April 10, 2012, Oxford/Jimmy Lee Recreation Center.
12 people were in attendance– Steve Clark, Jeff Zaayer, Deb Alper, Ed Lehr, Tracy Farr, Paul Ogren, Steve Gjerdingen, Paul Moody, Chris Budel, Kayla Brinkman, Stefan Theimer and Andy Singer.
We talked about the Prior Bikeway proposal passing the city council. This will include “Share the road” signs and pavement markings on Prior from Summit Avenue to Marshall Avenue, then bike lanes from Marshall Avenue up to University Avenue. Multiple people remarked that it would be nice if the city could put in a wider, bike/ped path, with better curb cuts across the grassy median on Summit so that bike riders going north on Prior could cross the median (at an angle) and get to where it continues north. Currently, they either have to ride against traffic for 100 feet or so, go all the way around to Howell street and back down Summit …or use a very narrow strip of sidewalk with rough, sunken curb-cuts.
We also discussed the passage of the Jefferson Bike Boulevard as amended by councilman Chris Tolbert. The final proposal that passed has just one traffic circle at Davern, one to come later (2015) at Finn, restored parking on both sides of Jefferson between Fairview and Snelling (to narrow the street) and pedestrian actuated flashers with zebra stripe crosswalks at Cretin and Cleveland, combined with dynamic speed signs on Cretin and Cleveland to slow traffic. Two traffic circles were removed by councilman Tolbert’s amendment– at Macalaster and Wheeler. Councilman David Thune took one of them for his side of Jefferson at Duke Street (the access route to Shepard Road bike path). Many at the SPBC meeting were angry at the process by which the traffic circles were removed and felt it subverted a long public process and the public hearing process itself. Tracy Farr agreed to help draft a SPBC letter to the city council expressing our disappointment with the Jefferson process.
We discussed upcoming meetings with MnDOT. The first is on April 17th and focuses on the northern section of Snelling Avenue (Selby to Larpenteur). It turns out that it is NOT open to everyone. Only Jeff and Andy will be able to attend. If there are things you’d like to see on this stretch of Snelling that we haven’t already discussed, please let Jeff or Andy know before Tuesday and we will raise them. The second meeting is on May 2nd at the legislative office building and will focus on getting crossing aids at some of the mostly unsignalized intersections on south Snelling (Selby to Montreal). It was agreed at the meeting that pedestrian activated HAWK signals or RED flashers would be best (and much more effective than yellow flashers, which have a lower driver compliance rate). I will be putting together a PowerPoint for the meeting and Steve Clark has sent some photos of HAWKs and Flashers. If anyone has photos of other 4-lane boulevard treatments, please send them to me.
We still need 2 volunteers for bike counting on Tuesday, April 17 from 4-6pm (or Wednesday rain date), On Cretin Avenue between Dayton and Selby …and at Finn Street between Niles and Juno. E-mail Andy if you can volunteer. He’ll e-mail you a count sheet, instructions and a brief PowerPoint on counting. We already have 4 other volunteers. This is for a Cretin/Cleveland bike route corridor study sponsored by Transit for Liveable Communities.