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Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: March 4th, 2013, 6:22 pm
by mplser
while we are on the subject of winter biking, I feel like Minneapolis doesn't do nearly a good enough job keeping the bike lanes of ice and snow in the winter. Often I am forced to ride in the middle of traffic in dangerously busy areas. waddup with that?

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: March 4th, 2013, 6:57 pm
by Wedgeguy
while we are on the subject of winter biking, I feel like Minneapolis doesn't do nearly a good enough job keeping the bike lanes of ice and snow in the winter. Often I am forced to ride in the middle of traffic in dangerously busy areas. waddup with that?
You are in the snow belt, Same reason you drive thru lakes in the middle of the roads when it thaws. There is only so much money and bikes in the winter are not a priority/ Can't even get home owner to shovel their own walk.

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: March 4th, 2013, 7:37 pm
by mplser
true, true. it just gets frustrating when drivers expect me to ride my bike on the snowbank and then get mad when I don't

Re: New bicycle RFID polls popping up

Posted: March 17th, 2013, 7:49 am
by bubzki2
I don't know much about details, but I know that some Downtown Target employees who bike are being encouraged to mount these Zap RFID modules on their bikes. Less for gift cards I think and more for just volunteering cyclist information to whomever. I think it's a great idea and should give policymakers a better idea of where the bikers are.

Re: New bicycle RFID polls popping up

Posted: March 17th, 2013, 8:26 am
by Le Sueur
...these Zap RFID modules on their bikes...
Here's the program's Signup Page. Not sure if you were trying to link here?

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: March 26th, 2013, 12:47 pm
by PhilmerPhil
Happy hour Q&A with the city's Bike Ped Coordinator, Shaun Murphy, at the Nomad tonight at 6.
http://mplsbike.org/blog/posts/happy-hour-q/

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: April 15th, 2013, 11:04 am
by LRV Op Dude
The Metropolitan Council and MnDOT are hosting a series of Bike Study Listening Sessions April 15 - 25 to collect ideas for a regional Bicycle System Master Study.

Apple Valley
April 15, 6 – 8 p.m.
Apple Valley Community Center
14603 Hayes Road, Apple Valley

White Bear Lake
April 17, 6 – 8 p.m.
White Bear Lake Library
4698 Clark Avenue, White Bear Lake

Plymouth
April 24, 6 – 8 p.m.
Plymouth Library
15700 36th Avenue N, Plymouth

Chanhassen
April 25th, 6 – 8 p.m.
Chanhassen Recreation Center
32310 Coulter Blvd, Chanhassen

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: April 26th, 2013, 9:18 pm
by widin007
http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 57031.html

This is great, but some of these quotes from this guy from Eden Prairie, wow.
“I bet most people in the state don’t even realize what a bike lane is,” said Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, during a recent legislative session. He called a proposal to ban motor vehicle parking in bike lanes “ridiculous” and “a way to collect fines.”
So out of touch

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: April 27th, 2013, 4:55 am
by robotlollipop
I don't disagree with him...

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: April 27th, 2013, 8:18 am
by Silophant
With which part? The most people in Minnesota not knowing what a bike lane is, or the part where it's a preposterous idea to not let cars park in traffic lanes?

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: April 27th, 2013, 10:19 am
by RailBaronYarr
In a world where accommodating as many cars as possible as fast as possible with enough parking to handle day after Thanksgiving shopping demands are the three main goals of planners and engineers (and politicians), this is of course a ludicrous statement to ask for small changes to be made to car-specific street capacity for other modes of getting around. War on cars!! http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arti ... r-on-cars/

The graphic 1/4 the way down does a good job showing how much space (and implicitly, money) is devoted to one mean of transportation in DC. I would bet it's roughly the same here even with Minneapolis' decent bike infrastructure (which is child's play compared to what the Netherlands and Denmark have and what London is proposing over the next decade).

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: April 27th, 2013, 2:28 pm
by robotlollipop
Both. There has been several occasions where I had to explain what that ugly green line on Hennepin is for and I'm not understanding why you're against banning cars from parking in those lanes. Bike lanes are for bikes, not for parked cars.

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: April 27th, 2013, 2:55 pm
by VAStationDude
Most Minnesotans can not distinguish David Hann from the Tootsie Pop Owl.

http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/1hann0107.jpg

http://www.lindsaybrothers.com/wordpres ... ootsie.jpg

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: May 1st, 2013, 8:29 am
by mister.shoes
Once again, Bill Watterson wins the day.

Image

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 11:00 am
by mulad
Mn/DOT says that the Mississippi River Trail is now continuous along the entire length of the river in Minnesota. It is also officially known as U.S. Bicycle Route 45 (yes, there are such things). More signage will be installed this summer.

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/newsrels/13/05/10bike.html

I'm curious if USBR 45 wil officially take a single path, or if it will have segments that parallel each other on each side of the river. The MRT has some alternate routes that people can choose to take for significant chunks of the route.

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 11:30 am
by woofner
“Designating the entire length of the MRT shows a strong support for bicycling in Minnesota,” said Tim Mitchell, Minnesota Department of Transportation bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.
Does putting a Bike Route sign up show strong support for bicycling? A lot of the MRT designated routes are pretty hairy places to bike (e.g. much of hwy 61 in the bluff country, the frontage road of I-94 in Monticello, etc). What's the point of designating a route that only masochists want to bike on? Oh cool, now I can bike on shitty stroads from Minnesota clear to Louisiana.

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: May 10th, 2013, 6:17 pm
by talindsay
Yes but they're well marked shitty roads!

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: July 5th, 2013, 1:56 pm
by PhilmerPhil
There was some cycle track talk going on in the Minnehaha Ave thread, so I just wanted to share this presentation. It's got tons of great photos and strategies for designing successful cycle tracks. Check it out if interested: http://nctcog.org/trans/committees/bpac ... .17.10.pdf

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: July 6th, 2013, 3:06 am
by planetxan
The Cambridge designs are pretty nice. Very European. See especially the comparison of proposed and existing on page 50.

The NYC designs seem decent but you can see they could easily do what is being proposed in Cambridge and improve on the current set up immensely.

I would love to see 1st Ave fixed, or just a segment of it as a demonstration. Raise the path up to curb height and it will be safer for bicyclists and less confusing for drivers whilst taking up the same amount of space.

Re: Bicycle Infrastructure

Posted: July 6th, 2013, 1:40 pm
by orangevening
Minnehaha- thankfully the county is postponing the process. Claiming that 50 trees and 50 parking spots will lost if a 2-way cycletrack is implicated is ridiculous.

1st- its great for pedicabs (one of them) but that's about it. And it only works if the (Grrrrr) taxis don't park there. Whoever designed that cycletrack (if you could call it that) obviously didn't look any of best practices for cycletracks. I assume $ was a issue. Short of raising the bike lane a inch or two, painting the lane would make a big difference.