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Foot Power on the Lake Street Bridge
In just two hours on a September weekday this year, 488 people were counted crossing the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River on foot or bicycles. Based on that observation, researchers project that self-powered travelers will rack up more than 1.1 million trips across the span in 2011.
That's about one-sixth of the bridge's annual vehicle traffic, roughly proportional to the width of the bike and walking lanes compared with that of the four driving lanes. Bicycle trips on the bridge are up 218,000 a year since 2007, and they now replace more than 388,000 vehicle crossings annually.
But the Lake Street bridge's 33 percent growth in cycling over four years is actually dwarfed by the Twin Cities' overall increase of 52 percent since 2007, according to the September counts at 42 scattered locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
In places where bike-walk facilities have recently opened, the gains are greater yet. For example, completing the Cedar Lake Trail extension under Target Field in Minneapolis quadrupled bicycle traffic there. By the way, the Twins ballpark is rated tops for biking in the nation, with 300 to 500 fans getting to each game on two wheels.
The surveys also show that walking is up 18 percent over the same period, including a 9-percent rise this year alone.
Bike Walk Twin Cities, a local-federal partnership to improve the region's foot-powered infrastructure, is getting plenty of bang for the nearly $28 million invested since 2005. As the Star Tribune commented last week, "If you build it, they will bike."
Posted in Transportation | Related Topics: Complete Streets Bicycles Bridges Infrastructure