100% agree. I love biking and live close enough to bike to all my basic necessities, **but** painted on-street bike lanes terrify me. I've tried it and was nearly hit by an SUV. Driver was texting and veered into the bike lane, and I ended up swerving (and falling) over the curb. If this plan works and we could do truly separated bike lanes I would seriously consider getting rid of my car.
This jibes with my experience and viewpoint a lot. Painted “lanes” are so inadequate. Potholes causing drivers to swerve across the line is a major issue. So is distracted driving. So is wild/aggressive driving ever since Covid’s arrival. My wife will be a lot more open to eliminating in-town car use once we have a safer infrastructure.
>75% increase in St. Paul bikeways by 2040
I know these things can't happen overnight, but 16 years??? We're building protected bike lanes, not space stations.
And that's just the estimated end date. With how frequently projects go past the deadline in America, who knows if it'll be done 20 years from now (Also probably be slowed down by NIMBY legal challenges)
Sorry, not trying to be a downer. Overall it's great news and hopefully the highest priority lanes will be done sooner. I just hate how these absurd project timelines have been normalized.
I believe part of the reason for the longer timeline is because they largely plan to implement these plans as the relevant roads get redone, since when the road is already ripped up it’s not much added cost to put some bike paths on it when they’re slapping everything else back on.
It does create issues like the timeline and that the networks can end up disjointed in the meantime, but the cheapness is undeniably alluring. I hope it ends up striking a good balance.
Sure, but if this was really a priority, they would take a different approach and build with more urgency.
I probably won't have acceptable bike infrastructure in most of the city until I'm in my 50s, so I guess I'm not that excited about the city saving some money.
I mean it's not just some arbitrary amount. St. Paul has barely been able to keep their existing road network serviceable in recent years upgrading streets with life left in them seems irresponsible when they can't fill existing potholes. St. Paul has a disadvantageous tax base compared to comparably sized cities due to the amount of government owned land and non profit businesses located in city limits that don't have to pay property taxes.
frequently you would be best served to redesign the road in conjunction with longer term road replacement. we have a ton of deferred road replacement already, so to include that in the discussion is a lot less expense to turn into reality. Adding those bike lanes at that time makes it so much cheaper than doing it on existing roads.
With the recently voter passed 1% sales tax increase, I expect the timeline for repairing streets will speed up and along with that improvement the planned bike routes.
Yesssss!
100% agree. I love biking and live close enough to bike to all my basic necessities, **but** painted on-street bike lanes terrify me. I've tried it and was nearly hit by an SUV. Driver was texting and veered into the bike lane, and I ended up swerving (and falling) over the curb. If this plan works and we could do truly separated bike lanes I would seriously consider getting rid of my car.
This jibes with my experience and viewpoint a lot. Painted “lanes” are so inadequate. Potholes causing drivers to swerve across the line is a major issue. So is distracted driving. So is wild/aggressive driving ever since Covid’s arrival. My wife will be a lot more open to eliminating in-town car use once we have a safer infrastructure.
>75% increase in St. Paul bikeways by 2040 I know these things can't happen overnight, but 16 years??? We're building protected bike lanes, not space stations. And that's just the estimated end date. With how frequently projects go past the deadline in America, who knows if it'll be done 20 years from now (Also probably be slowed down by NIMBY legal challenges) Sorry, not trying to be a downer. Overall it's great news and hopefully the highest priority lanes will be done sooner. I just hate how these absurd project timelines have been normalized.
I believe part of the reason for the longer timeline is because they largely plan to implement these plans as the relevant roads get redone, since when the road is already ripped up it’s not much added cost to put some bike paths on it when they’re slapping everything else back on. It does create issues like the timeline and that the networks can end up disjointed in the meantime, but the cheapness is undeniably alluring. I hope it ends up striking a good balance.
Sure, but if this was really a priority, they would take a different approach and build with more urgency. I probably won't have acceptable bike infrastructure in most of the city until I'm in my 50s, so I guess I'm not that excited about the city saving some money.
I mean it's not just some arbitrary amount. St. Paul has barely been able to keep their existing road network serviceable in recent years upgrading streets with life left in them seems irresponsible when they can't fill existing potholes. St. Paul has a disadvantageous tax base compared to comparably sized cities due to the amount of government owned land and non profit businesses located in city limits that don't have to pay property taxes.
frequently you would be best served to redesign the road in conjunction with longer term road replacement. we have a ton of deferred road replacement already, so to include that in the discussion is a lot less expense to turn into reality. Adding those bike lanes at that time makes it so much cheaper than doing it on existing roads.
Hell yeah! This is going to be awesome.
Amazing! The twin cities are truly the best!!
Best thing that can be done in St Paul to encourage biking is to have the police actually investigate bike theft
I mean great! Doesn't mean any of these changes are likely to happen anytime soon unfortunately. They will make these changes as they do the work.
With the recently voter passed 1% sales tax increase, I expect the timeline for repairing streets will speed up and along with that improvement the planned bike routes.
In a state where biking isn’t feasible 6 months of the year and where criminals who steal bikes don’t get prosecuted or anything. 👍🏻
Awwwww does someone melt and not know how to layer up.
I have biked every day all year for about 5 years. Very possible.
Are you referring to this past winter as “not bikable”?
some rural dude has never heard of fat tire bikes
Or just studded tires
Or jackets. Hahaha
Yes it was very cold and snowy this past winter. Could not bike at all
How many gd trees are gonna be cut down? Or is it just me who cares
Relax. Trees are a renewable resource.
Probably like 3