Postby alexschief » February 4th, 2022, 9:09 am
I thought MAK's comments were interesting.
I am glad that she unequivocally supported the bikeway. To me, that is the most critical part of the plan for a couple reasons.
1 — There are always strong "just bike on an adjacent street" and "nobody bikes during the winter" voices, and I'm glad that MAK understands that people want to bike on Hennepin because they want to go to the same businesses as everyone else, and that a major reason people don't bike during the winter is that the infrastructure doesn't support it.
2 — The proposed bikeway is curbs and concrete. Once curbs are placed in one location, that's almost always where they stay for generations. If the bikeway were to be removed from the plan, there would be no getting it back in that form.
I was disappointed to hear her more ambiguous support of the 24/7 busway, but I think it's less of a big deal than it may seem for a couple more reasons:
1 — The 24/7 busway will not be implemented until 2026 anyway, so in some sense, it's already being "phased in."
2 — In 2026, the political situation may be entirely different, that's one mayoral election and two council elections from now. It could be worse, but I'm hopeful that it will be better and more attentive to climate and transportation issues. That should also be enough time to assess the impact of the pandemic long-term on transit ridership.
3 — The busway will always have a powerful institutional supporter (Metro Transit) in inter-agency and backroom discussions.
4 — The busway is paint and policy. If it isn't fully supported at the vote before the council this year (say, it remains peak hour only) that can be changed more quickly and costlessly in the future.
Overall, I was impressed by her presentation and I was gratified to hear her talk about mode shift and support for the TAP, even if she didn't explicitly back reducing lane miles. I was really happy to hear her speak about city leaders setting a personal example by traveling by bike and transit. And while it's a bit off-topic here, I was happiest most of all to hear her say that Rethinking 94 will have a highway removal/parkway alternative that is studied.