NE Minneapolis

Posted by Bikeverywhere, October 10th, 2012

I met her on 11th Ave near downtown. She asked for the best bike route across the Mississippi River. I mentioned that I was double checking my routes right now and pulled out the Twin Cities Bike Map. Her first reaction: “Why haven’t you mapped more routes in North Minneapolis?”  It wasn’t the response I expected, but it had the right impact.

I changed my research plans and headed north, but never made it to North Minneapolis. Instead, I ran into hundreds of bicyclists throughout Northeast. There was an open streets festival on Lowry Ave, but I didn’t even make it to the festival. Bicyclists were everywhere. Bicycling in Northeast is alive and healthy, and the area has a lot of bicycle destinations. I spent the afternoon researching the routes and came up with a number of changes.

More important, it has me thinking about the focus of the detailed urban side of the bike map. The map has a southern focus, with nearly all of Bloomington included in the detailed side, but half of NE and North Minneapolis missing. I’ll be looking at this in depth. I can guarantee that the detail side will shift northward, but the final extent of the map will be determined after further research.

And to the woman who challenged me to rethink the map, thank you.

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