This past Labor Day weekend I was in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for the first time and was able to squeeze in a quick bike tour of some infrastructure and neighborhoods. I did a ten mile loop from the Uptown neighborhood using the Midtown Greenway, Hiawatha Trail, and Portland Avenue bike lane.
Bike Sharing System
NiceRideMN is Minneapolis’ new bike sharing system, similar to systems in Washington, DC, Denver, and Paris. It’s very affordable and easy to use. You just swipe your credit card and take a bike. The price is just $5 for a 24 hour subscription, plus modest hourly rates. It’s really a good solution for tourists and business travelers like myself. My only complaint is that the bikes are super heavy and only have three gears. This wasn’t a problem on the mixed-use trails and in bike lanes on a Sunday afternoon, but I think I’d feel a little slow riding on in heavy traffic.
NiceRideMN Bike Sharing station along the Hiawatha Trail
Midtown Greenway
The Midtown Greenway is an awesome mixed-use trail runs east-west across the city, cutting through several residential and commercial neighborhoods about 3 miles south of Downtown. It’s an old rail line that is largely sunken in a trench below grade, so it’s mostly separate from automobile traffic. The Midtown Greenway is somewhat similar to our own Trolley Track Trail in location and connectivity, but with the advantages of 1) being grade-separated, 2) paved, and 3) lighted at night and plowed in the winter. Any cyclist who has braved the Trolley Track Trail’s hordes of strollers and joggers will appreciate the Midtown Greenway’s parallel paths that provide separate space for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Midtown Greenway
Hiawatha Trail
This trail parallels the Twin Cities’ light rail line from Downtown to the airport and Maul of America/Ikea. It’s a great example of the rail-with-trail concept that is planned for our Rock Island Corridor. Someday this corridor will carry both the Katy Trail and a commuter rail line from Lee’s Summit to the Truman Sports Complex.
Hiawatha Trail, example of "Rail-with-Trail"
On-Street Facilities
Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to do much on-street exploration of the city’s many great urban neighborhoods, but the city does have many miles of bike lanes and lots of bike racks at businesses and other destinations. The only challenge I encountered was that the city has many extra wide one-way streets that promote very fast driving. We have some of this here in KC, but not nearly to the same extent. You can tell that at some point the city made a big effort to retrofit dense urban neighborhoods for fast car traffic. Hopefully the city’s great attitudes towards multi-modal transportation will eventually cause a rethinking of some of these one way streets.
Overall the city has a great bike culture. I saw the full range of bicyclists – commuters, cargo carriers, weekend warriors, roadies, fixies, hipsters, etc. The city’s lakes and rivers bless it with ample opportunities for off-street trails that work for both recreation and transportation. It’s easy to see why Minneapolis is a Silver-Level Bike Friendly Community. I’m now anxious to go back and explore more of the city, plus nearby St. Paul.
Have you ridden in the Twin Cities? If so, please leave a comment with your experiences and/or suggestions.
i lived in the twins cities for 7 years – ’88 to ’95.
great cycling community. much, much different than kc. really no comparison when you consider the natural area, tolerance to cycling by the community, bike paths, bike culture, and other recreational opportunities.
with all the lakes and recreational areas there are many different bikeways to choose from, both desginated bike path away from traffic and bicycle lane on the side of a road. i really miss it. on the otherhand I can cycle more months out of the year in kc !!!
I lived in the twin cities and really enjoyed the biking culture there. In addition to the great infrastructure of downtown, there are some great rides from converted rails to trails accessible by the light rail that take you to views of the mississippi that you don’t get by car. There is a fantastic rails to trails ride the Canon Valley trail just south on the great river road with wonderful scenery.