New map will help communities develop and connect bikeways

As energy prices rise and commuters increasingly look to alternatives to driving alone, bicycling is the option that a small but growing number of commuters are choosing.

And now local transportation planners have a new set of tools to help in the effort to expand and better connect what is already, compared to most similarly-sized cities, a strong system of bike trails and bike lanes.

As the state’s largest transportation planning agencies, the Metropolitan Council and Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) help plan, fund and promote bicycling and pedestrian facilities. The agencies recently published a series of maps featuring existing and planned regional bikeways that show virtually every bike trail and on-street bike lane in a nine-county area surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul. (Chisago and Wright counties were added to the seven-country metro area by Mn/DOT for planning purposes.)

New maps will help community planners

This section of the map of existing bikeways shows bike lanes or shoulders five feet or wider (red) and paved trails (green). View the full map of existing bikeways (NOTE: This 8 MB pdf may take some time to download on slower internet connections.)

The maps are designed to be used by community planners as part of the larger process to update each community’s comprehensive development plan. Every “comp plan” includes sections on transportation and, more specifically, on pedestrian and non-motorized travel. Updated comp plans are due to the Council for review by Dec. 31, 2008.

The primary map shows the existing bikeways in the region. The second shows both existing and planned bikeways, and the third focuses on existing and planned bikeways in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The existing bikeways map reveals what the region currently lacks – a comprehensive, interconnected network of bike routes.

Officially, the new map is a “prototype” and a “work in progress,” said Dave Vessel, a transportation planner with the Council. More than 150 communities and nine counties submitted data for the map. “Because bike trips are relatively short, bicycle facilities are better planned at the local, rather than the regional, level,” he said.

“Until now, that has created a big obstacle: how to connect all the local facilities across municipal boundaries. This map will help planners remedy that problem.”

Vessel also said that because the bikeways maps are planning tools, there are no plans to print them for consumer use. They are simply too large to be biker-friendly, he said.

Map will be developed and refined over time

Data for the maps were collected over the past six years. Representatives from each community will submit comments on the map this summer to improve its accuracy and usefulness as a planning tool. The process is similar to that used by communities to refine their comprehensive development plans and local transportation plans.

Bicycling, long popular for recreation, is now becoming the mode of choice for a small but growing number of commuters.

The map will become a template for more biking maps that eventually will cover the entire state, according to Bob Works, a program supervisor in MnDOT’s Office of Transit, Bicycle & Pedestrian Section, which helped launch the project.

“Eventually, as the map is further developed and refined, and as the system grows and matures, we hope more and more people will choose to leave their car behind to get to work, to school, and for shopping and errands,” Works said.

The process of identifying system-wide shortcomings will help prioritize future improvements to the bikeway system. Though change takes time, it’s worth noting that many of the bike facilities in use today – such as new bike lanes, off-road trails, bike lockers, bus and train bus racks – were not in place in 2000, Works said.

Connie Kozlak, a regional transportation manager for the Council, said the map will help the region move toward an effective biking network in the future. “Biking and bike commuting show great promise in this region as a viable mode of travel for thousands of metro workers and students,” she said.

More off-street trails and on-street bike lanes, said Vessel, “will have great public benefits: more transportation choices, fewer cars, less congestion, less pollution, lower commuting costs and more exercise.”

Joining the Council and Mn/DOT as principal partners on the map were the Minnesota Land Management Information Center, Hennepin and Ramsey Counties, the Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the University of Minnesota.