Bicycle Infrastructure

[schwinnletour]

All the more reason to send a letter of support to the decision makers requesting that this N-S bike lane moves forward to counteract the Nextdoor detractors.

[seanrichardryan]

Here is all the most current information for the Summit Avenue Regional Trail Master Plan- https://engagestpaul.org/summit.

No proposals have come out yet, but they will have some ideas to present by the fall. Just planning for the future corridor is funded, they are no actual construction projects happening.

SARPA (Summit Avenue Residential Preservations Association) went around and got folks riled up telling them 100s of trees were getting cut down for bike lanes, and even taped flyers to trees saying as such. NIMBY response was what you would expect as outlined in this dumb article in the strib- 'NeIghHbOrS fEaR' https://www.startribune.com/neighbors-f ... 600179264/

[seanrichardryan]

There was a virtual meeting last night that I unfortunately had to miss. You can get a live-tweet recap here: https://twitter.com/DanMarStP/status/15 ... 8432603138

[bubzki2]

The meeting was 90% SARPA Summit Homeowners saying NO WAY but also seemingly didn't have any idea what was being considered for the corridor.

[seanrichardryan]

Andy Singer's take-
I

II

III

[schwinnletour]

Nice little article on Hennepin County's plan to put in a bike lane on France Avenue between Excelsior and 49th Avenue:

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2022/06/ ... ike-lanes/

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A popular road that borders Minneapolis, Edina, and St. Louis Park could see some major changes next year.

Hennepin County is planning to re-pave France Avenue between 44th Street and Excelsior Boulevard in 2023, and the county proposed to use the fresh pavement as a chance to re-stripe. One of their suggestions was to bring bike lanes to that stretch of France Avenue.
“Any of the major avenues, I stay away from them,” said Roy Woodstrom, who is an avid bicyclist and lives in the neighborhood along France Avenue. “I’ve been hit by cars more than once.”

Woodstrom doesn’t believe the county’s proposal has a big benefit to those on two wheels.

“Why would you want to bicycle on a busy street? When you can go one block over on either side and you’re going to have a quiet street with very little traffic and very little risk,” Woodstrom said.

The county says the additional bike lanes would also remove a majority of the street parking on the east side of France Avenue, which not only impacts people who are visiting the area for shopping and dining, but also the homeowners and renters who also use street parking.
“[Street parking] is a gift, especially when you have repair people coming to your home,” said Cindy Soles, who has lived along France Avenue for 13 years.

Soles feels strongly about keeping parking as it is, and she’s hoping to encourage her neighbors to feel the same.

“I’ve been canvasing the neighborhood and introducing myself and handing out fliers,” Soles said.

Hennepin County emphasizes that this is still a proposal, and they are taking neighborhood feedback seriously before moving forward with this project.

The county says it plans to hold neighborhood meetings soon to get direct feedback.
In the meantime, you can give your input on the county website here.

[DanPatchToget]

“Why would you want to bicycle on a busy street? When you can go one block over on either side and you’re going to have a quiet street with very little traffic and very little risk,” Woodstrom said.

Because France is the only road that goes straight all the way between 49th and Excelsior, and it has destinations while the side streets only have houses.

[fehler]

Three blocks north and connect to the Cedar Lake Trail

[Silophant]

"Avid bicyclist" against bike infrastructure! Drink!

[Korh]

https://www.threeriversparks.org/page/n ... connection
the bridge under 169 for the 9 mile creek trail is done, asphalt is still somewhat new so they haven't painted any stripes yet but its still ridable.

[Anondson]

Biked it this morning. It’s such a HUGE improvement in the connection linking the Edina portion to the Hopkins portion.

[xandrex]

So I've recently been driving along 40th Street W to get around Grand Ave construction, which is when I noticed the Grand intersection had what seemed like little "ramps" (not sure the right term here) that take bikers from the street to sidewalk level, then back down again. Both the north and south side of the intersection has these.

But they just got to restriping and 40th is now a two-way cycle track on the south side of the street. Does the north side "ramp" have a purpose? Was the city originally planning normal bike lanes and changed their mind? The south side ramp seems to have been built wider, as if they knew they were going to have two-way bike traffic.

Super minor thing, but I was curious since this is new infrastructure.

[LakeCharles]

Yeah, they clearly planned these two projects in isolation and didn't communicate.

It's not a big deal, but it doesn't reflect super well that they built those ramps on the north side, including separate colored concrete, etc. and now they are immediately made obsolete.

