The Saint Paul Bicycle Coalition met on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at Java Express in Union Depot, in downtown Saint Paul. What follows is a very rough meeting summary. Forgive any name misspellings or omissions.
In attendance were 15 people: Reuben Collins, Brian Martinson, Jerry Porter, Gene Gjerdingen, Pete Grasse, Tom Beach, Ethan Osten, Troy Davidson, Stuart Knappmiller, Margot Higgins, Ken Avidor, Roberta Avidor, Andy Singer, Emma Pachuta and one other person whose name I didn’t get.
We had updates on the Idaho Street Bike Boulevard and efforts to reinstate the traffic circles. (The city council subsequently voted to reinstate them by a vote of 4-2, with council members Prince and Bostrom voting against reinstatement and Chris Tolbert absent from the meeting).
We had updates on the Rice Street Study and concluded that we would decide on a group position on Rice Street bike lanes at the next meeting on June 20. You can familiarize yourself with the study by going to – https://www.ramseycounty.us/residents/roads-transit/future-road-construction-projects/rice-street-transportation-safety-study
We had updates on the Margaret Street Bicycle Boulevard and a pathway on the west side of McKnight Road that will connect Margaret with Minnehaha Avenue to the north and Hudson Road to the south. This will enable riders on Margaret to reach signalized intersections where they can enter 3M and other destinations to the east. I can’t remember whether they are still considering a refuge median at McKnight and Margaret which was to have been made by closing off the northbound left turn lane on McKinght …but this may have been dropped in favor of this pathway.
We had updates on the Stillwater Avenue bike lanes which will run from McKnight Road almost to Hazel Street, connecting to Hazel via Algonquin and Case. Hazel is on the bike plan but hasn’t yet received bike lanes. For more information on the project, you can go to– https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/public-works/road-construction/stillwater-avenue-bikeway There will be an open house for the project on June 27, from 6-7:30pm at Achieve Language Academy Gym (2169 Stillwater Avenue E, Saint Paul, MN 55119)
We had a discussion of the League of American Cyclists’ “Silver” status award to the city of Saint Paul for it’s efforts at improving cycling. We were previously “Bronze” but the league decided that we moved up because we’d finally passed a bikeways plan and implemented a decent number of new bikeways. We discussed whether this was good or bad and it segued into our next discussion….
Downtown Bicycle Priorities. Downtown is still a gaping hole in the city’s bicycle infrastructure. We discussed the need to push 4th Street (and the recently released 4th street study). We also discussed the lack of funding for the Downtown Loop (Capital City Bikeway) and agreed we’d like to see the city move forward with some temporary fixes and implementation (on Saint Peter Street and 10th Street for example).
We were notified of updates to the Bikeways Plan that included a bikeway on St. Anthony and other changes, and that this and the proposed Pelham Bikeway were going to be heard on June 7th at the Saint Paul City Council public hearing and people should turn out. Both the bike plan updates and Pelham bikeway subsequently passed the city council. For more info on Pelham project, see– https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/public-works/bicycles/bicycle-projects/pelham-bikeway
We discussed upcoming Bike to Work Day events (which happened successfully), Slow Roll Ambassador Training, upcoming Kellogg Park Bicycle Alliance events, charity rides and the the Union Park District Council’s Greenway Extension panel discussion on June 7th. The latter was written up by the Star Tribune– http://www.startribune.com/bicycling-advocates-push-to-extend-midtown-greenway-to-st-paul/427332913/ Their reporting is mostly accurate except for a dig at “bicycles taking away parking” at the end of the piece, which has nothing to do with the proposed project and quotes, out of context, a woman who is actually supportive of bicycles and the project (and was supportive of Cleveland Avenue bike lanes).
Next meeting: Tuesday, June 20, 7pm, same place.