St. Paul draft bike plan update emphasizes separated bikeways

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·8 min read

Along Summit Avenue, a pitched debate over a potential separated bikeway — protected from car traffic by curb, parking or other elements — trundles on, but the city of St. Paul is still moving forward with a major update to its 2015 bicycle plan that adds more separated bikeways citywide.

Instead of shared lanes or in-street bike lanes, as once envisioned or already existing, the city is looking to add separated bikeways along Hamline Avenue, Marshall Avenue, Cleveland Avenue, Ruth Street, Burns Avenue, Ford Parkway, St. Clair Avenue and more. That’s largely based on federal and state best practices that recommend separation when daily traffic volumes exceed 6,000 vehicles, as well as environmental goals laid out in the city’s 2019 Climate Action and Resilience Plan.

The thinking goes that reducing carbon emissions will require infrastructure accessible to cyclists of all ages and ability levels, not just seasoned bikers.

“We know that people want them,” said Jimmy Shoemaker, a senior planner with the St. Paul Department of Public Works. “They’ll encourage more and new riders — this cross-section of people in the community who want to bike, who just don’t feel safe doing so.”

Among the gains, he said, are street improvements that benefit pedestrians and make streets safer for drivers, too. “It means that bike space doesn’t need to be accommodated in the street … so we can actually narrow the street, which slows traffic down,” Shoemaker said.

The draft plan includes four major types of bike facilities — including shared street lanes, in-street bike lanes and bike boulevards — while significantly expanding the planned network of separated and off-street bike paths. A city survey on the draft bike plan will close June 30 at stpaul.gov/bikeplan.

Depending upon public feedback, the updated plan could come before the St. Paul City Council for final approval by the end of summer.

Challenges and opportunities

Shoemaker acknowledged that separated bikeways pose challenges.

They tend to require a full reconstruction of the entire street to install, which means building a network takes more time, money and planning than simply drawing lanes in the road or posting signage. Cyclists have also pointed to maintenance concerns, such as delayed snow clearance.

That said, said Shoemaker, “there are examples in St. Paul where it’s clear in-street bike lanes are difficult to maintain, too, because cars pack the snow down,” and situations where off-street bike lanes are relatively easier to clear in some cases.

“It’s going to take an adjusted strategy in order to allow people to bike in the winter,” he added. “This bike plan is not going to give us all the answers for what are the resources we need so people can bike comfortably all seasons … but I think that’s something there’s energy at the city to think more about.”

Then there’s the need for speed, or less of it.

“People who are confident (riding) in the street will likely have to slow down when they’re riding on separated bikeways, and that’s a priority for the city in order to encourage new riders,” Shoemaker said. Evolving technology such as speedy electric bikes adds a further wrinkle.

On any particular corridor, the bike plan does not specify an exact design, such as whether the city would build a two-way bikeway or add a path on either side of the street. That level of detail gets worked out as street reconstruction is plotted.

Critics push back

Bikeways have elicited strong reaction on all sides, with some saying that after the recent post-thaw deluge of potholes, St. Paul would do better to focus instead on basic street maintenance that the city has been hard-pressed to find funding for.

“Look up what percentage of people (who) bike to work in Minnesota — miniscule,” said Jason George, business manager with the Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, in a recent social media thread.

“Complete waste of taxpayers’ dollars to do anything other than paint some lanes on the road,” said George, whose labor union represents laborers in St. Paul Public Works, Parks and Rec and Regional Water Services. “Rich people on $4,000 bikes getting their way because they have time to complain — the definition of privilege.”

Andy Singer, co-chair of the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition, takes a different tack. After years of advocating for certain bikeways that have never materialized, such as an extension of the Midtown Greenway from Minneapolis into St. Paul, he calls some of the proposed routes in the St. Paul draft plan more fanciful than financially or politically realistic.

“Sure, whatever, it’s nice that you’re putting it on a map,” said Singer, who plans to step down soon as co-chair of the bike coalition after some 13 years. “But just because it’s on that map doesn’t mean it’s going to be reality. I’ve seen many, many plans come and go from different agencies. Plans are aspirational.”

In some cases, given both traffic volumes and vehicle speeds, the proposed update to the 2015 bike plan calls for rethinking planned amenities. The draft plan, for instance, replaces a red line on Marshall Avenue, indicating future in-street lanes, with a green line marking a future separated bike corridor.

That strikes Singer as even more politically untenable than Summit Avenue, given that Marshall is home to much higher density housing. And the avenue will soon accommodate bus-only lanes for the B Line, Metro Transit’s bus rapid transit route from downtown St. Paul to Uptown Minneapolis. That’s a lot to fit on Marshall.

“To do a separated bikeway on Marshall Avenue? Very difficult, unless you removed half the parking. Marshall is a street that has a tremendous number of multiple-unit buildings, so parking is even more important than on Summit Avenue,” Singer said. “I just don’t see it happening. And the city doesn’t have any money.”

Other separated bike paths

In downtown St. Paul, after separated bike facilities debuted on Wabasha Street, some businesses have complained that their delivery drivers have had trouble finding parking.

In some corners of St. Paul, a growing number of voters have begun to say St. Paul needs greater focus on core city services — including property tax relief and road repair — than on social or environmental priorities.

A similar sentiment has been echoed by mansion-dwellers on Summit Avenue, where opponents of a planned separated bikeway recently took the city of St. Paul to court for additional public data following 18 public records requests.

The St. Paul Planning Commission unanimously approved the Summit Avenue bike plan on April 28, setting the stage for a city council vote in June.

During the Ward 1 DFL endorsing convention the next day, five city council candidates were asked to weigh in on the Summit bikeway, and only one — Suz Woehrle — stated she was unequivocally in favor of it. Some candidates gave ambiguous answers, while others said they were flatly opposed. Woehrle, who is campaigning on a “Streets for All” platform, was eliminated from the endorsement contest in the first ballot.

Similar political battles are brewing elsewhere. In Rochester, Minn., three of seven city council members recently proposed removing an in-street bike lane from downtown Center Street, which they said needs more parking spaces.

A growing network

Despite some vocal opposition, city surveys taken during the pandemic show most respondents — 54% — said they were interested in cycling but hesitant to take to busy St. Paul streets. Another 34% put themselves in the “no way, no how” category, while 12% said they felt at least somewhat if not highly confident biking on existing city infrastructure.

Taken together, two-thirds of respondents showed at least some openness to cycling, if not avid interest.

To facilitate those on the fence, protected bikeways have recently been constructed on Wabasha Street into downtown St. Paul as part of the Capital City Bikeway, along Wheelock Parkway as part of the Grand Round trail, and elsewhere.

Major city partners are likely to add more of their own. The Minnesota Department of Transportation recently unveiled three potential designs for improved bike amenities along John Ireland Boulevard over Interstate 94 approaching the State Capitol building, including a six-inch raised median or, alternatively, a 20-inch concrete barrier to separate cyclists from drivers.

Some in the bicycling community have said the plans, which would likely narrow driving lanes, don’t go far enough and should achieve traffic calming by removing some vehicular lanes altogether.

Ramsey County, which owns much of Rice Street, has identified a separated bikeway in their designs for road improvements there. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Gateway State Trail currently has a separated bike corridor.

And major development sites such as Highland Bridge, the former Twin Cities Ford plant site, and The Heights, formerly the Hillcrest Golf Club, have provided additional opportunity for bike amenities.

More information is online at stpaul.gov/bikeplan.

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