The City of Minneapolis has received a $900,000 grant to improve cycling facilities in the city. They don’t plan to blow it all in one place, however. Highlights include:

• A new (or improved?) bridge to the new Gophers Stadium. (The question mark is because I thought Bridge #9 was behind the hospital, which is a fair hike from the new stadium location.)
• Finally finishing the Hiawatha Connection to downtown.
• Finishing the Cedar Lake Trail to the River.
• Adding a posse of bike racks.
• A new bike depot near the Greenway.

In somewhat more dubious excitement, they plan to re-stripe many existing bike lanes. Several of Minneapolis’ designated routes need more than paint to make them meet a standard of ‘not ridiculous relative to common rules of traffic.’ I’m thinking the downtown Hennepin Avenue lane, which goes through the CENTER of the road and thus is head-on to buses in both directions, and the Portland/Park lanes, which have bicycles – the slowest moving vehicles on the road – in the left-hand part of the one-way street, cutting across 3 lanes to make right turns. But, hey, the lanes will have fresh paint!

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Author: julie

Julie Kosbab is an online marketing consultant and active transportation advocate living in Anoka County, Minnesota. She was one of Minnesota's only League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructors when certified in 2005. She is a past member of the National Bicycle Tour Directors Association. She has 2 children and 4 bicycles. Find her on Twitter as @betweenstations.