Minneapolis Transportation Action Plan (Engagement Phase 3)

Minneapolis Transportation Action Plan (Engagement Phase 3) Email Comment Topic Comment # The recommendations in this submission expand on this principle and support the overall Transportation Action Plan goals of designing transportation to achieve the aims of Minneapolis 2040, address climate change, reduce traffic fatalities and injuries, and improve racial and economic equity. In line with these goals, our most significant recommendations for the Prospect Park area are to • Invest in the protected bike network: extending the Greenway over the River, and building the Prospect Park Trail along railroad right-of- way • Transform University Avenue and Washington Avenues • Complete the Grand Rounds and use the Granary corridor to redirect truck traffic Priorities for transportation improvements in Prospect Park 1. Improve pedestrian infrastructure throughout the community including safe crossings of University Avenue SE (Bedford, Malcolm, 29th and 27th), Franklin Avenue SE (Bedford, Seymour) and 27th Avenue SE (Essex, Luxton Park to Huron pedestrian overpass). We encourage the city to narrow residential intersections, particularly in Bicycling, the Tower Hill sub-neighborhood where streets do not meet at right Walking, 1 angles, and crossing distances are significantly longer than needed. Additional Planters and plastic delineators could be used to achieve this ahead of Comments reconstruction. Maintenance and improvements should focus on public safety, adequate lighting and landscape upkeep. Throughout the neighborhood residents have cited safety (particularly at night), sidewalk disrepair, narrowness, snow and ice issues, and have expressed support for full ADA compliance. 2. Complete the Minneapolis Grand Rounds and the Granary Corridor (see Map 2) to enhance community access to city and regional parks and trails as well as to adjoining neighborhoods. The Minneapolis Grand Rounds completion will provide improved pedestrian and bicycle connectivity between areas of Southeast Minneapolis that are close in direct distance but separated by railroad yards. A Granary corridor connection from the railroad yards and light industrial activities in Prospect Park and Saint Paul should be designed to redirect truck traffic away from University Avenue. 3. Build out the street, pedestrian and bicycle grid in Prospect Park North to enhance neighborhood access, and connections to the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, and regional highway system. Relocate the University Transitway to the north along the existing railroad yard. The current University Transitway should be a pedestrian and bike street only. Development immediately north of the Transitway near the “United Crushers” elevators should be 1 of 103 #gompls Minneapolis Transportation Action Plan (Engagement Phase 3) Email encouraged to face the pedestrian and bike street that can be developed on what is currently the transitway. Access to Prospect Park North area for motor vehicles can be facilitated with crossings of the current transitway at 29th, 30th, and Malcolm Avenue. 4. Enhance the University Avenue commercial corridor with improved landscaping, lighting, and pedestrian crossings (Bedford, Malcolm, 29th and 27th) to support a mix of old and new office, retail, hospitality, housing and services as the gateway to Prospect Park and the University of Minnesota. 5. Mitigate the impact of Interstate I-94. Prospect Park is both served and severed by this corridor. While the freeway provides residents and businesses with quick access to the region's highway network, it also has considerable negative environmental impacts. Mitigating these should be a priority for MNDOT and the city. The long-term vision is to cover as much of the freeway trench as possible. 6. Improve connections to city and regional bike lane networks. The city, county and region/state should make it a priority to support the extension of the Midtown Greenway across the Mississippi River on the Short Line Bridge and build the new Prospect Park bike trail in an abandoned rail corridor, connecting both to St. Paul trails, the East River Parkway, and the University of Minnesota. There is a big letter from PPA supporting walking, biking, transit investments, and parking recommendations. Saved in this file. M:\PWTPE\Transportation Planning & Programming\Planning\Plans\Transportation Action Plan\engagement _implementation & cultural assistance\Input\Phase 3 Input\comments to incorporate Equity is one of the key goals in TAP. This reason alone is why we need to proactively focus together on the BNSF Bridge crossing. With nearly two-thirds of the GNG being completed between 2018 and 2020, there are missing AAA treatments identified in TAP which we ask be retroactively and expeditiously completed. The Great Northern Greenway should include the Transportation Action Plan goals and actions and not be relegated a project that came before it. 2 Bicycling The following comments reference these TAP Goals and Actions: Equity- Transportation Action Plan Goal Existing Greenways- Bicycling Action 3.1 River Crossing- Bicycling