Nationally, bicycling advocates are wielding more influence, and the mall restrictions are serving as a call to arms for some Minnesota cyclists.
by Mark Brunswick
Minneapolis Star Tribune, August 12, 1997
The line in the sand - make that asphalt - is expected to be drawn today over a proposed ban of bicyclists on Nicollet Mall.
More is at stake than the 12 blocks along the mall, a prime bus route that attracts bicyclists who find it safer and more pleasant than other roads in downtown Minneapolis. The issue - whether bicyclists have a right to ride the mall - is seen by some as pivotal to the future of bike advocacy in the state. "This is a call to action," said Jim Dustrude, a bicycle coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. "This will test the body temperature of bike advocacy to see if anyone is alive."
The Minneapolis City Council's Transportation and Public Works Committee has scheduled a public hearing for 4:30 p.m. today to hear comments on a plan that would ban all cyclists except licensed couriers on the mall from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays.
More than 200 cyclists - couriers, commuters and recreational riders - rode down the mall on Friday to support keeping the mall open. The event was peaceful - and a rare coming together of the eclectic Twin Cities bicycle community in a show of tribal solidarity.
"We've been told, `Here is an extra lane with a little triangle and a bike painted on it; there you go,' " said courier and bicycling advocate Shawn Sheely, who helped organize the demonstration. "With the mall we are saying, `You are not going to do that to us again.' "
Throughout the nation, the call to arms is increasing as bicyclists become more politically active - and, in the eyes of some motorists, more irritating. The most notable display happened in July when more than 100 cyclists were arrested during a 5,000-rider "Critical Mass" demonstration that jammed streets in San Francisco.
The demonstrations occur regularly in more than two dozen cities, stopping traffic and infuriating motorists. One driver in San Francisco reportedly has started a new organization to combat the cyclists, Drivers Against Bicycle Anarchy.
A calmer climate
At least until the latest Nicollet Mall showdown, bicycle activism in Minnesota has been more tepid. This, after all, is the land of separate bike and running paths around the lakes and bicycle lanes in downtown Minneapolis and along Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Shoulders along rural roads are considered some of the best in the nation.
Cyclists have been involved in planning several roads. When plans were completed for road improvements along University Avenue and SE. 4th Street near the University of Minnesota, they initially omitted space for bicyclists. Planners believed space was available on adjoining streets. Cyclists and neighborhood residents worked with Hennepin County and state planners and restored lanes for cyclists.
"There is always going to be something the cyclists aren't going to care for and something the neighbors don't want, but there are ways to work things out," said Cordelia Pierson, a Marcy-Holmes neighborhood resident. She and her husband got rid of their car 10 years ago and have been commuting on bicycles.
Cool ISTEA
Bicyclists range from weekend recreational riders to scab-laden couriers to commuters with enough safety gear to make them more reflective than a sophomore philosophy major. But cyclists represent a sizable, potentially influential portion of the population.
More than 53 million people participated in bicycling activities in 1996, according to a survey of the National Sporting Goods Association. In the survey, bicycling finished third behind walking and swimming in popularity. About 16 percent of those riders rode more than 110 days a year.
And big money is at stake in this battle to be king of the road. Six years ago, Congress passed landmark legislation that set aside funding to accommodate alternative forms of transportation, including bikeways, rail-to-trail conversions of railroad lines and even bicycle storage lockers.
The legislation was called the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, or ISTEA. In the 18 years before the law was passed, the federal government spent $40 million on bicycle-related programs. It has spent $1 billion in the six years since ISTEA was enacted.
And there has been money for biking beyond that legislation. U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., has secured $1 million for the Hennepin Community Works 29th Street Corridor project, which will provide green space and nonstop bicycle paths and walkways along the corridor one block north of Lake Street.
Different views
The Nicollet Mall issue draws disparate voices from within the local bicycling community. The Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee recommended the ban, suggesting instead that lanes be added on Marquette Avenue and 2nd Avenue S. But even the committee is split.
"There is something wrong with a city that doesn't acknowledge that the mall is for everybody," said City Council Member Lisa McDonald, who as a member of the advisory committee worked to allow couriers to remain on the mall.
The Transportation Department's Dustrude, who is not a member of the committee, worked to open the mall to cyclists in 1993 and still believes they should be allowed. But he also can read the writing on the wall. He has suggested that the ban be instituted for one year and that cyclists then would be allowed back on the mall on a trial basis. Bus drivers and police officers would be schooled on enforcement of rules.
"I suspect peer pressure will take over," Dustrude said. "Issue a few citations, and word will quickly get out that you can't blow traffic lights anymore."
Sheely, the bike courier and commuting advocate, said more work is needed to coordinate the different forms of bicycling in the state. Bike paths such as the recently completed Cedar Lake Trail need to be connected to other paths, and entrances and exits from the paths need to be better coordinated for commuters, he said.
"I know recreational riders who want to take that next step and begin riding into work, but they are absolutely afraid," Sheely said.
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