The meeting itself was at the Bloomington REI. This in itself I would imagine was a big deterrent for many people, as that part of Bloomington is about as bicycle unfriendly as it comes. I was coming from Eagan, so I crossed 494 and then was spit out onto godforsaken American Boulevard. Do I take the sidewalk and risk getting swiped every block as I cross another driveway entrance or do I take the road with four lanes and no shoulder? Hmmmmm. Even better, the drivers were clearly getting angry at me because the traffic lights are timed for north-south traffic, not east-west, I’d imagine to get people out of Minneapolis and into the suburbs as soon as possible after work ends. So after each and every light–you guessed it–I would catch-up to the same cars at the next light.
Here are my notes from the meeting:
There were about 20 attendees. The meeting started by going around the room and everyone stating what they wanted out of the new organization. These ranged from having a body that educated people on how to get out and ride to organizing all the disparate organizations that currently operate in the state to having an organization that could rally cyclists when key infrastructure was being built and it needed to be made bike friendly
The name Minnesota Coalition of Bicyclists is a throwback to the 80s. A steering committee has met twice now to talk about forming the organization. Originally they wanted to revive the old coalition, but given how complicated their bylaws are, it makes more sense to make their own bylaws, mission, and vision. They are also changing the name to: Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. The acronym BAM is already taken, so the shortened term for, say, a website will be BikeMN.
The next phase of the meeting was to brainstorm committees and then vote on them. The four that made the cut were: Advocacy, Marketing & Communications, Education & Promotion, and Technical Advice.
The meeting ended with a few general announcements:
- Humana needs volunteers to help with the bikeshare program they’re sponsoring during the RNC.
- AMCO is testing a bike corral idea at an upcoming Lynx game and Twins game. You can get discounted tickets for this.
- The next meeting will be on Thursday, August 14, hopefully at the Midtown Bike Center this time.
July 28, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I commute along American Boulevard from 494 to Penn a few times a week and yeah, it really is a crappy stretch of road for cyclists. Ironically, there are a lot of bike commuters that use this road because there really isn’t another direct or convenient option going east-west along 494.