Bike advocates lobby for protected lanes in 2015

Bike advocates delivered some 3,400 postcards to City Hall on Tuesday with the aim of ensuring that the city funds protected bike lanes.

Mayor Betsy Hodges has proposed $790,000 to install protected bike lanes in 2015, plus money to maintain them. The council votes on that budget next week.

Several hundred Eighth Ward residents signed cards stating why they want the protected lanes, which typically are divided from traffic lanes by a physical barrier. That was the most for any ward. The Fifth Ward had the smallest stack of cards, with 65 residents declaring their support for the lanes.

The Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition delivered cards from each ward to the City Council member or a staff member, and to mayoral aide Peter Wagenius. They've been collected over the past eight months at events such as the six Open Streets events led by the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, at which pedestrians and bikers have exclusive use of a major street for several hours.

The postcards let bikers put their support for the protected lanes in their own words. In Ward 8, resident Faith Kumon wrote, "I want to bike to work downtown without feeling terrified during rush hour." Anther ward resident, Jacquelynn Goessling added, "I love not being killed when I ride."

Meanwhile, the city's bike plan revision that will specify where to put those protected lanes is falling behind the original schedule of sending recommendations to the council by the end of the year. Only one project has been designated to date for 2015, which adds bike and foot lanes to a portion of NE Broadway St.

Some bike advocates have suggested that Minneapolis is falling behind other leading biking cities in not moving faster on the protected lanes, which are intended to help bikers feel more protected from cars and encourage more people to ride. The city has adopted a goal of creating 30 miles of such lanes by 2020, which was advocated by the coalition.

The money for protected bike lanes made it through the council's budget markup session with any effort to remove it. That's despite a comment recently by Council President Barbara Johnson that fighting crime should have a higher priority in the city's budget than protected lanes.

Council Member Linea Palmisano on Monday aborted her proposed amendment to strip ongoing funding for pedestrian safety work by $250,000 of the $350,000 it gets.