Bike/Walk Twin Cities projects funded

Bike/Walk Twin Cities has funded thirty metro-area projects to encourage bicycling and walking in the metro area. The projects, ranging from colored bike lanes to traffic calming and pedestrian-friendly traffic lights, are part of the national Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Project, a four-year, four-state, $21.5 million initiative that was backed by Minnesota Congressman James Oberstar in the 2005 federal transportation bill.

The goal of the program is to increase walking and bicycling in Minneapolis and its neighboring communities by 2010. Oberstar is challenging target communities to try things that haven’t been tried in our communities or even in the country.

Bike/Walk Twin Cities, administered by Transit for Livable Communities in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), received 71 proposals and announced funding for 30 on June 7. While Minneapolis projects accounted for more than three-fourths of the 30 funded, St. Paul, Golden Valley and Richfield won approval for some of their proposals as well.

Minneapolis projects criss-cross the city, from the Norhside to Southwest, from the University area to Phillips, Powderhorn, Longfellow and Camden. St. Paul projects target the Central Corridor, Como Avenue, and the stretch of Marshall Avenue between Cretin and the Mississippi River.

“For some nearby communities, it’s new to think of bicycling as a means of transportation rather than just recreation,” explained Katie Eukel of Transit for Livable Communities. An education and community outreach project will be launched later this summer, including presentations to community groups, appearances at parades and community gatherings by a team of on-the-ground ambassadors, and a presence at the State Fair.

The Twin Cities are the largest metropolitan area participating in the plan. (Other areas include Sheboygan in Wisconsin. Columbia in Missouri, and Marin County in California.) The Twin Cities received $7.3 million of the $21.5 million awarded in this first phase of the Bike/Walk program.

Minneapolis will complete a pedestrian plan later this year, and is expected to apply in fall 2008 for money to implement proposals developed under this plan. The next round of funding will take place in fall 2008. Only government bodies can apply for funding under the program.