[Korh]

I'm sure its not just me who's noticed more ebikes on the trails recently (as well as a few e scooters still rolling around) so I wonder if it might be worthwhile soon to start letting people dock/charge their personal bikes at the nice ride stations or invest in some for public use.
I can see it being a thing along some business along some trails and maybe stations on the blue line and maybe swlrt, also might see a use for some of the longer which a just a bit out of range for a round trip on a ebike (I imagine if the luce line or Paul Bunyan trails had charging stations dotted alongside rest areas they would be much busier trails)

[DanPatchToget]

I'd like all the NiceRide bikes to be e-bikes. While Minneapolis and St. Paul are relatively flat, there's still plenty of hills that can make biking a struggle. Also a headwind can really slow you down, in my experience anyways. Copenhagen's bike-share is 100% e-bikes (or at least it was when I was there in 2018) and it was a breeze getting around the city (obviously their excellent bike infrastructure helps, but covering a large area was way easier with electric assist). Even though it would probably cost more to rent, I think way more people would use NiceRide if it were all e-bikes.

[SurlyLHT]

I'm sure its not just me who's noticed more ebikes on the trails recently (as well as a few e scooters still rolling around) so I wonder if it might be worthwhile soon to start letting people dock/charge their personal bikes at the nice ride stations or invest in some for public use.
I can see it being a thing along some business along some trails and maybe stations on the blue line and maybe swlrt, also might see a use for some of the longer which a just a bit out of range for a round trip on a ebike (I imagine if the luce line or Paul Bunyan trails had charging stations dotted alongside rest areas they would be much busier trails)

How often do they need to be charged? If they are regular voltage which I presume is true. This power source is already in many of the places via street lights or parks.

How long do the batteries last on these? I've been wondering if people are buying them, then when the battery does hold a charge after a few years if they just sit in garages?

[Mdcastle]

Underground streetlights are commonly 240 or 480 volts, but if there's a neutral wire available you can get 240 from the 480 volt circuits, which is within the range of standard "world voltage" (100-240) switching power supplies like a bicycle or scooter charger. Or 120 volts if it's a 240 volt circuit. There's three issues, none of which are insurmountable

1) While circuits that have been designed for HID lights are now oversized for LEDs, they're downsizing the capacity of newly installed circuits to not overbuild for LEDs. A bunch of devices charging overnight when the street lights are operating could be an issue.

2) Many street light installations have one photocell for the entire circuit, and some of the luminaries might not have been speced to accept individual photocells. And these have a high failure rate so having a bunch of them would increase maintenance.

3) Assuming 240 volts is what is available because the main circuit is 480, everyone would need to carry around a second cord for their charger to fit a 240 volt receptacle on the streetlight.

I don't own an e-Bike, but I do own an electric foot scooter, and the batteries are about shot- about 50% capacity after two summers of almost daily use. The company told me it would be about $300 to replace the batteries on the $600 scooter, but right now they're out of stock...

[mullen]

this bryant ave project is looking amazing. the street is going to be transformed.

[SurlyLHT]

Underground streetlights are commonly 240 or 480 volts, but if there's a neutral wire available you can get 240 from the 480 volt circuits, which is within the range of standard "world voltage" (100-240) switching power supplies like a bicycle or scooter charger. Or 120 volts if it's a 240 volt circuit. There's three issues, none of which are insurmountable

1) While circuits that have been designed for HID lights are now oversized for LEDs, they're downsizing the capacity of newly installed circuits to not overbuild for LEDs. A bunch of devices charging overnight when the street lights are operating could be an issue.

2) Many street light installations have one photocell for the entire circuit, and some of the luminaries might not have been speced to accept individual photocells. And these have a high failure rate so having a bunch of them would increase maintenance.

3) Assuming 240 volts is what is available because the main circuit is 480, everyone would need to carry around a second cord for their charger to fit a 240 volt receptacle on the streetlight.

I don't own an e-Bike, but I do own an electric foot scooter, and the batteries are about shot- about 50% capacity after two summers of almost daily use. The company told me it would be about $300 to replace the batteries on the $600 scooter, but right now they're out of stock...

I was curious about the longevity of ebikes since they are half electronic. Some quick Googling said that an ebike should last 3-5 years before the battery and motors start to go. They also said that to preserve the batteries they need to be stored indoors when it is cold. I fear as they begin to fail they are just going to end up unrepairable and thrown away or cluttering people garages.

[DanPatchToget]

My e-bike is slightly over 3 years old and still works fine. If the e-bike shop person who sold me it is correct, the battery can simply be replaced with a new one. Not sure about the motor though. I would hope most if not all e-bikes are designed to be fixed instead of replaced as soon as they fail. Many complex issues with cars are fixable, not necessarily cheap and easy but still possible, so the much smaller number of parts an e-bike has compared to a car should make it easy to fix (in theory).