http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11197/1160864-53.stm
In attendance was Mayor Ravenstahl's chief of staff, Yarone Zober, the bike czar, Steve Patchan and Darla Cravotta from the County Executive's office.
We met with RT Rybak, the Mayor of Minneapolis, some engineers and planners, a handful of representatives from the bike industry (Park Took, QBP, and Dero) and got to spend a significant amount of time on the saddle of Nice Ride, their bike-sharing system.
It was facilitated by two folks from Bikes Belong Foundation. Jay Waljasper, former editor of the Utne Reader and Clarence Erickson were also in attendance helping to tell the story of Minneapolis - Bicycling Magazine's #1 most bike-friendly city and a Gold Bicycle Friendly Community.
I won't get into too many details because I plan on writing a blog post about it, but suffice it to say that this experience, traveling with the Mayor's Office and County Executive's office to check out how other cities are going about making change for bikes, was pretty awesome. I can't wait to get back to work!
Minneapolis was a great bike city back in 95 when I was at the U. Dedicated bike lanes through downtown, pedestrian bridges, I could go on and on! I can only imagine how much better it has gotten. Really progressive city and would move back...however it is really damn cold in the winter...I mean seriously.
Very cool. I would be interested in hearing this "story of Minneapolis", is there any way one of those guys could come down here and speak on how they got where they are?
re: the article, I can already hear the cranks, "how much did this little excursion cost taxpayers, wah, wah, wah...." Be ready for that.
any info or stats on winter riding and inkind winter maintenance of streets from minneapolis?
It cost taxpayers zero dollars. It was funded by a foundation.
I didn't write down the stats, but Minneapolis has a 4% mode share compared to our 1.4%. That's just people who claim the bike as their primary mode of transportation. That places them 2nd in the nation to Portland. A large number of people ride year round, but I can't recall what it is. something like 1 in 4. Considering the avg (24 hr) temp is something like 13F (I think ours is closer to 30F), and they get more snow than us, it's pretty impressive.
some photos are available at http://facebook.com/bikepgh
Scott, I was so glad to hear that this trip even happened! Great opportunity for you & nice to know that folks from the Mayor's office (& the county) went as well. Hopefully they'll apply the lessons that you all learned...
Awesome. Heard from Justin how productive the following meeting was.
Jay Walljasper has written about a couple of these "study tours" for Bicycle Times:
"Portland Is Not a Different Planet" - http://www.bicycletimesmag.com/content/portland-not-different-planet
"A Week of Biking Joyously" (about the Netherlands) - http://www.bicycletimesmag.com/content/week-biking-joyously
Jay's great. He may be visiting us in Pittsburgh in the near future.
The meeting this week at PNC Park was very productive. Can't wait to see what happens as a result.
