There have been several recent postings suggesting that the 40th Street Greenway is a dangerous boondoggle. We'd like to explain who we are, how the Greenway concept was developed, and respond to several criticisms of our Greenway concept plan.
The Greenway concept originated in Kingfield neighborhood. It is funded with NRP dollars and scheduled for construction in 2002. This will be a ten-block section of a 44-foot-wide collector street. It will add bike lanes, bumpouts and landscaping. The Kingfield neighborhood also saw benefit in inviting neighborhoods to the west and east, including Bancroft neighborhood where critic Mark V. Anderson lives, to discuss extending the Greenway concept. Ultimately, six neighborhood associations agreed to take part last year in a grassroots planning process aimed at creating a concept plan for a Greenway extending between Lake Harriet and the Mississippi River. The logic for this is simple. There is no cross-city designated bike route between the Midtown Greenway and the Minnehaha Creek corridor. The neighborhoods in between deserve access to the city's network of bike lanes, and 40th Street is halfway between Midtown and the creek. It is also a street on which five city parks are located, and it lines up with the only pedestrian-bike-only footbridge across I-35W in this part of South Minneapolis (connecting Bryant Neighborhood to Martin Luther King Park). The logic of using 40th Street was anticipated in a 1995 report of the Citizen Advisory Committee to the Park Board on the Grand Rounds parkway system, which recommended using 40th as one of several streets for extending fingers of green into the city's interior from the parkway system. Accommodating bikes on 40th will allow commuters to more easily reach the predominant pattern of north-south bike lanes serving downtown, such as the Portland and Park bike lanes. It will also allow recreational bicyclists to move within and outside their home neighborhoods. The six-neighborhood workshops conducted in 2000 led to a concept plan for the Greenway. This was an attempt to define end-to-end common features for the project, and, most importantly, allow each neighborhood to adapt the general concept to their particular needs, so that the Greenway takes on the flavor of each neighborhood. We expect that each neighborhood will address local issues such as traffic, amenities and neighborhood identity in their own way. As it should be. Currently, the East Harriet Farmstead neighborhood, where resident and mayor-elect R.T. Rybak was an early supporter of the Greenway, is actively working to develop the details of its Greenway section. The Bancroft Neighborhood Association has also expressed its desire to move ahead. We will work with the three other neighborhoods (Bryant, Longfellow and Standish-Ericsson) as their human and financial resources permit. The character of 40th Street changes east of the freeway. The width drops to 32 or 36 feet and the street is decidedly residential. In response, a different design concept was developed with participating neighbors. The street is too narrow to accommodate bike lanes plus two lanes of traffic and parking on both sides. The proposed design would limit parking to one side only, with bumpouts being installed on the end of each block, narrow the motorized traffic to one lane, and add bike lanes in each direction. Mr. Anderson objects to this "concept" on four grounds: 1) one-way car travel will promote high speeds; 2) a serpentine pattern and "bumps" will cause bumper car driving; 3) the street is already bike-friendly; and 4) the design isn't green enough. Before we respond, let us assure people that the Greenway will not be implemented in any neighborhood without the consent of the neighborhood organization, and a decision to allocate NRP funding to construction. There are people who want to move ahead with the Greenway in each of the six neighborhoods, but the neighborhood as a whole will make the decision. Let's take the one-way argument first. Mr. Anderson argues that cars will speed up on one-way streets. We agree that can happen. That's why the design incorporates periodic speed tables (not speed bumps as he suggests.) Speed tables are intended to allow drivers to drive at reasonable speeds of up to the speed limit, but to give them a reminder jolt when they drive at unreasonable speeds. They're not the 5-mile per hour bumps found in grocery store parking lots. Another way to deal with the issue of speed on one-way streets is to reverse the direction of the one-way direction every four blocks or so. This certainly discourages through trips by speeding drivers. And the street will retain its current stop signs. In Bancroft neighborhood, some residents have said they'd like to close 40th to car traffic entirely on some blocks. This might eventually be the local decision. Now let's address the argument that a serpentine design and speed tables will cause skids. First, we know from experience in Kingfield that city Public Works will not allow installation of an unsafe design. Public Works and most City Council members also require that nontraditional street designs be tested before permanent installation. A three-month test of this sort was conducted and completed recently by Public Works in Kingfield, and followed by a resident meeting to collect feedback. In response to that feedback, we demonstrated our flexibility by switching from a serpentine design to an alternative concept. Nevertheless, Public Works found that the serpentine design caused no accidents during the test period. Minneapolis drivers moved quite safely on 40th Street just as they negotiate the serpentine design of streets like Minnehaha Parkway and those in Tangletown and Prospect Park without difficulty. Mr. Anderson further contends that 40th Street already is bike friendly. To the extent that some blocks east of 35W do not have much traffic that is correct. But there are sections, such as where the street passes Roosevelt High School, or the Bloomington Avenue shopping center, where traffic intensifies. There's also a difference between weaving a bike around parked and moving cars, and having a defined space to call one's own. A bike lane is a signal to drivers to stay in their own space. Furthermore, as a part of a larger whole, a bike route that crosses the city on 40th offers alternate transportation and recreation opportunities. As mayor-elect Rybak said earlier this year: "I have been very outspoken in my campaign about the need to recognize the bicycle as a viable transit option in the city, and I will continue to promote additional development of bicycle commuter options." Mr. Anderson further suggests that because high-speed bikers will use the Greenway and make the street unsuitable for children. Most Class A bikers give wide berth to youngsters wobbling on bikes, and leave behind a word of encouragement. The logic that if we build it, they will come hardly seems like a reason not to build bike lanes. And as Mr. Anderson must know from pedaling around Lake Harriet, even the youngest of riders learns quickly what "on your left" means. The last argument Mr. Anderson makes is that the Greenway isn't green enough. He offers one model of a Greenway by citing the Midtown Greenway. We admire the work of Midtown's visionaries, and we're the first to admit that we lack their advantage of starting with a wide corridor with substantial vegetation. But we suggest that there's more than one way to create a greenway. We recognized that thre is not alot of open space in our 150-year-old city. The challenge is to figure out how a variety of transportation users can share the public right-of-way. First, we aim to add more than the "few plants" he suggests. In fact, we've already added thousands of bulbs and perennials to 40th Street between I-35W and Bryant Avenue. We invite Mr. Anderson and other skeptics to bike this section in mid-April when our boulevards of daffodils are in bloom, or in early July when our black-eyed Susans and yarrow are flowering. These flowers have been supplemented by yards of blooms added by property owners inspired by the Greenway. Moreover, the Kingfield section of the Greenway is budgeted for thousands of dollars of bulbs, perennials and ornamental grasses to be added when the Greenway is constructed next year. These will be planted on bumpouts that will project into the street at selected corners, adding a substantial amount of green space to the street. We will, of course, fill in boulevard trees also. But being green can be measured in more than the amount of planting done. Being green is also a way of thinking and acting. By incorporating bike lanes, the Greenway promotes green thinking by encouraging people to bike. This reduces the amount of pollutants added to the atmosphere by automobiles. In summary, we know that change is a hard thing for people to adapt to. It's easy in this stage of a proposal to see lots of threats and negatives. To see the positives takes a little more imagination. We invite Mr. Anderson and other skeptics to get involved in the planning process so that their concerns can be addressed. For the 40th Street Greenway Task Force, Steve Jevning Kingfield [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
