The Three Rivers Park District Board of Commissioners has developed a master plan for the seven-mile paved multi-use Intercity Bike Trail, which will travel north-south from Lake Nokomis Parkway in Minneapolis through Richfield and to the Minnesota River in Bloomington.

The trail will connect to the Minneapolis Grand Rounds trail system at Lake Nokomis, Three Rivers Park District’s Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail in Richfield, and the Mall of America in Bloomington. Future connections across the Minnesota River to Dakota County’s regional trail system and proposed Minnesota Valley State Trail also are considered.

Copies of the master plan are available at www.ThreeRiversParks.org (search for “Intercity” in the search box at the upper right corner of the home page)

The public has the opportunity to provide comments from April 2 through May 1; written comments may be submitted by e-mail to ICRT@ThreeRiversParkDistrict.org, by fax to 763-557-5248, or by mail to: Three Rivers Park District, Intercity Regional Trail, 3000 Xenium Lane N., Plymouth, MN 55441

The southern leg of Milwaukee county’s Oak Leaf Trail follows Drexel Avenue. Construction has started on a new interchange that will connection I- 94 with Drexel, resulting in intermittent closings of Drexel between S 27th St and S 13th St. The Wisconsin DOT has posted a detour for cars but not for bicyclists. Unfortunately the car detour (north on 27th, east on Rawson, and south on 13th for those traveling towards Lake Michigan) does not work well for bikes, carrying heavy traffic and, in the case of 13th lacking a shoulder.

It appears that the best detour for bikes would be to go south on 27th, east on Puetz, north on Shepard, east on Forest Hill, and north on the power line bike trail to Drexel, for bicyclists traveling towards the lake. Those going away from the lake would take the same route in reverse. Note that Puetz Rd west of 27th lacks shoulders and can carry heavy traffic.

According to the DOT’s web site, Drexel will be closed until November.

Once upon a time, Chicago’s movers and shakers, such as the Wrigleys and the Ryersons built mansions along Lake Geneva. During the summer, their families would escape the heat and ride the train to their summer homes. Many of the mansions are still there but the train is gone. But a short stretch of the old railroad has been turned into a bicycle trail.

Apartments made from boxcars

Whenever a new facility is proposed for bicyclists, in Milwaukee at least one can expect some letters to the editor in adamant opposition. Some look at bicycling as a frivolous activity; others seem to have been traumatized by an encounter with a bicycle. But the most frustrating are those who claim to be bicyclists, state that they would not use the facility, and conclude that therefore no bicyclist in his right mind would use the facility.

For example, when a bicycle lane was proposed for Milwaukee’s Hoan bridge, there were a number of letters that insisted the bridge was too steep and too windy for bikes. Yet when the bridge was closed one morning last summer to allow the UPAF Ride for the Arts to cross, it proved very popular and much less steep than many of the hills that bicyclists often ride.

I have run into several other examples in the past month. A proposal to extend the Lake Parkway south with a parallel bike path resulted in several letters saying that the idea was folly since the letter writers would never use it. A proposal to add shoulders to a road reconstruction in Pewaukee also apparently prompted letters that insisted bicyclists did not want shoulders.

The notion that bicyclists can project from their own preferences to what all bicyclists want seems like a stretch to me (although I am also skeptical as to whether some of the letter writers are the avid bicyclists they claim to be). In my experience bicyclists vary widely in what they look for in a route. Some just want to get from one place to another as quickly as possible and have considerable faith that drivers will look out for them. Others put much greater weight on scenery and protection from traffic.

Recently, I complained about new trails in Brookfield (and Milwaukee) that are reported on maps before they actually appear on the ground. A recent visit to Brookfield shows some progress in making reality match their map. The black plastic fencing used to mark off construction zones has appeared along the routes of three of the trails. On the fourth, filling in a gap through a wetland along Brookfield Rd, a boardwalk has actually been built but is not yet open.

Still no evident progress along the Milwaukee trails, however.

Plans are afoot for a new national wildlife refuge in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Called the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge, it would be centered on Genoa City and run between the Bong recreation area on the east roughly to the western shore of Lake Geneva. The northern boundary approximately follows the White River State Trail and the southern shore of Lake Geneva. Despite its proximity to Chicago and Milwaukee, this is an area of small towns, lakes, farms, and country roads that offer great bicycling.

