In Praise of Beautiful Bike Bridges
Martin Olav Sabo Bridge (Minneapolis) from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
This video focuses on a Minneapolis bike bridge that's used daily by thousands of bicyclists who'd otherwise have to cross seven lanes of traffic. Minneapolis is one of the friendliest cities for bicyclists in the country.
Already, the Twin Cities have impressive bike infrastructure: Between them, Minneapolis and St. Paul have 84 miles of dedicated bike paths and 44 miles of designated bike lanes on streets. The city has plans to install another 40 miles of designated bike lanes. Every city bus and train has bicycle-carrying capability. Every office building in Minneapolis is required by law to provide bicycle storage, and the city funds half the price of every bike rack any business installs. Although a study by the Alliance for Biking and Walking said that Minneapolis had more bicycle parking than any city in the country, transportation planners want to install $250,000 worth of new racks.
(Video via Streetfilms.)
-- Brian Foley