Action 2.6 Way-finding- Bicycling Actions 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 Intersection Treatments- Bicycling Actions 4.2, 6.4, 7.3, 8.4 Greenway conditions- Bicycling Actions 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, 6.10, 6.11 Public Art- Bicycling Action 3.2 Bicycling, Increasing walking, biking, and transit use are critical to meeting the 3 Street goals of the Transportation Action Plan, especially in the areas of 2 of 103 #gompls Minneapolis Transportation Action Plan (Engagement Phase 3) Email Operations, climate, safety, mobility, and equity. Reliance on driving personal Walking, vehicles works against these goals, and worsens the quality, safety, Transit, and comfort of these other modes. Therefore, prioritizing walking, Technology, biking, and transit in all projects, policies, and seasons is the only way Design, to succeed in meeting the City's goals, and the voices of those who Freight, use those modes are the voices that need to be heard and heeded. Additional Comments A. Rapid Shifts in Right-of-Way Use Given the city's goals around equity and climate change, we believe a rapid-response capability for reconfiguring street space should be instituted through the TAP's adoption, as a formal method for Public Works. With the threat of climate breakdown, and the lack of funding likely to be given to street projects over the next few years, given a post-COVID recession, the PAC sees rapidly implemented "temporary" and low-cost measures as a way to accomplish TAP goals. The PAC believes that the City's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the ability of Minneapolis staff and policymakers to make quick and broad decisions to shift public right- of-way for more equitable use, to the safety of all users. B. Winter Maintenance Winter maintenance strategies and actions are sorely lacking in the plan and need to be addressed in a much larger way. No matter how "equitable" streets are designed, without true winter snow/ ice clearance, the city will not make its goals. For six months of the year, streets do not function as designed, but function based on snow and ice. If the city wants 3/5 trips made not by car, the city should take on the job of clearing snow and ice on transit routes, sidewalks, and bike lanes before plowing streets for personal vehicles. Achieving this should be outlined in the plan in detail, with timelines. C. Plan Comments The PAC is happy to see that the city has put forth mode-share shift goals to increase walk/bike/transit trips. A ten-year timeline in long, and a goal of 4/5 trips made by something other than a car by 2030 is what is truly necessary given the rate of climate breakdown, and to increase livability, equity, and economic opportunity in our city. We applaud the goal of expanding transit coverage so 75% of residents are within a five-minute walk of high frequency transit and 90% are within a 10-minute walk. (Although we worry about true estimated walk times based on ability, and in inclement weather/winter). The Minneapolis 2040 Plan laid out higher residential density along transit corridors. Currently, transit corridors serve many purposes: transit, freight, business and community spaces, high-density, low-cost housing, and private vehicle through-traffic (not to mention pedestrian 3 of 103 #gompls Minneapolis Transportation Action Plan (Engagement Phase 3) Email priority routes). The draft TAP continues to treat these transit and community corridors as thoroughfares for personal vehicles and freight. This overlap does not work, and Public Works knows that. "Arterials" cannot be high-density residential streets, transit routes, community corridors, pedestrian routes, and also freight and high- volume motor vehicle streets all at the same time. This oversight is at odds with all stated goals of the TAP and goes against the land use put forth in Mpls 2040, which guides the TAP. You must utilize our street grid more effectively and with better equity. We support the removal of Level of Service as a metric. Design streets for the mode-share shift we need, not the mode-share we have. Increase barriers to driving via a rapid increase in parking costs, gas tax, car ownership taxes, ticketing based on income, or other measures so that drivers feel the actual cost of driving. Incentivize car- free living, and lower transit cost and access. Again: "Arterials" cannot effectively be the Pedestrian Priority Network, high-density residences, transit routes, community corridors, and truck and high-volume motor vehicle streets all at the same time. We advocate that these business/ community/ high-density living corridors become transit routes that are closed to through-vehicle (private car) traffic (see NYC's 14th Street as example study). Normalize and center sustainable transportation in City communications and educate car drivers about why changes are needed. Cars and driving should be talked about least, last, and with acknowledgement of the harm caused. Place equity and data-driven best practices before the opinions of those accustomed to being heard.

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