Plans for bike-ability on the east side of Minneapolis are coming
together in 'bits and pieces,' says Michael Rainville, a bike enthusiast
who lives in the St. Anthony West neighborhood.
He helped organize the recent Eastside Bike Summit, which drew nearly 80 people to the
Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis.
Getting bike trails on this part of the city is
tough because so many different levels of government have to sign off on
things, he says.
But
Rainville is hopeful about the area's future bike-friendliness.
The
5th Street/2nd Avenue Northeast bike boulevard is a highly anticipated
project that Rainville estimates will be completed within the next
couple of months.
"It's been talked about for years," he says,
adding that with several traffic circles and a stoplight, "it'll be a
nice safe place for people to ride their bikes going south through the
east side of town," all the way to Columbia Heights.
Also,
a bike lane is slated for Main Street and Marshall Avenue Northeast,
from 1st Avenue Northeast to Broadway, though the segment that would go
to Lowry is on hold.
Also proposed are bike lanes for Central and 37th
avenues Northeast to the Mississippi River and on 18th
Avenue Northeast from Monroe Street Northeast to the Quarry
Shopping Center.
To help bicyclists safely cross the busy East
Hennepin and 1st avenues northeast, which are part of a city streetcar
study, a meeting-goer suggested that a bike lane go on the bridges and
continue down the street. "All it would take is a couple gallons of
paint," Rainville says.
It's a good example of "the purpose of these summits, to get new creative ideas and talk about them out loud," he adds.
Rainville
hopes that another bike summit will happen this winter. "Passion is all
spread out. It's coming from all over the east side," he says.
Source: Michael Rainville, Eastside Bike Summit organizer
Writer: Anna Pratt