Twin Cities Bicycle Federation

Hennepin County will close the Cedar Lake Trail in May between Dunwoody Boulevard and Glenwood Avenue to perform environmental contamination cleanup. This closure will occur for about two months and is expected to close any day.

Twin Cities Bicycle advocates participated in discussions on the proposed closure and provided a suggested bicycle friendly detour route that the County has adopted. This route will start from the west at the Spring Lake exit follow Kenwood Parkway through Loring Park up 16th and along the Currie maintenance facility to the trail terminus at Glenwood.

Please take caution when you are riding this detour and obey all posted traffic controls. Soon enough the trail will reopen with a cleaner path to ride.

A lack of posting to this site means a bunch of activity behind the scenes. In March the group met once with Andy Clarke, Executive Director of League of American Bicyclists to gain advice on how to move forward and a second time to take action. This is a group that has only been discussing this advocacy organization for four months, but we are ready to move into action.

Our first campaign to improve bicycling in and around Minneapolis is to make sure that our voice is heard and we receive accommodations in the developing Access Minneapolis 10-year transportation plan for the city. In the next week the City’s Public Works department will hold two public input meetings and it is critical to see bicyclists in the audience. This plan will dictate how we use our roadways downtown and throughout the city for years to come. We at Twin Cities Bike.org believe that the voice of the bicyclist has not been heard and that if we do not act now we could see a reduction in access for bicycles on downtown streets.

We would like you and all your bicycle friendly friends to support and advocate for an Access Minneapolis plan that ensures safe and equitable bicycle facilities. We ask for your assistance in the following ways:

1) Attend one of two public meetings and speak out for bicycle equality.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall – Doty Room

Thursday, April 12, 2007, 5 pm – 7 pm
St. Olaf Catholic Church, 215 South 8th Street – Gathering Room

2) Write or email your elected city officials (or favorite elected official, if you don’t live in Minneapolis). We can help here.

Thank you for your support!

Our next gathering is Friday. Below find a proposed agenda for the discussion.

Bicycle Advocacy Gathering
February 9, 2007
6:45 to 8:45 P.M.
Brackett Park
2728 39th Ave. S
Minneapolis, MN 55442
Phone: 612 370-4924

Topic of Discussion: Developing the mission for an area bicycle advocacy group

6:45 - Welcome and Introductions

7:00 - Group Discussion - What do we want this effort to accomplish?
Some questions to address:

• What will be our geographic scope?
• Who we will serve?
• What will our mission and purpose be?

7:45 - Mission development - What are the key elements we want in an advocacy organization?

Some questions to address:

• What is the goal of our work?
• How do we want the environment for bicycling in Minneapolis to change? To stay the same?

8:15 - What do we do next?

Some thoughts:

• Take the draft of the mission and see whether an existing organization can assist in seeing this happen.
• Take the draft of the mission and move to create an organization.
• Take the draft mission and develop two activities that we can work on in the next three months (events, awareness, etc.)
• Others.

8:35 - Next Steps
8:40 - Help clean up and adjourn

Our next event to continue the discussion of an advocacy organization will be February 9, 2007 at Brackett Park in Minneapolis from 6:45 to 8:45 p.m. The park is off its own Greenway exit or 39th Avenue and 28th Street. Our agenda will focus on what will be our geographic scope, who we will serve, our mission and purpose. I had to adjust the time to accommodate the park closing time. More to come closer to the date. Enjoy the day!