motorman

Bike month is here again and that means National Bike-to-Work week is upon us. From May 15th to May 19th, join the millions of Americans who are beating the fuel cost crunch, improving their health, and adding to a cleaner environment, by riding their bicycle to work. To celebrate this activity and how municipalities are lowering the bar for communters I explore Minneapolis’ on-street facilities, rail-trails and connections to the neighboring communities in this part of the series.

Here in Minneapolis, bicycling to work is a trend that grows everyday. The public investments to the bicycle facilities are a big part of why. As I described in the first two parts of this series, the city is packed with dedicated bicycle paths, lanes and rail-trails. It is these investments that are paying off in the form of the number of residents who are shedding their cars.

Minneapolis has a number of on-road bicycle-only lanes that radiate from a downtown system. Minneapolis has an inventive approach to most of its lanes that travel down one-way streets; they follow the left side of the road (for those in the British Empire this is wrong side of roadway). To make it even more unique, streets in the primary business district have three lanes for general traffic and one lane for transit that travels in the opposite direction. Along these transit lanes are the city’s contra flow bike lanes.

Minneapolis has decided to move the bike lanes to unconventional sides of the roadway to add safety. The left lane bikeways are to avoid those pesky car doors. I will never understand why when reaching for your backpack, bag or purse in the passenger seat you have to balance yourself by pushing the driver’s door fully open. For the contra flow lanes, it places the bicyclist facing the bulk of traffic with only “professional” drivers (maybe more on that later) moving in the bicycle’s direction.

The other spokes in the system are the rail trails. Within the city we have the Midtown Greenway, Kenilworth, LRT and Cedar Lake Trails. These bituminous trails connect to the far reaches of the suburban and ex-urban Twin Cities on crushed limestone rail beads. In addition to the connections the inter-city trails that lead to cities such as Hutchinson, Chaska, Victoria, and Hopkins, there are rail trails out of Saint Paul. Our twin is far down the list in bike commuting, however it is making progress. Saint Paul is beginning to put together a system starting from facilities on Summit and Como Avenues, Wheelock Parkway, and their first rail trail named after the late Congress Member Bruce Vento.

Biking to work is a very relaxing and fun mode to work. However, for many getting on the bike for the first time can seem daunting. But once you establish a routine, it can be to work earlier than fighting traffic and finding parking, even when it rains. Some important points to remember is ride a comfortable bike, to ride at your speed, and to take the route with which you are most comfortable. Do not worry about gear, wear comfortable clothes (remember when you were a kid; whatever you wore was your bike clothes). Most importantly, wear a helmet. I am sorry to say this, however, if you lid is more than five years old (regardless of how often you used it) it is time to upgrade. Motorman says, “An $85 helmet expense every three years is better than relearning how to write my ABCs.”

Enjoy Bike-to-Work Week!