motorman

As I explored in the first three parts of this series, we are pretty fortunate in the City of Lakes. We have miles of bicycle facilities that have translated into the largest bicycle commuter population in the county. In Part 2, I explained that the origins of an independent park board and good timing in the history of planning built the foundation of the system through the preservation of land for parks as the city formed around it. And in the third part I left the sanctuary of the City’s bike trails to explore our on-street bikeways system and connection to our neighbors. The system is stong, possibly one-of-a-kind, but has some gaps that need to be filled before it can be a world class system.

This was not a difficult area of the county to implement this system, however. Minneapolis is lousy with lakes, streams, and ol’ man river. Geographically, these lakes chain together through a series of canals and stream at the southwest corner of the city. Close to the City’s southern border the Minnehaha Creek brings this water east, past another two lakes then over a spectacular falls before it enters into the Mississippi River.

Moving up river, the bike route follows both banks into the City’s center (on the left descending bank – for you Army Corps readers) and the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis East Bank Campus (on the right descending bank). From the northern reaches of downtown the bike trails end, then one-quarter mile further upstream, access to the river disappears into industrial uses that own the river’s edge.

This gap in the system is what occupies a lot of time for advocates in the northern half of town. For reference, the Mississippi basically divides the northern half evenly into two parts, commonly referred to as the Northside and Northeast (or Nordeast as a homage to the large Eastern European that settle the area). The connections to the river in this area has been dominated by industrial users since Europeans began to descend on the area and found that the Falls of Saint Anthony could power massive small mills for the lush northern Minnesota forests harvests. Throughout the decades, the exact users have changed from the former timer floats to aggregate, scrap metal, rail, and other related industrial users.

The gaps in the northern half of the Minneapolis will be the most difficult to develop into bike trails, yet these will be the most important. These gaps are the highest fruit hanging on the tree. The land is developed and unavailable unlike the beginnings of most of the existing system. This land will be very expensive to purchase and the finding alternative locations for the existing land uses will be difficult. Plus, the industry that currently owns the property has a market and a purpose (for example recycling scarp metal) so we will need to find an appropriate new locations or a solution that allows co-habitation.

But, these hurdles are not insurmountable. Minneapolis grew from its roots on the river, and it can return. The connections from the existing system in to the west, south and parts in the east need to complete the vision of the true Grand Rounds. There are two areas of focus – the river and the “missing link” in Northeast. In addition to the difficulties of the river connections is the “missing link” that would connect to the terminus of Stimson Parkway (about half-way between the northeast corner of the city and the connection to the river). If attention moves to this in the system, like with the southern half, more-and-more will become bike commuters since the barriers to entry continue to reside.

I am not a fool in this request; I find much enjoyment in the current system and do realize that it is light-years ahead of many metropolitan systems. Though, I believe we in Minneapolis have high standards for quality of life, so I will continue to improve the intercity system. Maybe someday, we will a have bicycle mode share comparable to world leaders in Asia and Europe. Minneapolis is number one now, but at only 2.65 percent, we need to continue to work. See you out on the trails, bikeways and roadways!