Important Meeting Tonight 5-7pm at Central Library Downtown

TONIGHT
5pm to 7pm
Hennepin County Central Library
200 Nicollet Mall
Doty Library Board Room
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/public-works/cip/35WdetourRehab/

The City of Minneapolis is holding this second meeting pretty much for
downtown commuters and residents, the time and location were chosen to
allow maximum access for you guys.

When the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition and the City of Minneapolis met back
on my birthday in Janruary, we found out that these projects were happening
over the summer. The basic gist is that the feds are giving us money to
get the streets that deteriorated quicker than normal due to the bridge
collapse. This gives us an opportunity to place bike lanes on these
streets, and they are talking about adding lanes on 4th Ave, 5th Ave and
6th Street...

This is awesome, they're adding more lanes back into downtown!

However, it leaves out a vital east/west connection on 7th street. Also
happening this summer is a project which adds bike lanes to 7th from
Hennepin west, all the way up to Plymouth. Leaving out bike lanes on the
eastern portion of 7th through downtown seems like it will cut off a large
portion of south Minneapolis (primarily on 11th) from using 7th to access
this route up into to north. They are talking about possibly adding a lane
to 5th street to make up for this lack of a connection, but we have not
seen the plans yet and it is unclear if a bike lane would actually be able
to extend through the pedestrian area near City Hall. 7th is also getting
two Nice Ride bike rental Kiosks over the summer, including one pretty much
on the lawn of the government center ad another at HCMC. We're the number
one city for cycling in the US and we're going to be sending people out on
these bikes without a bike lane to ride in.

We really need to make sure that we have some sort of facilities on 7th as
part of the master plan for cycling in Minneapolis. If you agree with
this, please take a minute on your way home tonight to stop by this meeting
and talk to the engineers, review the plans and leave your comments. If
you are not a downtown worker or resident, but still think that 7th street
is important, please try to make it down as well.

(Aside - I don't have an update on 1st Ave or Hennepin right now, but look
for more opportunities for input on those streets as well, hopefully soon.)

If you'd like to learn more about the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition and the
work they're doing for Minneapolis, please check their website at

http://mplsbike.org