As I expected when I wrote about this bridge and its corroded cables in October, the reopening for cyclists does have some plowing dependencies. While Minneapolis is on its ‘new’ plowing budget for 2011 after completely blowing the budget for 2010 with all the [...]]]>

Yesterday, the Plymouth Avenue bridge in Minneapolis reopened for cyclists and pedestrians only.

As I expected when I wrote about this bridge and its corroded cables in October, the reopening for cyclists does have some plowing dependencies. While Minneapolis is on its ‘new’ plowing budget for 2011 after completely blowing the budget for 2010 with all the November snow emergencies, running plows over the bridge is not a budgetary or safety priority. (Hey, plows are heavy.) As a result, cyclists are being asked to walk their bikes over the bridge via the sidewalk. The shoveled walkway is not wide enough to support simultaneous cyclists and walker use.

As I also would suspect, pedestrians and cyclists were using the bridge anyway, despite signage.

This situation is expected to be extended, although come spring the snow/walk restrictions will obviously be a non-point. Minneapolis hopes to get help to fund the bridge repair, which includes both replacing the corroded cables and relocating the drainage pipes contributing to the corrosion. If funding is procured, repair would take place “late next year,” whatever that means.

MNDOT [...]]]>

The Minnesota Department of Transportation publishes state-wide bicycle maps. The last editions (MN East and MN West) were published in approximately 2001. Because these maps classify state highways and major roads by volume and bike-friendliness (shoulder width, pavement, etc.), you can well imagine that 10 years on these maps are highly dubious guides to state routes.

MNDOT is working on updates to those maps, however, and are running a survey of Minnesota cyclists for input to the project.

The survey asks about your bicycling habits, and also what information you would find most helpful on a new map set.

It only takes a few minutes, so do help MNDOT gather this data for their ongoing project!

Here ’tis:

In all seriousness, not a lot [...]]]>

Yesterday, I posted the Chain Gang 1998 map of Minneapolis bicycle routes. The other side of this fold-up map features the equivalent for the Saint Paul side of the river. My scan accidentally cut off a wee bit of the bottom, but I assure you it’s not a cataclysmic loss.

Here ’tis:

In all seriousness, not a lot has changed. We picked up an additional bridge at I35E a few years back, which has been awesome, but most of what’s on this map remains a good option, and while there are a few streets not marked that also work, they haven’t been significantly re-engineered since 1998. Unlike the Minneapolis map, the Saint Paul map includes numerous streets without striped bike lanes.

Note that Jefferson is marked as a good bicycle route as far back as 1998. This is interesting in light of recent debate about making Jefferson a ‘bicycle boulevard’ – maps like this support my assertion that all such a move does is codify it with some parking changes and paint, but that cyclists have been using it as such for years.

To say that not much has changed is not to say that improvements haven’t occurred – see also the update to the Shepard Road path as an example. However, it’s generally been fairly easy to navigate St. Paul via streets and bicycles for some years, and arguably the arterial options haven’t needed to be changed much.

Wired Magazine are ‘crowdsourcing’ reviews, asking people to try their route and see what comes out of the system. It’s a generally savvy crowd, so they [...]]]>

Now that it’s been live a full 6 days, reviews are coming in on Google Maps for Biking. As with everything involving bikes and media coverage, feedback is a bit mixed.

Wired Magazine are ‘crowdsourcing’ reviews, asking people to try their route and see what comes out of the system. It’s a generally savvy crowd, so they aren’t assaulting Google (or their data sources) for errors.

Meanwhile, others are claiming Google is providing hazardous directions. The notable in this category is the NY Post, who found that Google’s data on NYC bike routes is not accurate. Commenters on this article are embracing the general run of bike-hater joy, discussing running bikers off the roads, how this is all a liberal conspiracy, etc. You know, the usual.

As someone who works with Google services every day (for money!), I’ll say that I come closer to the opinions of the Wired folks. It’s a beta project. The pedestrian walking routes instructions have also been notably erratic (routing people onto highways, onramps, sidewalk-free zones). There are prominent buttons to provide feedback. Garmin and other GPS instructions haven’t been 100% either.

GPS services and Google Maps are always going to be limited by their data sets. I think anyone going somewhere unfamiliar, or coming in from out-of-town, needs to view Google Maps as a guide. Talking to a good local bicycle shop, or a local bicycle club, will ever be your best bet for getting the real (and most current) poop on local bike routes, including road construction, reality of what traffic levels are like, and even if they’re scenic or not. No online data set will ever match the know-how of the local cyclists!

League of American Bicyclists Director Andy Clarke kicked off the proceedings bright and early at 8 AM, clearly freshly caffeinated and excited by having over 700 bicycle advocates and friends of the cycling movement in the house at [...]]]>

Speakers:

• Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)

• Governor Jack Markell (D-DE)
• Peter Rogoff, Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration
• Peter Birch and Shannon Guyman, Google

League of American Bicyclists Director Andy Clarke kicked off the proceedings bright and early at 8 AM, clearly freshly caffeinated and excited by having over 700 bicycle advocates and friends of the cycling movement in the house at the Ronald Reagan Building/ITC in Washington DC. He handed it over fairly quickly to Congressman Blumenauer. The Congressman stressed the great strides the bike/pedestrian movement has made in the last 10 years, but also stressed that the need for ongoing involvement and more involved people remains great.

A few highlights from the Congressman from Oregon:

• He presented the plans for bike lane striping on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, linking the Capitol and White House.

• He touted the introduction of HR4722, the Active Community Transportation Act (or ACT Act!).
• Discussed HR4021, an extension of Safe Routes to Schools that expands funding to high schoolers.
• Discussed HR3271 Green Routes to Work, and stressed that part of building a bicycle- and transit-friendly America is providing citizens with choices as to how they travel to and from their everyday destinations.

