April 12, 2011, Oxford/Jimmy Lee Recreation Center
We had 14 participants including Andy Singer, Emily Goodman, Joyce Fitzgerald, Richard Arey, Tracy Farr, Mike Madden, Chris Budel, Steve Bergman, Danny Zarasty (sp?), Jeff Zaayer, Cindy and Todd Zerger, Steve Clark and Matt Cole.
Emily Goodman, the city’s new Sustainable Transportation Planner talked about her new (3 months old) position and some of her goals. These included: 1. Helping to coordinate implementation of various bicycle related projects such as the expansion of Nice Ride into Saint Paul (with 20 stations) and various Transit for Livable Communities initiatives like the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program and a city bike rack program that will initially focus on city-owned buildings and facilities, 2. Developing a Comprehensive Bike Plan, 3. Developing a “Complete Streets” Plan, …and 4. Improving project implementation (how bike projects are rolled out and the associated public processes).
Some attendees expressed frustration that we already have plans that never seem to get implemented. She replied that she also hopes to implement some existing plans and projects and said that the Summit bike lanes are going to be extended past the Cathedral to John Ireland and Kellogg, possibly this summer. (I also know that a cantilevered bike-ped bridge on Lexington, over the BNSF/UP main lines is supposedly going in this summer). Some attendees expressed a desire to support her in any of these efforts– to turn people out to important public meetings, to offer input into bike plans, bike rack locations and to improving how we promote bicycling and bike projects. I think the meeting was helpful for both us and Emily and we agreed to meet again and/or organize one or more planning rides this summer. Emily has set up a new website and contact spot for her position at– HYPERLINK “http://www.ci.stpaul.mn.us/bikes"http://www.ci. stpaul.mn.us/bikes
The meeting time and day was NOT changed but will remain the same– The second Tuesday of the month, 7pm at the Oxford/Jimmy Lee Recreation Center.
Jeff Zaayer was elected as our new co-chair.
There were updates on Snelling and University. The Mill and Overlay project on South Snelling (Highway 51) from Marshall to Montreal and West 7th, has been postponed until next year as MnDOT needed more time to acquire the necessary easements in certain spots. Thus we have more time to get bike lanes extended down Montreal to West 7th and various other amenities. The north section (from Taylor to Como) is going ahead. It will involve a mill and overlay and minor changes on the Energy Park and Pierce Butler on/off ramps and small amounts of spot repaving. We are trying to get bike lanes stripped on this stretch and stop signs plus bike/pedestrian warning signs and pavement markings on the on-ramps. We also want better crosswalks, a reduction of speed limits to 30mph and possibly dynamic speed signs or other measures to induce driver compliance with reduced speeds. We’ve had 2 meetings with Scott McBride at MnDOT and hope to have more.
On University, Councilman Russ Stark is pushing to open University Avenue (during and following LRT construction) with 2 thru lanes of traffic, instead of 4. This would preserve most on-street parking and would allow the necessary space to keep University as a viable bike-route. He is proposing this measure as a “Test” when the project opens, because drivers will be used to 2 lanes during construction so it will be easier to implement and study. We strongly support this idea!
Finally, only a few people adopted projects on our project list at– HYPERLINK “http://www.saintpaulbicyclecoalition.org/projects" Mike Madden adopted “Ayd Mill Road.” Joyce Fitzgerald adopted “Downtown Connection” (and Deb Alper and Richard Arey expressed interest in this as well) Richard Arey adopted “Lilydale” Benita Warns (via e-mail) adopted “Prior” and “Pascal.” and Jeff Zaayer adopted “Bike Racks.”