December 12, 2011, Oxford/Jimmy Lee Recreation Center
We had a rambling sort of agenda-less (but fun) meeting this past Tuesday evening attended by 13 people– Jeff Zaayer, Matt Cole, Deb Alper, Eric Peterson, Jarred Anderson, Joyce Fitzgerald, Bill Lindeke, Bruce Coleman, Paul Nelson, Peter Grasse, Gary Fifield, Ed Lehr and Andy Singer.
We had updates on Jefferson– ANYONE WHO LIVES ANYWHERE NEAR JEFFERSON WHO HAS NOT ATTENDED ONE OF THE RECENT DESIGN MEETINGS should go on line, view the brief power-point on Jefferson design options at– http://www.stpaul.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=19139 …and then COMPLETE THE ON-LINE SURVEY. The most critical component of this project is getting good crossing aids at Cleveland and Cretin so cyclists (and pedestrians) can get across these busy streets. The proposed pedestrian flashers and other measures (bump outs and dynamic speed signs) are not mutually exclusive. So some combination could be employed at these two intersections. It is important you make your voice heard on this survey, especially if you live near Jefferson, because opponents to the project will also be making their voices heard.
MnDOT installed new curb-cuts and crosswalks with better sight-lines at the Pierce Butler and Energy Park on/off ramps to Snelling Avenue, compete with pedestrian warning signs (though a couple of the crosswalks still need to get painted). This is a tiny but nice victory for us. We are told they will also be giving us bike lanes on both sides of Montreal from Snelling to West 7th and improved crosswalks on Snelling at some of the uncontrolled intersections between Dayton and Montreal. Yay!
The league of American Cyclists sent its recommendations to the city of Saint Paul on our Bicycle Friendly City application. Ed Lehr helped put this together and many of us counted bike parking spaces and/or proof read the application. I hope to post the League’s recommendations on our website in January but I can send a copy to anyone who is interested.
We briefly discussed the lack of snow plowing on the Marshall Avenue bike lanes in this last storm. The snow hardened into ice and made the street difficult and dangerous to bike. The snow is all melted now but if it happens again this winter, everyone should call the snowplow hot line and complain– 651-266-9700. If they still fail to plow it, we may consider some kind of publicity stunt or action. The City Snow plow site is at– http://www.stpaul.gov/index.aspx?NID=905 The Marshall bike lanes are supposed to be plowed to the curb (and illegally parked cars towed) as part of a snowplowing pilot project.
We spent the rest of the meeting discussing long range goals. These included some website redesign (in January) to make it easier to edit and update the site …and recruiting new people to join our mailing list and become involved. Eric and Bill said they would make some kind of flyer to distribute at the next meeting with our e-mail address, website URL and/or Facebook page so we can give them out to other cyclists, bike shops and staple them to bikes on racks that we encounter in our daily rides.
Before the next meeting on January 10th, people should look over the “About SPBC,” “Projects” and “Resources” sections of our website at–http://www.saintpaulbicyclecoalition.org/ On the “Projects” section, what (if any) of the listed projects would you like to become involved in? …or are there projects NOT on the list that you would like to include or develop? These could be educational, advocacy or whatever you want. For example, under “wayfinding” we discussed (in the past) making some simple small stencils to paint on the street in the spring to mark bike routes and point people towards other bike routes or bike/ped bridges. Bring your suggestions/desires to the January 10th meeting and we’ll see if we can make them reality.