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Rally to Save Lyndale's Bike & Bus LanesJoin us April 12, 2025 - 2-3pm, Lyndale Ave S and 27th April 11, 2025 Write to project planner Josh Potter, P.E. - josh.potter@hennepin.us cc Ward 10 City Council Member Aisha Chughtai - ward10@minneapolismn.gov Every time I go to a street planning meeting, it’s the same: parking vs bike lanes or parking vs bus lanes or parking vs trees. So many businesses believe they exist at the mercy of parking spots. Remove a parking spot and you’re taking money out of the cash register or out of their neighbor’s pocket. And they’re not wrong. If we remove parking spots, we’ll lose some customers. That’s a fact. But if we add transportation options, we are going to gain customers. That’s also a fact. Because people are not parking spots. This is not an anti-parking campaign. Frankly, cars are great. They do some amazing things. They’re fast. They’re convenient. They can be terrific. But only if you’re in one. Once you get out, cars become a liability. They’re big. They take up lots of space. We give cars some of our most valuable land. Cars kill people. And they’re so damn loud. Even when traffic is doing what it’s designed to do, it sucks. Traffic noise on a normal city street makes it less pleasant to sit and enjoy a meal. It’s no fun to walk near traffic. Traffic pushes people out. Traffic reduces dwell time. Part of the reason we want convenient parking on streets like Lyndale is because they’re not the best places to walk. We’ve got a thin ribbon of concrete to get us from our cars to our destination. We’re walking that line between storefront walls and moving cars. We want to get in and get out. Lyndale has the shopping and the windows, but it’s not the best place for window shopping. Traffic is not good for business.  Recovery Bike Shop started a block off Lyndale Ave S as Re-Cycle in a little warehouse space behind the CC Club. That is where we wanted to be. This is where the customers come. It can also be a place where customers dwell. And here’s the secret agenda: the longer people stay, the more money they spend. Lyndale has the draw. Bike lanes make Lyndale a more pleasant place to dwell. People like to spend time around bicycles. They don’t like to spend time around traffic. Cars are a means to an end. They are a tool for solving a problem. But the goal is not a city with neighborhoods and communities dominated by cars. Wide streets and parking lots as far as the eye can see was how we measured progress for a long time. That is not how we want to measure our neighborhoods. We want livable neighborhoods. We want people-first communities. We want healthy neighbors. When are we going to start building that reality? When are we going to start building that city? If not here, where? If not now, when? If not us, who? We want a Livable Lyndale. Join us Saturday at 2pm on Lyndale and 27th for a Rally to save the bike and bus lanes. |
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