is a four-year, $21.5 million pilot program to create "livable streets," pedestrian districts, off-road trails and other projects to make biking and walking easier and safer.
The program focuses on Minneapolis and any community with a direct connection to the city, including St. Paul. Nearly 70 applications from city and county agencies came in for the first round of funding.
Proposals range from marking bike lanes and turning problem intersections into roundabouts, to creating pedestrian malls and plazas. Last winter, TLC gave $200,000 to the city of Minneapolis to expand parking options for bicycles.
MAKING ROOM
There is room for improvement in the core cities, as well as the surrounding suburbs, advocates said.
"There are still some places around town you just can't get to with adequate space for cyclists," Clark says. "And it's when you get beyond the core cities where you really start having major obstacles."
Blessing's "B" grade plays out on maps marking existing cycling routes in downtown St. Paul. According to Metropolitan Council maps, only pieces of Kellogg Boulevard and Jackson Street are rated as bike-friendly, with virtually every other street making up a patchwork of "planned" bike routes. For now, there's no funding or political movement to upgrade those roads.
Blessing's partner, Katherine Banbury, doesn't let that stop her. She bikes to work daily from her home on St. Paul's East Side to her yoga studio in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis.
"Inconvenience isn't something I base my decisions on - it's a value of mine - so I just make more time and make it work," she says. "I just love the idea that I'm not just getting on a bike to have fun, but that I actually have a mission."
It was only in the early 1990s that St. Paul and Minneapolis took steps to accommodate cyclists with its first bike lanes. Now, rising gas prices and wider alarms about global warming have lent renewed credibility and urgency to a tired message and rejuvenated cycling advocates in their mission to think of bikes beyond recreation.
The latest census data show just 2.6 percent of people in Minneapolis and 1.9 percent in St. Paul commute to work by bike, according to Erik Hansen, a longtime cycling advocate in Minneapolis.
Bicycle advisory boards to the St. Paul and Minneapolis city councils are lobbying to ensure that any transit and redevelopment plans accommodate cyclists. Their efforts continually come up against two strong realities: making room for cyclists often conflicts with parking and pedestrian needs, and building bike-friendly features into existing roads is always more difficult than doing so from scratch.
METRO MISSION
In St. Paul, cycling advocates held their first "bicycle summit" last September, when about 100 people set priorities for the lobbying season ahead. They stressed a safe north-south route through the city, pointing to Snelling Avenue as the obvious corridor of choice, and urged elevating bike commuting in the planning for the Central Corridor along University Avenue.
Both are long shots, says Russ Stark, director of the Midway Transportation Management Organization, former chair of the St. Paul Bicycle Advisory Board and current candidate for a vacant City Council seat.
"The cities that are really successful about becoming more walkable urban spaces do a really good job with bikes, and not having any space at all for bikes on University is a big oversight," Stark says. "But I think we have a chance to get some ideas out there and do something before the pavement is dry."
In Minneapolis, Hansen has formed an organization working outside of the city-sanctioned advisory group to pitch the kind of bold and innovative ideas that, he says, aren't as politically digestible. He sees the Bike/Walk Twin Cities program as not just locally important, but a potential national model, and believes the core cities can boost commuter biking to 10 percent.
His group's first effort, "I Bike Downtown," is designed to bring bike commuters into the discussions of Access Minneapolis, a 10-year transportation "action plan" for the city.
"Access Minneapolis has done a good job of figuring out what transit users need, but not specifically what cycling commuters need," Hansen says. "Our goal is not to promote anarchy, but safe, predictable, comfortable areas for cycling, and we have to make that a metropolitan-wide mission."
"One person can take a whole car off the road," says Blessing. "That's a pretty big impact."
Matt Peiken can be reached at mpeiken@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5440.
TWIN CITIES BIKING GROUPS
Twin Cities Bicycling Club: http://biketcbc.org
Share the Road Minnesota: http://sharetheroadmn.org
Transit for Livable Communities: http://tlcminnesota.org
Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota: http://parksandtrails.org/mnlinks.html
Sibley Bike Depot and Minnesota Bicycle/Pedestrian Alliance: http://bikeped.org
Biking and Walking Solutions/Safe Routes Minnesota: http://saferoutesmn.org
Minnesota Trails: http://mntrails.com
City of Minneapolis bicycling info: www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles (http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles)
TO DO
Friday: Cyclists in St. Paul are meeting for a "Share the Road" event, where Summit Avenue meets Mississippi River Boulevard, from 3 to 6 pm.
Saturday: A "Midway in Motion" promotion kicks off from 1:30 to 3 p.m., when businesses around Cleveland and Marshall avenues begin discounts to customers who arrive biking, walking or riding a bus.
Sunday: A 1:30 p.m. panel discussion on "Creating a BikeableCity: An Earth Week Bike Activist Panel" brings Steve Clark of Transit for Livable Communities and others into Macalester College's Center for Religious and Spiritual Life. A bike ride follows at 3:30.
thx bugmenot.com
I've only biked in downtown St Paul once, and I didn't think it was that bad. I can see how it can be intimidating though, since there's often no place to bike but the middle of the lane.