A key message is that we aren’t anti-car, but that much of the funding and legislation has tilted the playing field in favor of the car – even though 30% of all car trips are less than 1 mile! Most people say they would bike or walk more if they felt it was safe or that facilities were available to make it possible (like sidewalks in subdivisions).

Governor Jack Markell of Delaware was next up. Among his campaign events was a bicycle ride across Delaware. He’s especially proud that DE went from 31st most friendly state for cyclists to 9th in only a year. One of the components of that was the passage of a Complete Streets bill to encourage developers, landowners, cities, counties and the state to work together to plan communities and roadways to accommodate all users.

He also discussed the teen labor that work in Delaware beach towns over the summer – many from Europe – and the unique safety issues they’ve presented, and how the state has addressed those issues with education.

He capped his part of the presentation with a top 10 list about riding in Delaware:

1. You can brag to friends about riding across the state in a morning.

2. Hills – they’re nice, but they block the view. No issues with that in Delaware!
3. It’s fun to drop the Governor on rides.
4. Scrapple.
5. Punkin Chunkin.
6. It’s easy to outpace chickens on the roadside.
7. All their transit buses have bicycle racks.
8. Politics end on bikes (although he says Republicans have nicer bikes).
9. You can ride through lots of spray irrigation systems on hot days.
10. On windy days, you can draft behind fancy Washington DC lawyers on Route 1.

Peter Rogoff, of the Federal Transit Administration, spoke next.

He talked about how policies and programs have to address the new reality. People want choices as to how they get around. Transit use boomed when gas went up to $4/gallon, and has stayed high even as prices have dropped. Many families have dealt with the recession by downsizing – getting rid of a car and going with only one, or no, car.

Cycling and transit, together, create a powerful combination for many families. They need to work together seamlessly and be a credible option.

Thanks to the Recovery Act, transit spending rose 84% in a single year. This has really helped given that many communities have had funding struggles for transit due to the recession’s impact on property tax revenues and other tax streams.

Administrator Rogoff stressed several things:

• The potential role of bicycles in the First Lady’s campaign against childhood obesity – if kids can ride, they won’t get fat.

• The need to continue investing even though revenues are tight – transit makes jobs reachable, transit creates jobs.
• Bicycles and multi-modal options need to be built-in.

The morning session ended with the Googlers presenting the new Google Maps for Bicycles options, covered separately.

Peter Birch, Product Manager for Google Earth, was present to introduce the new features. Google Maps for Bicycling has routes and information for 150 US cities, including on-street routes and bicycle trails. Shannon Guyman, another Googler, [...]]]>

Today, at the National Bicycle Summit, Google was on-hand for the opening session to launch their newest Maps enhancement: Bike routes!

Peter Birch, Product Manager for Google Earth, was present to introduce the new features. Google Maps for Bicycling has routes and information for 150 US cities, including on-street routes and bicycle trails. Shannon Guyman, another Googler, was on-hand to provide a live demo. Each said that this enhancement is part of Google’s commitment to provide maps for people – not just ‘cars.’

We got a nice live demo, but as always, Google created a nice video demo for the rest of you:

Like other Google Maps options – cars, transit, and walking routes – the biking layer is routable. To provide directions between two places, the algorithm looks for routing info in the following order:

• Bike paths/trails

• Dedicated bicycle resources (bike lanes, sharrows, other bicycle facilities)
• Roadways that have been designated as bicycle-friendly by some data source, often signed routes

The Maps team have also adjusted estimated trip times based on average cycling speeds.

Trails and on-road facilities are marked on the bicycle layer, and okay roads feature a dotted blue line. Minneapolis’ downtown is below (clicky to enlarge):

You can either just look at an area, or route between two points. When routing between two points, you can drag the route to change it. To see a local area map, click the ‘More’ button and select ‘Bicycling’ to see suggested routes.

Google is also doing a Twitter content to give away a bike worth up to $2500 of the winner’s choosing. Deets on that are at http://maps.google.com/biking.

I also spoke to the Product Manager after the presentation. Right now, the Bicycle layer is not showing anything more specific in terms of businesses or landmarks than is shown normally. We discussed the possibility of using the Local Business Center data of businesses, many of which are tagged by business type, to potential preference showing bicycle businesses on the map, and adding ‘Bicycle Parking’ as an option for business owners to indicate on their Business Center listings. These are both long-term potential upgrades, which would make for some sweet marketing potential for bicycle-friendly businesses like ice cream shops, cookie parlours, and bike shops.

I know that relative to Minnesota, we have the excellent cycle-route wiki Cyclopath, so some of the locals may not be impressed. However, in a broader sense, this is a good development in the sense that this covers 150 cities and may assist local visitors to various towns – not just MSP. Unlike Cyclopath, this isn’t a user-contributed system, so it may not always provide the best routes. In cases where routes offered are a bit bunk, Google have asked that users provide feedback to improve the system.

As such, it’s always nice to see new rest stop opportunities open up along the route. Yesterday, near Raymond and [...]]]>

The St. Paul Grand Round is probably one of the best-known and best-mapped routes in St. Paul. Pieces of it show up in many routes through St. Paul, including several in the maps area of Ride Boldly!

As such, it’s always nice to see new rest stop opportunities open up along the route. Yesterday, near Raymond and Territorial, just north of University, a great new cookie shop opened up. The St. Paul Classic Cookie Company is just a half-block west of Raymond on Territorial, and serves up a variety of homemade cookies and muffins, and offers old-fashioned cups o’ joe too.

I sampled several flavors of oatmeal cookie there last week, and I will be plotting bicycle routes that go through this stop, particularly when riding with my son. Delicious!