urbanMSP

This segment would be better with 2-3 lanes rather than 4-5 lanes. I wonder if there would have been space to fit in a Richfield-style roundabout at 46th Ave (since they're closing off the fifth leg of the intersection) and at Minnehaha (with some limited ROW acquisition).

There are plenty of ways to ensure transit priority AND preserve the ability of motorists to pass stopped buses short of having two through-lanes in each direction.

A new(er) bike lane has been installed on Nicollet between American and Old Shakopee. The road is now 3 lanes instead of 4. I drove it yesterday during rush hour and besides a tiny slow down it was fine. Sure beats left turning traffic blocking one of the lanes.

Could there be a sales tax on bikes and bike parts that's dedicated 100% to bike infrastructure? If the answer to that is yes, how much revenue could be gained from it?

I ask this since some drivers love to complain about bikers not paying their fair share for trails and bike lanes even though drivers don't pay the full cost for roads and bridges. However I realize sales of bikes and bike parts is probably pretty small so I feel like any revenue from a sales tax described above would only be enough to cover maintenance on a certain percentage of bike lanes and trails in the state.

Does the long-term durability of an item (say, a bike) and its societal impact on health, the environment, etc., have any correspondence with the cost of that item?

If not, then taxing that item alone is not the way to fund its use.

In other words, despite the low cost of bicycles for simple transportation, they are inordinately durable, long lived, and have major positive impacts on health and the environment. So using only a tax generated from the sales of such a cheap item does not correspond to its value to society.

This is a cool idea! Tempory curb bump-out to test bike parking by replacing 1 parking space with racks for 10 bikes.

https://twitter.com/modacitylife/status ... 9672448002

This 46th street bike way is overall pretty great to see! Disappointing that the bridge over Godfrey is going to be a bit of a choke point, but I guess if they want to keep it 4 lanes there just isn't room for more.

Overall an improvement, I hope to see this extended westward along 46th some day.

It's pretty crazy they're keeping 4 lanes, though. And they just rebuilt that bridge. Seems like they could have thought about this.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but thinking things through doesn't really seem to have been a huge part of the Minneapolis approach to executing a network of safe biking streets. They literally reconstructed 15th Avenue SE 3 years ago, including curb reconstruction, and didn't put in a protected bikeway then.

It's pretty crazy they're keeping 4 lanes, though. And they just rebuilt that bridge. Seems like they could have thought about this.

They are not putting bike lanes on the bridge over Godfrey?! I thought that area was maybe just out of the scope of the road reconstruction, hence nothing shown there. I’m pretty sure the current sidewalk on the side of the bridge is wide enough to to accommodate both a pedestrian and bike trail.

They restriped 4th/University from NE to 35w recently and put in a bike lane on both. I think they removed a traffic lane too (from 3 to 2). I wonder how this would be handled once E line goes in?

Here is the study page, but the last update from late 2018.
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/bicycles/p ... eway-study

They are not putting bike lanes on the bridge over Godfrey?! I thought that area was maybe just out of the scope of the road reconstruction, hence nothing shown there. I’m pretty sure the current sidewalk on the side of the bridge is wide enough to to accommodate both a pedestrian and bike trail.

None of what is shown in that layout will be within scope of the upcoming project. That layout is labeled "long-term", which means anyone's guess.

I wrote this modest proposal to help one North Cedar Lake Trail crossing be safer, and fill a glaring bike lane gap in Saint Louis Park.
https://twitter.com/StreetsMN/status/11 ... 2678565888

The Dinkytown Greenway closure has apparently been extended to August 16th, because there is no god.

Why is it closed?

The Greenway was closed as part of the Knoll area infrastructure projects, but I haven't been down that way in a while so I can't say specifically why they had to close it.

They were doing something next to the steam plant in the trail.

This is the summer that the Minneapolis trail network went to die.

It’s like the highway network every summer. Maybe that’s what happens when the network reaches a big enough state?

It’s like the highway network every summer. Maybe that’s what happens when the network reaches a big enough state?

Except that the highways close so that the highways can be re-built or expanded. Bike trails close so that nearby roads or rail lines or apartment buildings or something other than bike trails can be expanded or constructed.

Rumor has it that the University has some issues with the steam plant and had to redo underground infrastructure beneath the path and the street ontop the bluff.

Nine Mile Creek, Minnetonka and western Edina section critiques

This is a recreational trail, it’s not trying to be anything else. It has minimal value there as a route to get to places anywhere in western Edina. Western Edina will always need you to drive to get things done.
No access to Cahill-70th and difficult, questionably private access to W 77th.

Numerous athletic fields built in flood plains created to drain directly across the trail. Not just puddles, but in cold season ice hazards.

Wayfinding in the winding/wandering sections, I took three wrong turns. I guess who cares if cycling is only about getting a workout?

There are many pretty parts, but zero places to pull over and just sit and enjoy. For a recreation trail ... WTF is that about? I bet the private Lake Edina is pretty, I wouldn’t know.

The choice to route the trail the excessively long way around the Tracy/Valley View roundabout, with beg button (at a roundabout!), and micro signs to figure out where to go, almost enraged me as much as not having places to stop and enjoy the sights.

A lot of crossings (including business driveways) would have been made better were they tabled with the drivers rising up to the trail, rather than the trail users bounced into the street.

It was unfortunate that Nine Mile Creek Trail had to connect to Hopkins by going across the Bren Road highway bridge and down the terrible sidewalk along Smetana Dr. It I had a mountain bike this sidewalk might have been a fun obstacle course, but I took an upright city bike. Unpleasant.

On Bren Road/Smetana Dr connection news, heard through the Nextdoor grapevine in Hopkins... in 2020 Three Rivers Park District will extend the Nine Mile Creek under 169 and a new section linked in Edina to the trail section by Lincoln Dr. That’s two stoplight, a highway bridge, and a nasty outdated sidewalk section that will be avoidable!