A bit of a rant, but my municipality is building a “community square” in their downtown, but I noticed that there are no safe ways to get there by bike (or e-scooter, since we partake in a shared e-mobility program).
I emailed my city to voice my concern, and they said to contact the Region, who manages the main North/South road that brings you to the footsteps of this planned square.
They said that since there were no plans in the Regional cycling plan to add infrastructure to that particular road, we should just ride with mixed traffic.
For context… this road is one-way, and four lanes. Two (one on each side) is taken up by street parking, despite us having quite a few parking lots and a large parking garage close by.
Example (and yes, the black car on the far right is illegally parking… there’s another car behind them illegally parking, too… ):
I asked if they could at least remove one parking lane to make a bi-direction bike lane that would connect two (East/west) bike lanes, and they said not a chance.
To expand, removing one parking lane would only “take away” 12 spots. 12 spots for sitting vehicles that take up two blocks, is more important than providing a safe passage for vulnerable residents to get to a public, outdoor community space??
This is pretty unbelievable, since our local businesses are all hurting downtown, and it only seems alive when we block off vehicle traffic during special events.
Seems insane how we bend over backwards for cars.
Rant over.
Come to Minneapolis. We have:
Bike map.
If you like to bicycle, The Cities is one of these best places in the continental US. Also, if you live in the city, there are 20 miles of completely enclosed foot traffic - overpasses, through-building, and tunnels - allowing you to get almost anywhere downtown without ever going outside. Which is important, because in the winter it’s been known to get down to -50°F.