If it seems like there are suddenly more bike lanes in our community, you are not mistaken!

Since the start of 2011, Minneapolis has nearly doubled its bike lanes on city streets from 45 miles to 81 miles (as well as 85 miles of off-street bikeways). St. Paul has 77 miles of on-street bike lanes, with more in the works, and many suburbs, such as Edina, are also adding substantial new bike lanes.

Besides expanding the amount of bike lanes in the city, Minneapolis has also increased bike lane types: the city is home to nine different varieties of on-street bicycle routes, not including off-street bicycling paths. 

About Bike Lanes

Bike lanes are defined as “a portion of the roadway which has been designated by striping, signing and pavement marking for the preferential or exclusive use by bicyclists.” In general, all bike lanes are one-way (carrying bicyclists in the same direction as adjacent traffic), on the right side of the roadway, and located between the traffic lane and the parking lane (if there is one).

Designated bike lanes offer several benefits to all roadway users, including motorists and pedestrians: 

• Safety– With bike lanes present, motorists and bicyclists stay in safer, more central positions in their respective lanes, according to recent research by the University of Texas. When passing bicyclists, motorists decreased their incidences of wide swerves into adjacent lanes (nearly nine out of 10 times) or close passes. And bicyclists traveled a more predictably straight path within the bike lane.

  In addition, adding designated bicycle lanes typically has a calming effect on vehicle traffic. For example, a study found that a city in Washington was able to dramatically reduce average vehicle speed from 44 mph to 35 mph (the posted speed limit) by converting a busy two-lane suburban road into a roadway with narrower traffic lanes, bike lanes, landscaping and sidewalks.

  Bicyclists are also less likely to ride on sidewalks when bike lanes are present. Studies have shown that bicyclists increase their accident risk by 25 times when riding on the sidewalk, due to the fact that motorists typically focus on street traffic, and do not notice bicyclists suddenly exiting sidewalks onto the street, and the risk of pedestrian crashes.

• Roadway cost-savings – For the cost of paint and roadway signs to designate bike lanes, cities can instantly increase the capacity of their existing roadways, without costly expansion. For example, 91 bicyclists ride every two hours on West Franklin Avenue, just west of Nicollet Avenue, according to the 2011 Bike Walk Twin Cities Count Report.

• Decreased vehicle traffic – Each bicyclist (or pedestrian) you see potentially means one less person travelling by motor vehicle. This frees up roadway capacity for motor vehicle users.

• Economic development benefits – Areas that add designated bike lanes often enjoy an economic renaissance. For instance, when Orlando, Fla., converted a four-lane undivided roadway into a three-lane road with bike lanes and on-street parking, city officials noted that pedestrian traffic increased, and several new businesses opened on the street.

Types of Bike Lanes

While Minneapolis has nine distinct types of bike lanes/markings, they basically fall into one of three categories: 

• Traditional bike lanes – These are the most common of bike lanes. They are typically at least 5 feet wide, and marked by solid bike lanes with a white bicycle symbol in each block.

• A variant of this type is a green bike lane – these are pavement markings used to highlight locations where motorists merge across or turn across a bike lane. The green paint is to alert motorists they must yield to thru bicyclists.

  Another close cousin of the traditional bike lane is a bike boulevard. Designated with a painted bike symbol and “BLVD” marking, bike boulevards are found on lower-volume, lower-speed streets.

  

• Buffered bike lanes – These are bike lanes which are buffered from immediately adjacent vehicle traffic through either a painted buffer (marked with white chevrons), or with parked vehicles, which is a special type of configuration called a cycle track. When riding on a cycle track, bicyclists pass parked vehicles on the left, with the curb on the right. Motor vehicles may not drive on top of buffered bike lanes.

• Shared bike lanes – These are bike lanes that are shared by both bicyclists and motor vehicles. They are typically installed on roadways which are too narrow to accommodate traditional or buffered bike lanes. Shared bike lanes may take the form of an advisory bike lane, marked with a dashed white line, or shared lane markings, marked with a symbol of a bike and “sharrows” (derived from “shared” and “arrows”). A motor vehicle must yield to a bicyclist in a shared bike lane, and may pass the bicyclist only when it is safe to do so.

