Minneapolis / St. Paul Blog

These "ZEBRA's" would be great if snowplows weren't an Issue.
That may be the same reason we don't have the raised reflective lane dividers on our freeway system.

Dominneapolis is right. Snowplows would rip those right out on the first pass. And ElliotParkRes, what ratio do you suppose there is between # of scofflaw cyclists and # of motorists who disregard traffic laws?

And I know I am lumping all cyclists into a category, which is not accurate. There are plenty of law abiding cyclists and drivers. Like everything else, it is just the bad ones that I see that stand out. I live downtown and walk everywhere. A lot of cyclists complain about cars but, in a lot of cases, they are not looking out for us that are hoofing it.

There are a number of cities that can serve as models for the TC. Montreal has a very extensive network of bike paths and trails using different models. In some cases, the dividers between bike paths and car traffic on city streets are actually narrow "boulevards". Berlin, one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world, has double the size of sidewalks that we currently have here and half or one-third of the sidewalk functions as a one-way bike path that is demarcated either by colored lines or with red brick paths that are part an integral part of the sidewalk. Minneapolis clearly has more than enough space to try the Berlin model, if you think of Park or Portland Aves.

Oh MW, I recommend that you travel throughout the major cities of central and northern Europe and North American cities such as Montreal to see how far we still have to go as far as bike culture is concerned. For the US, the TC may be a model but we definitely have room for improvement, especially in terms of safety for bikers from cars.

Great way to generate comments on cp.com, manage to include the word "bike" in every article.

FullTimeCyclist,

The truck driver didn't follow the letter of the law. They were both stopped at a light and when the light turned green, they both pulled forward. The letter of the law is that the truck driver was required to yield to the bicyclist which he did not do.

Similarly, the pedestrian who was struck in the sidewalk while crossing a week or two later a block or two down Park - the bus that was turning may have had a green, but they were still required to yield to the pedestrian in the cross walk.

Both situations are similar to a car on a two lane road turning left into the oncoming traffic when the light turned green.

FWIW, you're putting yourself at greater risk by riding on the sidewalks - they're statistically _more_ dangerous for bicycling than riding on the streets.

I really enjoyed reading this post… well thought out and written. Thank you.

I have heard that MPLS is doubling the amount of bike routes over the next year. Doing a quick news Google, I haven't been able to uncover much press on this. Maybe more journalism work should be done to get this in front of the general citizen?

That alone is a huge and positive accomplishment. The way it is done is also a great up front consideration.

I've lived 5 years in Madison, WI with no car -- basically bike commuting everywhere. The solution Madison took definitely depended on the amount of traffic that a lane had -- with greatest traffic lanes resulting in concrete barriers for bike lanes.

I've never seen these Zebra barriers in place in the Midwest -- As Dominneapolis points out, most likely due to the snow removal process. In San Francisco, there are raised bump dividers everywhere -- and that works for them. Still I have not seen the Zebra barriers.

Since my move to Minneapolis, I've been overjoyed with how much work has been done with the bike lanes. Having lived in and bike commuted in San Francisco, Chicago, Madison, Washington D.C., and Duluth -- Minneapolis is ahead of the game for U.S. Cities.

I personally would like to get more involved with the advisory committee, but for the next few months I live out in the burbs. I would love to see a photo montage of Montreal and other progressive bike cities for generating ideas. Would also love to get traffic engineers and advisory committees from these various cities together for idea sharing...