We seem to be gaining some momentum on the Minneapolis bike advocacy front. Thanks to the efforts of a few people, the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition was created in late 2009. MBC was created to advocate for a more bicycle-friendly Minneapolis where bicycling is encouraged and anyone from 8 to 80 can feel comfortable riding. The priorities for now include improving the Minneapolis Bike Plan, advocating for better riding conditions downtown, and increasing bike parking in Uptown and Longfellow.
The downtown advocacy is what really turns my wheels about this group (I crack myself up sometimes). I have railed about the lack of complete streets and failure to accommodate cyclists downtown more than some probably care for, but it might just be starting to pay off. As mentioned previously, I was interviewed by a reporter for the Downtown Journal recently on the Marq2 Project. He had come across this blog doing research for his article and contacted me to discuss the project. That article ran in this week's DJ and although the article is short, it hit all the major points well.
The next meeting of the MBC will be Saturday, January 9 at the downtown library (room N-202) from 1:30 to 4:30.
Come on 2009 was a great year for cycling in MPLS, just see the Minneapolis city website. I mean they would never skew the facts :)
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