Learning these types of bike lane configurations may take some time, practice and patience, but the reward is a likely much safer, free-flowing and effective traffic community. To learn more about all of the new lane markings in Minneapolis, go to the city’s Web site at: www.minneapolismn.gov/bicycles/understanding-bicycle-markings.

To kick things off, we’re taking a closer look at the on-street bike lanes on Blaisdell and 1^st Avenues in south Minneapolis. These new bike lanes were unveiled late last summer and provide easy routes for cyclists between south Minneapolis and near downtown. These routes also connect with two of the more prominent east/west bicycle routes in south Minneapolis: The Midtown Greenway and Riverlake Greenway. Lets take a peek:

Location/Description

The 1^st Ave. bike lane (running north) starts at 40^th St. in the Kingfield neighborhood (right across from Martin Luther King, Jr. Park) and runs north through the Lyndale and Whittier neighborhoods all the way to 15^th St. near downtown Minneapolis. Cyclists can continue straight into downtown on Marquette Avenue or turn on bike lanes running east/west from Loring Park behind the Convention Center to 11^th Avenue S.

The Blaisdell Ave. bike lane starts at 15^th St. near downtown (La Salle Avenue heading out of downtown becomes Blaisdell after the intersection at Franklin) and runs south through the Whittier, Lyndale and Kingfield neighborhoods to 40^th St. and the Riverlake Greenway in south Minneapolis.

Despite a few high-traffic areas around Lake St. and Franklin Ave., these routes give cyclists convenient alternatives to busy streets like Nicollet and Lyndale Avenues.

Route amenities

• On-street bicycle lanes. Portions of the route heading north on 1^st Avenue South includes “buffered bike lanes”, where cyclists are separated from the travel lane for cars by a striped area (see below). The southbound lanes on Blaisdell Avenue include, at the Lake Street crossing, green paint to indicate an area where bicycles lanes and cars turning right need to be aware of each other.

• Helpful signage. A number of signs direct cyclists to other nearby trails, including the Midtown Greeway and Riverlake Greenway.

• More room for cyclists. The routes on 1^st Ave. and Blaisdell feature wider bike lanes and enhanced “sharrow” markings where bike lanes are not feasible. Beginning in downtown Minneapolis, cyclists will find enhanced sharrows on LaSalle Ave. South, and as LaSalle becomes Blaisdell, wider bike lanes than were there previously. On parts of 1^st Ave. an entire travel lane (for cars) has been removed to make room for bike lanes and to allow parking.

Connection points:

• Midtown Greenway. Just north of Lake St. there is easy access to the Midtown Greenway, which connects cyclists to Uptown and St. Louis Park to the west and the Seward and Longfellow neighborhoods near the Mississippi River to the east (as well as the bike path along the river).

• Riverlake Greenway. On 40^th St., the bike lanes on 1^st Ave and Blaisdell Ave. connect with the Riverlake Greenway, which connects cyclists with Lake Harriet to the west and the Mississippi River and the River Road Trail to the east. To get a first-hand view of the Greenway, check out this short video.

• 15^th Ave. Bike Lane. This connection point, at the start (or end) of each route connects cyclists with Loring Park to the west and downtown locations to the east, including bike lanes along Portland and Park Avenues and 11^th Avenue north, all connecting to the Mississippi River path in downtown Minneapolis. The 11^th Avenue bike lanes also connect to the Hiawatha LRT bike trail (which currently has a detour for Central Corridor Construction)

Landmarks and notable businesses along routes:

• Eat Street area (1^st Ave. and 26^th St.). A number of great restaurant options here including the bike-friendly Bad Waitress, Black Forest Inn and Spyhouse Coffee right down the street.

• Blaisdell YMCA. (Blaisdell Ave. and 34^th St.) This YMCA has been a south Minneapolis staple for years (although it recently got a nice makeover in 2010)

• Park Nicollet Clinic (Franklin Ave. and Blaisdell Ave.) and Whittier Clinic (Blaisdell Ave. and 28^th St.). Shorter trips make up most trips people take & are great to do by bike—visiting your physician along these routes is easy.

• U.S. Post Office (1^st Ave. and 31^st St.). Drop off your mail—or send a small package—with a quick stop at this location.

