Snelling Avenue is a must-see landmark in St. Paul.
By "must-see," I mean it's unavoidable. It is an inevitable monster and, at some point, you'll need to combat the seemingly endless hordes of fast-moving car traffic.
I decided to fight that traffic from south to north, through the entire City of St. Paul.
At it's farthest point south, near my house in Highland Park, Snelling is a modest tree-lined, two-lane street that quickly transforms into a school zone. Traffic moves slowly until you cross Montreal. The lanes then widen and the speed increases. That is, until you hit the patchwork of local businesses situated on late-streetcar and early-suburban commercial nodes around Randolph.
The slight hill makes the ride enjoyable, and car traffic isn't overwhelming. It's not comforting, but at this point I'm not fearing for my life. That last part is important when designing spaces for bikes.
Moving northbound, the intersection of Snelling and Randolph feels urban; buildings hug the wide sidewalks and apartments are above the shops. The further northward I go, the heavier flow of traffic makes the area a biker's nightmare even during quietest weekend hours.
What to do with these types of roads is contentious. The city of St. Paul and DOT often seems like they're at odds. Is it a highway or is it a city street? While residential property owners would certainly benefit from reduced traffic, the business owners like it – especially if they are fortunate enough to have off-street parking. It's a blend of urban meets suburban meets pedestrians meets highway meets potential bike lane. It tries to appease everyone, but successfully appeases no one.
From Randolph heading north, Snelling has single-family homes until St. Clair. Macalaster College's green median turns the avenue into a three block stretch akin to Summit Avenue. This looks nice, for a short period, but quickly converts back. Despite good effort, the median that was designed to help students across tightens the space and makes me feel on-guard. Speeding cars pass on my left and I debate jumping onto the sidewalk.