Shortage of parking at the Midtown Exchange disappoints bicyclists

It not only disappoints cyclists but encourages cycle theft. As cyclists need to improvise more and more, often opting for more remote locations, cycle theft thrives.

YES! I was astonished to see the limited amount of bicycle racks at the Mpls public library. It is very frustrating to see that there is no foresight on the developers, landscape architects or city planners to accomodate not only the current bicycle commuters, as evidenced by the number of bikes parked to trees etc, but also they should be accomodating future users!..there should be more than enough avaliable racks.

So, what is the best way to communicate this to both the mpls central library and the midtown exhange bldg. in hopes of encouraging them to add bike parking?

thanks

My wife, baby and I tried to bike to the Midtown Exchange for opening day, but when we got to the building and saw the mess of sand we would have to cross with our bikes and trailer kid trailer we just kept pedaling and went swimming instead.

The money we would have spend was lost to the vendors.

ASK

Editors/writers: please don’t assume that readers know everything. An indication where the Midtown Exchange is located would be helpful for those of us who don’t live next door to it. Especially those of us from, gasp, St. Paul or the suburbs.

Benno Groeneveld

My husband and I went to the opening of the Guthrie, along the river in downtown Mpls, and noticed the same pile-up of bicycles.
City policy can be changed to require developers to include bicycle parking which is proportional to car parking. Please contact Mayor RT Rybak (rt@minneapolis.org) to voice your concerns. Also look at this city website for the bicycle rack 50/50 program

Thanks Ken for pointing out this problem that I too encountered! The City and developers indeed need to realize that biking in Minneapolis is no fringe activity but an increasing mode of transportation.

I apologize for sloppy reporting… the Midtown Exchange is on Lake Street and Chicago Avenue in the heart of Minneapolis.

More about this story at the Minneapolis Issues Forum.

Lack of signage is common in the twin cities. Many trails are missing
any directional or connecting signage and bike routes begin and end abruptly
without pointing out connections that may be as little as a block away.

and forget any amenities like racks or walking space or routes to buildings.

It is as though the freeways were designed without signs to intersecting freeways and roads with unmarked exits.

And when a trail is closed by some construction, there is rarely any detour marked or even thought of, you are just abruptly shown a blocked trail, done.
Which is against the law.

Thanks for raising this issue. I was at the grand opening, too, and was stunned at the absence of any intelligent connection between the Greenway and the Midtown Exchange. Like dozens of others, I dragged my bike up an eroding hillside to attach it to a newly-planeted tree. After walking up the stairway to street level, my friends and I found ourselves in a no-man’s land near a dumpster. We assumed that the nearest building would be the Midtown Exchange, so we walked in, but found ourselves in the upscale bar of a hotel restaurant. What the..? Only after weaving through the restaurant, into the parking lot, and around the block, did we find the Market.

In the current situation, the Market will never gain from the hundreds of cyclists who go by every day and would be happy to stop and eat there.

Is it possible that the city planners and developers who worked so hard to redevelop the Sears site into this gorgeous community weren’t able to envision the need for bicycle access and parking at the site? The building is sitting astride the Greenway. It’s too obvious. So what happened? That stairway cost a fortune; what on earth was the point of putting it there? And one bike rack? It’s so inadequate that it’s an insult to the community effort put into both the Greenway and the Market.

NOT to trivialize this, as connectivity for cyclists is certainly important…

Those of you living as Minneapolis cyclists need to realize how good you have it. The infrastructure that exists in the twin cities is unparalleled compared to other urban areas of similar size.

After living in the cities for a number of years, I moved on to a different city where I am now forced to complete 75% of my trips on city and suburban streets with no shoulders and no painted bike lanes. The majority of streets, even in the city, do not go through, and pedestrian bridges across waterways, freeways, and rail ROWs are rare, relegating me to high-traffic arterials. I was reacently forced out of the driving lane and ended up colliding into the back of a parked vehicle (only a couple bruises, no damage to my bike, fortunately.)

While many of the comments have been constructive, for the few who have written downright caustic remarks, I hope you’ll reconsider your attitude and channel your energy (or frustration) into helping improve the system you have instead of creating divisive rhetoric that will create more resistance from developers and city hall.

PS, I already have plans in action to make my way back to a place where I can ride with some peace of mind…