New Ulm to become more walkable, bikeable, in wake of grant receipt

Renee Berg, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·3 min read

Sep. 16—NEW ULM — The city of New Ulm will likely become more walkable and bikeable after receiving a $30,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation this month.

"We are really hoping that it improves the walkable, bikeable community here in New Ulm," said Jennifer Maurer, facilitator for the Heart of New Ulm and lead for the team receiving the grant funding. "We've done a lot of really great things, but we know there's lots more we can do. We want it to be easier for people of all ages and abilities to get around town."

Thirteen Minnesota cities and counties are receiving consultant support as part of a $400,000 Planning Assistance contract to help create active transportation plans, according to MnDOT.

These Active Transportation Program Planning Assistance awards connect communities with a consultant team. The consultants analyze conditions, engage the community, identify ways to improve infrastructure and encourage the use of active transportation, according to a press release. Consultants provide monthly reports, and MnDOT reviews them to ensure progress.

"Providing these technical assistance opportunities offers communities the chance to envision and ultimately implement improvements that make active transportation safe and convenient for people in the places where they live, work and play," Nancy Daubenberger, MnDOT commissioner, stated in the release. "These also help reduce the amount of vehicle miles traveled and improve local transportation options."

MnDOT's Active Transportation Program provides grants for planning, education, engineering studies and infrastructure investment related to walking, biking and rolling.

The Minnesota Legislature created the Active Transportation Program in 2018 and provided funding for the program during the 2021 legislative session.

In New Ulm's case, leaders will use the grant to develop a community-wide active transportation plan focused on improving safety for people walking, biking or rolling, especially for people who are part of New Ulm's immigrant community, elderly residents and people with lower incomes.

"It's a next step," said Jake Rueter, active transportation coordinator with MnDOT. "There's been a lot of great work in New Ulm to make it safer for kids to walk and bike to school. We hope this is the next step, taking lessons learned and applying them to the city more broadly.

"We really hope through this program, that communities think about how they can be a place where their community members have access to safe and convenient active transportation where they live, work and play," Rueter said.

Teaming together to partner with the consultant, which is HDR Inc. out of Omaha, Nebraska, are the New Ulm community groups called the Coalition for Active, Safe and Healthy Streets and Safe Routes to School, Maurer said. About 20 community members will participate in generating the plan for New Ulm to become more accessible by active transportation users.

"This award is for planning work to happen," Rueter said of New Ulm's MnDOT grant. "So we're looking at places where there's currently a need for improvements. We'll be talking with the members of the New Ulm community to better understand what people would like to see in terms of making neighborhoods safer in terms of walking and biking. We'll leave the city with an action plan for types of improvements that could be made, and insights into different funding sources the city could pursue to get the work done."