We have a plan.

Persistence pays off. On a beautiful Thursday morning in July I met with representatives from the city, county, and park board along with a member of the Longfellow Environment & Transportation Committee who happened to be passing by, at the intersection of West River Pkwy & Lake Street. We stood together and watched how the public hacks their way across the street using a variety of creative routes. It was clear to all present that the crossing needs improvement. Happily, it only took half an hour of discussion to agree upon a two-phased plan:

Phase 1: When East Lake Street is completed in fall of 2007, Hennepin County will rebuild the intersection so that the existing pair of curbcuts are relocated a bit southwards to allow for a more direct line of travel for anyone crossing between the trail on West River Pkwy and the sidewalk going up to Lake Street. County crews will also remove the end of the sidewalk that hooks to the north at the bottom of the hill, where the soon-to-be-obsolete curbcut is currently located. The county engineer said he would add some of those gripper dots that you see at some intersections to the curbcut at the bottom of the hill. I have no idea how helpful those dots are, but I guess they could help a person get traction. The whole package sounds great to me!

This improvement will help anyone who is using the sidewalk on the north corner of this intersection. However, many bicyclists (including myself) get on and off the trail at the middle or southern end of the intersection to access the street rather than the sidewalk. I would like to simply see another curbcut added here, at a point that be easily found by looking where the grass has been worn away by bicycles jumping the curb from the bicycle trail to the street. My very first post has a photo taken from that exact spot.

However, the Park Board frowns on having curbcuts that exit to the street; their curbcuts all seem to be street crossings rather than trail access points. We need to work on that. Which brings us to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Since we couldn't decide on how to handle the second proposed street-access curbcut, we'll defer the discussion until the date when plans get ramped up for repaving the bicycle trail on West River Parkway. Heaven knows the trail needs work; I rarely take it because I find it uncomfortably-verging-on-dangerously bumpy (I have a scar from a bad spill I took while avoiding some of the worst bumps). As I recall it is slated to be repaved in 2010. That sounds like a long ways off, but it gives us plenty of time to think about how we can make the trail work better for our community.

I will continue to follow up with the various staff I've been working with and make sure this is staying on track. I will try to get a copy of the engineering plan for us to see before construction begins, in case any minor adjustments are needed.

This is very exciting! The low-hanging fruit is about to be plucked. It only took about 30 phone calls, 6 months, 1 meeting, and a blog.