Twin Cities Streets for People

A few weeks ago, Lisa brought up a point about the city's new Central Avenue bike plan. The plan looks great for the northern part of the street, from Spring Street north all the way up Central Avenue.

But at the most important part of the plan, the stretch through the busy, dense, and commercial district around Hennepin and University Avenues, the city is proposing a "shared bike and through lane" that would be even less safe than the current awkward arrangement on Hennepin Avenue. 

One of the problems here is that the city plans 12 foot car lanes for this part of the street, when they only really need something more like 10 foot lanes. 

Here's a report by Bicyclinginfo.org going over the research on lane widths, safety, and road capacity. They end up concluding that 10 foot lanes are just as safe and efficient as wider lanes.

Part of the problem may be that this is a county road, but the lanes on are Central going to be narrower at other points, and there is little sense in making them all wider for this part of the road. Take some of that space and give it to cyclists, to make sure that there is some safety and continuity for people who may not feel comfortable on their bikes in this part of the city.

Additionally, all the pedestrian and sidewalk activity here really calls for some traffic calming measures. Narrowing the traffic lanes seems like an easy way to start slowing cars down as they go thorugh this historic, exciting part of Minneapolis.  This is one of my favorite parts of Minneapolis, and I'd really like to see it bloom.