In contrast to older National Wildlife Refuges that consist primarily of federally owned property, the new refuge would be a patchwork offering a variety of environments for wildlife, particularly birds that could move from site to site. This does seem to fit in with current thinking about conservation: rather than concentrating on preserving completely wild areas, find ways to support both wildlife and a variety of human activities.

Recently posted on the Root River Trail website:

Root River State Trail Report April 2, 2012: The bridge repair work is complete and the trail is open from Lanesboro going east to Whalan. Going west toward Fountain, the bridge near Riverside on the Root Restaurant is closed, however, you can access the trail west by starting at Lanesboro’s Bass Pond Parking Lot at the base of County Hwy 8.  The new trail segments will be widened and resurfaced for a fantastic biking experience. The trail is completely OPEN all Saturdays & Sundays and on weekday evenings.

Bikeverywhere offers two options for learning more about the Root River Trail. check out our book Bicycle Vacation Guide or get just the Root River Trail a PDF of the Root River Trail chapter in Bicycle Vacation Guide.

The attached photo shows the underside of I-394 where it crosses over the trail. All of that white paint is part of an anti-graffiti campaign. It’s expensive, not very attractive and requires constant vigilance. A better solution, wall art, works throughout the city. Wall art turns an unattractive building wall into public art. It allows an artist or group of artists to express themselves and it discourages graffiti. Let’s turn this dark, somewhat intimidating stretch of the Cedar Lake Trail into a public art gallery. With a palette this large, my guess is that we would have stiff competition among local artists for the right to create a public art display.

North Star, You, Your Bike has been updated. The new file has an insert map for Monticello and new labeling for some of the highways on the North Overview Map. Although the routes haven’t changed, the updated map is easier to follow because of the added detail through Monticello and the additional highway numbering in several locations along the routes to Lake Maria State Park and Elk River.

With the arrival of spring and warmer weather, take advantage of the extra range that the North Star Commuter Rail offers for you and your bike. Families will especially enjoy taking the kids on the train to Anoka, then crossing a single street next to the station to hop on the Rum River Trail. From there you will enjoy car free riding along the banks of the Rum River. At the north end of the trail you can cross the river to Rivers Bend Park for a picnic before returning to the station. You will have over 5 hours to complete the six mile round trip, so pack lunch and fishing poles for a relaxing day.

Sometimes a new piece of public infrastructure fits so neatly into a neighborhood that it appears to have been there forever. That’s what I felt when I checked out the new Mozaic Bridge and bike ramp near Hennepin Ave in Uptown. I first learned about the bridge when Andrew Dahl of the Ackerberg Group asked me to add it to the Twin Cities Bike Map.

During my brief visit I saw dozens of bike riders using the ramp and the bridge. The two amenities had become so integral to the neighborhood that I had to ask Andrew just how long they had been open. I questioned whether I had simply missed seeing them over the last year. Andrew assured me that the bridge is new and his colleague verified that it opened in January.

The bridge creates a nondescript, perfectly ordinary pedestrian crossing. Riders and pedestrians crossed over it and under it without comment. It didn’t draw attention to itself or inspire grand thoughts. The beauty of the bridge was in its pure functionality: You could get from one side of the Greenway to the other without dealing with the traffic or transit stations on Hennepin Ave, and the ramp connected a medium density neighborhood with the highly trafficked trail. In light of the recent failure of the Martin Sabo Bridge, further east on the Greenway, the simple sturdy design of the Mozaic Bridge is even more appealing.

If I have any complaint, it’s about the connection between the south side of the bridge and the rest of Uptown. The bridge empties onto a busway that feeds the transit station. The space around the station is uninviting for either bikes or peds. A walkway across the bus road runs past the Mozaic Art Park with it’s signature Colussus II head, but it doesn’t give the sense of a throughway for either bikes or pedestrians. As a matter-of-fact, it wasn’t until I had left the area, via the ramp and Greenway, that I realized that I didn’t even follow the walkway to see if it connected to anything.

The bridge, ramp and still developing Art Park were built by the Ackerberg Group as part of their new multi-use Mozaic Building. I’m not an architect, so I can’t comment intelligently on the design of the building, but I did note that it steps back from the trail as it rises, an intentional design feature that prevents the building’s shadow from blocking the sun on the trail. That design feature, plus the public bike and pedestrian amenities that came with the project, make Mozaic a great addition to the Uptown area.

The Mozaic Bridge and the bike ramp to the Midtown Greenway will be part of future Twin Cities Bike Maps but, like the bridge itself, the symbol for each will not stand out. They will be simple green lines on the map, but they will do their job when you get to the area.