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A TCSP Peeve (or Plus) O' The Day


Plus O' The Day: June 29, 2009

Posted June 29th, 2009 by blindeke
5th Street SE
5thstNE2.jpg
5th St SE is one-way for cars, two-way for bicycles.

One of the best city streets for bicycling is 5th St SE, which runs parallel to 4th Ave through Southeast Minneapolis. It's a narrow one-way street with lots of stop signs that runs along a park and a school with parked cars and bumpouts along one side.

The other side of the street has a one-way bike lane striped down its side, running the opposite way as the direction of traffic. What ends up happening, though, is that cars basically yield to bicycles all along the route. It's an excellent route for biking, and because there is basically zero threat of being passed by a car, it feels very safe.

To me, this what the bike boulevards proposed for Saint Paul is going to feel like. It's wonderful that Northeast Minneapolis already has a street like this. And it makes me think about how easy it would be to put a network of these streets all through the Twin Cities. Roads like this feel safe, and help to get people who are afraid to bike in traffic out on the roads. Might a network of these streets be a cost-effective use of transportation dollars?

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