In a move that will likely lead to increased bike-bus crashes, and rider injuries and fatalities, the Minneapolis City Council has approved the elimination of the dedicated downtown bike lanes on Marquette and Second Avenues. It voted instead to shift bike commuters to Nicollet Mall (undoing the 1997 Council vote that moved bike traffic off Nicollet Mall because of safety reasons.)
Not that this should be new news, the Council action took place last June. What might be news is that even though the action took place last June, the City has been circulating a document that purports to show transportation development over the next ten years, but the bike lane switcheroo is not included.
Democracy in Action?
The bike lane change happened at the last minute. According to one city official, Mayor R.T. Rybak, Metro Transit officials, and downtown business interests cut the deal at the Mayor’s office. The City Council axed the Marquette/Second Avenue bike lanes by adding a few amendments to the Citywide Transportation Plan (the Plan) June 29. It approved the Plan the same day. The vote has garnered little if any public attention. Nonetheless, as they say, this is a done deal: the bike lane realignment is part of a package of federally-funded transit and transportation projects slated for completion by 2009.
Some months after that decision was made, in the city’s ongoing effort to boost civic engagement, it circulated the Plan for “public comment.” There were several public meetings held to roll out the plan and solicit public input. But the planners forgot one thing: they didn’t mention closing the Marquette and Second Avenue bike lanes or even update the maps.
One must question how the public is supposed to have input when the decisions are so poorly communicated and not shown in a public document like the Plan. Even today, the Plan makes no mention of eliminating the Marquette/Second bike lanes. In fact, the maps provided in the document clearly show the existence (and presumably the continuance) of the dedicated bike routes (see the Plan, page 28 Existing and Proposed Bicycle Facilities). Moreover, Nicollet Mall is not indicated as a current or planned bike route option. The change in the bike lanes is shown in the Downtown Transit Plan, but that document was not part of the community meetings.
The City-approved Plan purports to lay out a strategy for transportation development in the City over the next ten years. It contains the customary feel-good language: “This multi-modal vision for Minneapolis places greater emphasis on transit, walking and biking as primary modes than has previously been the case.” The Plan, page 2 (emphasis added). The city’s web site touts Minneapolis as bike friendly. “Minneapolis was recently recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as having the 2nd highest percentage of people who bike to work, when compared to the 50 cities with the most workers in America,” it says.
In spite of this lip service, in 2009 the Marquette/Second Avenue bike lanes will be gone, replaced by two bus lanes, the current curbside lane and a second, passing lane. The Downtown Transit Plan mentions that bicycles will be allowed in the passing lane during non-peak hours and officials will study whether to allow cyclists in the passing lane during peak hours. There is no discussion of the safety issues that originally motivated the decision to prohibit bicyclists from using Nicollet Mall and no discussion of measures to be taken to provide for that safety once bicyclists are back on the Mall.
Bicyclists are clearly relegated to second class status, both in the decision and in the process. MetroCyclist will follow up on this story as we learn more.