Hello Mike, Carol, Minneapolis Issues Folks:
I have to agree with Mike on this one. Carol do you really believe that bike lanes make downtown Minneapolis less economically viable? Bike lanes make downtown more economically viable because it increase the traffic of healthy fit folks to downtown. The designer stores market their merchandise toward us. The restaurants love our thirst mouths and large appetites. Oh, sure, our hot fit bodies may be distracting for automobile drivers talking on their cell phone and cause and accident or two. But hay, that’s because automobile drivers are so superficial and out of shape.
I am providing a service for the automobile driver by biking to work everyday. I leave and extra driving lane open and a parking spot for those less fit auto-dependent folks. I am also helping to decrease pollutants in the air and actions are a positive action towards curbing global warming for future generations. Cars add pollutants to the air that increase respiratory problems making it harder for children others to breath. The planet's temperature has increased at an alarming pace over the past several decades. Cars are one of the main factors contributing to global warming. Have you heard about this?
I spent and entire Saturday bicycling with my son a couple weeks back. We biked from south Minneapolis down the river to downtown to visit a friend. Continued our trip through downtown to the Cedar Lake/394 path (I do not know the real name of the path). We stopped at Cedar Lake and went for a swim. Biked uptown using the Midtown Greenway stopping to eat dinner. We completed our trip by taking the Midtown Greenway the majority way home. I only feared for my son’s safety during the portion of the trip when we had to travel on roads that did not have dedicated bike lanes. It was one of the best days we had this summer. I thank the bicycle advocates, political and community leaders that have fought for and funded our amazing bicycle transit system. I encourage you to do more because the health of our earth and my son’s future is counting on you.
Ken Bradley Tight Bike Bum Advocate
Mike Nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
So now bikes are responsible for the economic failure of downtown Minneapolis.B, as in B. S, as in S.Jeepers, I thought I was reducing traffic, pollution, and my commute time!I'm sorry.What city are we talking about here?Last time I rode my bike downtown (today) I only saw one street where a whole lane was dedicated to bike traffic. Hennepin Ave. has a two-way bike lane, and I believe 2nd St. S. has a one way bike lane on each side so, ok, that's two streets. Every other bike lane that I know of downtown is a one way lane. I just measured the bike lane on Park Ave. 4ft. 6in. wide inside the stripes. Each stripe is 6in. wide. I don't think that space would accommodate a Ford Exhibition, er Expedition.(that was an attempt at humor, don't get all worked up now, I own a full size gas guzzling pickup 6ft. 4in. wide and make no apologies for it.)So, we have a bike lane 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 ft wide then there are 3 lanes for autos 11 ft.wide each, and on each side of the street, a parking lane. That's 5 lanes for autos, half a lane for bikes. Just think, if we eliminated parking on these streets we could put up parking ramps everywhere. this would bring construction jobs and sit in a box and collect money jobs. Tax revenue too. Then 5 lanes would be open for driving.Half a lane on 8 streets, and the equivalent of a whole lane on two is not "substantially reducing the carrying capacity of the street system overall."By the way,I keep up with traffic. Matter of fact auto traffic downtown is slower than I am at rush hour, so that means they are in MY way.What is adding to traffic problems?Could be more cars.Another thing adding to traffic problems.People who drive down the bike lane on Hennepin IN CARS!No fewer than 7 in the span of one block today as I rode home. One guy even had a bike in his car, and he called me all kinds of nasty names for being in his law-breaking way. Where are the cops? They could bring in a lot of ticket revenue from these clowns.I agree, we need to try something different. I try to avoid bike lanes because at best they are a place to double park and at worst a death zone, but I hardly think they will be the ruin of civilization.Mike NelsonCentral
I think one of the biggest isssue with balancing modes in the downtown is
that the City has taken a whole traffic lane out of automobile service and
turned them into bike lanes on several major streets, substantially reducing
the carrying capacity of the street system overall. Fewer people can now
get in and out of the downtown because of this change and this is adding
substantially to traffic problems in the downtown. This, in turn, makes the
downtown less economically viable as a business center when compared to
suburban locations. Accomodating all modes of transportation is very
important but this tradeoff seems to have large negative concequences.
Carol Becker
Longfellow
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