Bikeway blues?

The Jefferson Avenue Bikeway is a project that seems to have been going on for years. It was originally going to go pass through a completely different route but local opposition made the city of St Paul move it to Jefferson. There is much to tell in all of this about conflict between non-cyclists, cyclists and city planners. There has been a lot of drama and, to my mind, an excess of 'input' from the various parties that has resulted in a less-than-optimal use of money and possibly even a compromised final design. But, there are many voices on both sides and the project is regularly referred to in the media as 'controversial.' Read some comments online and you will realize Minnesota nice only goes so far.

The saga deserves more attention, but for now I just have a few pictures to show what a section of the bikeway looks like today.

In observing this project I have learned that a bikeway means a shared car/bike route. Otherwise, the only indication you are on a something other than a street is signage.

Look closely for the bike icon in this picture.

Another way in which this isn't an ordinary street are the half removed 'sharrows.' I say only half removed because you can still see them. As part of the agreed plan, the residents in this specific section did not want sharrows. The city's contractor placed them here because the rest of the bikeway has them. Seems logical, right? Once the complaints came in the city tried to cover them up, with limited success. This of course prompted more complaints about wasted resources. You can only imagine!

 Otherwise, this is a street. It has stop signs, car parking, shared lanes and all of the other stuff a residential street has. In my mind the primary benefit of this type of bikeway is just the formal recognition of bike traffic. The jury is out on if this creates safer conditions or encourages more use.