• Minneapolis Institute of Arts (1^st Ave. and 24^th St.). A Minneapolis institution—literally—is just a stone’s throw away from both routes on 24^th St. in south Minneapolis.

• Dining hot spots (various spots). A number of watering holes and restaurants live just between the routes on Nicollet including Blackbird Café (Nicollet Ave. and 38^th St.), Pat’s Tap (Nicollet Ave. and 35^th St.), and Harry Singh’s Caribbean Restaurant (Nicollet Ave. and 27^th St.). Might make for a nice “progressive dinner” on bike some warm, summer evening.

• Pilgrim Lutheran Church (39^th St. and 1^st. Ave.). Beautiful church right at the start of the 1^st. Ave. route in the Kingfield neighborhood. This church was built when streetcar lines served Minneapolis, so it has limited car parking. A great reason to try bicycling to church! There are several other churches along the route, including Plymouth Congregational Church, at LaSalle and Franklin Avenues.

• Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center (40^th St. and 1^st. Ave). With 20,000-plus square feet, this rec center is a prime gathering spot along the route for families and kids. Right next door is the Reed Sweatt Family Tennis Center, a public tennis facility with 11 indoor courts.

• Kingfield Farmers Market. The market is a few blocks south of 40^th on Nicollet Avenue and is close to a number of local shops and restaurants, including Anodyne Coffee Shop. There are many bikes there on Sunday mornings. The market opens May 20 this year.

Below are highlights of some of the new routes. Check out the Twin Cities route map to see how the network for bicycling is expanding.

5^th Street Bicycle Boulevard (with region’s first bicycle stoplight and better crossings for people walking )

This new route will connect Dinkytown, near the University of Minnesota, with neighborhoods in Northeast Minneapolis and connect up to the Grand Rounds off-road bike path along Saint Anthony Parkway. Also in Northeast, a new east-west route along 22^nd Avenue NE connects from the Mississippi River to the Minneapolis Diagonal Trail and The Quarry shopping center.

The region’s first bicycle stoplight is coming to the intersection of 5^th Street and NE Broadway. These mini-traffic signals with bicycles on them are simply triggered by pushing a button (much like people walking press the button for the walk sign).

The same intersection will be better for people walking, with better curbs and sidewalks. The same median that bikes will use to cross northbound will make it safer for people walking.

Another bonus for bicyclists is at the intersection of 5^th Street and Central & Hennepin Avenues in the heart of Northeast. When cyclists pull up to this stop light, bicycle detection in the pavement will mean the light changes more quickly for cyclists and crossing is safer.

Bryant Avenue Bicycle Boulevard

This is one of the longer new bicycle routes coming to the Twin Cities, connecting from the bike and pedestrian bridge over Lyndale and Hennepin (just south of the Walker Art Center and Loring Park) through many south Minneapolis neighborhoods all the way to West 58^th Street (great route for downtown bike commuters!).

New medians along Franklin Avenue (between Lyndale and Hennepin) at the north end of the route make it safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, creating a mid-street refuge.

The sidewalks and curbs also are getting a facelift at the intersection of Byrant Avenue and West 28^th Avenue and West 29^th Avenue. Farther south on the route, at Aldrich Avenue and Minnehaha Parkway, the curb between the Minnehaha Creek bike path and Aldrich Avenue (on the south leg of the intersection) will be altered to allow bicyclists to pass through.

Hiawatha LRT Trail Connection into Downtown Minneapolis

The Hiawatha LRT Trail is a busy bike path, running alongside the LRT tracks into downtown Minneapolis at 11^th Street. Once at 11^th, bicyclists had no good way to get into downtown, but a new path will open soon making that much easier.

The off-road path will continue across 11^th Street and over to 3^rd Avenue. Bike lanes will be added to 3^rd (headed into downtown) and 4^th (headed out of downtown) Avenues. No longer will the Valspar parking lot be the default.

Note:  We will have more information on new routes and bike lanes in North Minneapolis (Emerson and Fremont Avenues) and South Minneapolis (1^st & Blaisdell) in the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can always find more detailed information about new bike ways on the Bike Walk Twin Cities Projects page or through the City of Minneapolis Bicycle web site.