Good discussion. It's getting a little sidetracked with very dated and
unfortunate assertions about how much bikes inconvenience motorists. Remember
that cycling takes work, and as inconvenient as it may be to briefly slow your
two-ton fossil fuel furnace, you can make up the lost time in about 30 seconds.
Please dispense with the hackneyed observations of bikes not stopping at stop
signs. Cyclists should use good judgement to move safely through intersections
at a speed appropriate to conditions. If you think they should follow the
letter of the law, then I suggest that on your next car trip you stop at every
stop sign, then get out and run around your car twice before proceeding. We'll
see how well you comply after about 10 of these.
More car lanes and more freeway access were great ideas in the 1950s and 1960s,
and they've turned out to be utterly destructive to urban centers. Saint Paul
is a city, and cities must accommodate a broad range of lifestyles and
commuting patterns (the concept is called Complete Streets, and Saint Paul has
adopted it as official policy). That includes people who use bikes. Many
Americans see bicycling as a recreational activity, best done by kids on a
sidewalk. Indeed, that's all it can be when cycling is intimidating, and the
few lanes bikes have don't go where cyclists want to go. I am not going to get
into specifics about which Saint Paul streets would be the best 1 or 2 routes
to funnel cyclists onto. The very premise is deeply backwards because all
streets should accommodate cyclists to some extent.
Ford Parkway will be entirely rebuilt, and the decision to incorporate bike
lanes or not is essentially cost-neutral. As you can see from the one low-res
image I posted, one design option allows 10' parking lanes (up from 8'
currently), plus normal 12' thru lanes, plus left turn lanes AND new right turn
lanes at every intersection, and a new 10' raised and planted median. That's a
lot of great amenities that will reduce delays, increase safety, and greatly
improve aesthetics. Playing with the width allotted for parking and median
could easily accommodate bike lanes, especially if the median does not include
large tree species (picture the smaller Marshall or Snelling raised medians).
Finally, we all have a psychological bias that leads us to believe that present
conditions will continue. In reality things are changing in Highland and in
our culture. The Ford plant site will be sold to a developer who will in all
likelihood mix the (zoning) uses, and will certainly connect the street grid
through the site. Imagine the traffic improvements when Mt. Curve and Cretin
connect through to River Blvd and Montreal, or even to a newly extended
Hampshire or Saunders. Patterns will change drastically, and even if there is
more traffic, there will be a lot more routes to distribute it. Ford Pkwy and
Cleveland will never be the same congested mess it is today. Couple that with
the near certainty that everything on the Ford site will be LEED certified and
laid out according to Complete Streets principles, and you have a recipe for a
very bike-friendly climate that will be a real economic engine, and that both
contributes to an benefits from comprehensive bike lane networks.