motorman

Find your way through new territory
motorwife and I just returned from traveling, a bonafide out-of-town vacation, complete with airline tickets and hotel reservations. The big package and at the right time for it has been more than four years since we have been on this type of trip and given all that is going on it will be the last for quite some time, so that trip had to count.

We packed-up what seemed like 20 suitcases, backpacks, and duffels in order to attack NorCal’s cities, valleys, and shores. It was quite a site, most observers probably thought we were moving west – to try my luck in California as Mason Jennings might say. Our travels through the streets of San Francisco, along coast highways, into wine county, campgrounds, and back again became an exercise in orienteering. A true test of a region’s ease of movement has the visitors experience as the denominator. Our experience traversing the cityscape and countryside reminded me about the importance of way finding through any system for both locals and foreigners.

Being airlifted into a new territory without a local guide puts the skills of traveling to the test. No previous experience, a slight disorientation that is common with air travel, and the need to act immediately scurrying with a few hundred of your unknown plane mates, the ease to which one can move in the correct direction becomes very evident.

Is there a search engine for the bicycle superhighway?
Bikeways are no different than this airport passage, a highway system, or hiking trails, in the need for easy to read and accurate directional signage. To improve mode share, way finding is the most important physical component after the infrastructure is complete. Successfully moving from a recreational trail that one uses on a warm and sunny summer afternoon to a transportation system that is navigational from on side of the town to the other depends on the effectiveness of signage and the maps that tie it all together.

In the Minneapolis area we are a bit behind the curve on an easy way finding system. It is not that the system is nonexistent, rather it is not uniform and it is inconsistent. I have been on routes that are signed with a simple “regional trail ” to “Cedar Lake Trail – Highway 100 1.1 miles that way – Downtown 1.3 miles the other way.”

The Twin Cities metropolitan region has a political structure that will make a comprehensive bicycle way finding system difficult but not impossible. We have grown from a seven county to a thirteen county metropolitian area with over 100 local governmental units. This fragmentation makes cooperation complex and adds time to decision making. However, if the region is to continue to be a national leader in bicycle mode share, this is the next hurdle that if lowered should increase bike use.

Getting there from here
Regardless of the fractured nature of the area’s governance, a comprehensive bicycle way finding system is possible with some unity from the bicycle community. First, we must come together to name or number regional routes. I am in favor of numbers considering some routes follow multiple existing named streets through different jurisdiction. Think a county road network where a particular county road will travel through multiple municipalities where the street names change from town to town.

Second, this system needs easy to understand and consistent road markers that not only depict the route and direction but also include context markers and distances. The context makers, such as the distance to an activity center or adjoining routes from the signpost, help connect the bicyclist to areas that he or she can shop, work, or connect to other bikeways. This furthers solidifying the bikeways as true transportation system.

Finally, these routes need to become part of an easy to use map. There are many examples of existing bike maps. Here in Hennepin County bikeways are on the reverse of the official county road map. Portland, Ore. color codes it street on its official map to show levels of bicycle friendly streets, such as green is good and red is not so good for bicycle traffic. Other such as Boulder, CO have an interactive Internet map the accompany its printed from for those who plan ahead. In Milwaukee, you can simply type your location and your destination and through Goggle maps it provides a bicycle friendly route to follow.

How to pay the toll
What is promising for the Twin Cities region’s way finding is that we do not have to create the system from scratch. We can pick and choose from the best practices from other regions. Even better, there is a new funding source so that with this important work of bringing together the region’s bicycle community we can implement it appropriately. For this effort fits perfectly within the intent of the Non-motorized pilot program. It appears that the window of opportunity is wide open for this to move forward.

Minneapolis like many other regions around the county is now benefiting from extensive bikeways networks. As these networks mature, we see a growing need to navigate the system seamlessly. Even though we are a bit behind the curve in signage development and the regional cooperation, we are poised to rectify the situation. Through the benefits of learning and adapting from other regional signage systems and a $25 million federal grant to improve the bicycle mode share in its final approval stages, we will have an opportunity to design and implement a way finding system equal to its corresponding bicycle infrastructure.