Bikeverywhere has just released a minor update to the Twin Cities Bike Map. Map changes reflect new research and suggestions from map users. Some changes include the addition of the Aldine St bridge in St. Paul, a trail connecting Fish Lake Park to Elm Creek Park Reserve,  a corrected alignment of the LRT trail out of Hopkins and a number of changes in the inner suburbs north of Minneapolis.

This update is part of the ongoing research that keeps Bikeverywhere maps as current as possible. The irregular pattern to the minor updates reflects the realities of publishing. When I run out of maps, I reprint and incorporate any changes since the last update.  I don’t usually make a big deal of the change. The cover and ISBN numbers are the same. The only way to tell the difference is to look at the back cover. Just above the price you will see “Rev 8.2.”  The original version doesn’t have these words.

This is the first time I’ve labeled the revision numbers, and ironically, I did it wrong.  This is the 9th edition of the map so I should have labeled it Rev 9.2.  And those of you who care about this sort of thing at all will wonder “Why 9.2 instead of 9.1?”  The answer is that I did another minor update about a year ago, but didn’t label it. Check your map. If it has a break where the I-35W bridge collapsed, it is 9.0, the major update. Rev 9.1 reconnected the bridge. It also has other small updates, but it would require some deep sleuthing to discover those changes.

It’s been two years in the making, but we’ve finally added Jefferson County, Wisconsin to the list of Bikeverywhere maps. With the addition of the Jefferson County Bike Map it is now possible to ride from the western edge of Dane County to the shores of Lake Michigan using Bikeverywhere maps. And you don’t have to do it all on the Glacial Drumlin State Trail. Skirt the southern edge of the county to connect to Racine or Kenosha. Visit Lake Koshkonong, then follow the Rock River until you feel like turning east again. Cut across the county at a diagonal, mix it up between bike friendly roads and the Glacial Drumlin Trail. Or make a tour of the Rock River and conquer some drumlins. Jefferson County turns out to be pretty interesting on its own, so consider making it a destination.

The Jefferson County Bike Map has been researched by Milwaukee Bike map researcher Bruce Thompson and developed to the same standards as the Milwaukee and Madison Maps. The routes are laid out on low traffic, scenic towns roads and county highways. The primary difference is that the Jefferson County Bike Map is a downloadable pdf file. That makes it a less expensive alternative to the paper maps, and you can reprint the map as often as you wish.

You can view the Jefferson County Bike Map in the Shopping Cart.

As a special introductory offer, the Jefferson County Bike Map will be reduced by $1.00 to just $5.00 from now until the end of 2009. Now’s the time to start planning that city-to-city bike trip, or a close to home get away into rural beauty of Jefferson County.

If you’ve used the mountain bike or ski trails of Wirth Park, visited the Chain of Lakes, ridden the river trail, Midtown Greenway or Minnehaha Creek Trail, you’ve used the Minneapolis parks and know how important an asset they are to the livability of our metro area.

The Minneapolis Bike Tour, organized by the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, is a major fundraiser for the parks system, and a great ride for showing off the system to visitors and local riders. You can support the parks and enjoy a traffic free bike ride on Sunday, September 20, by joining over 4000 fellow cyclists on the Minneapolis Bike Tour.

Bikeverywhere will be at the Start/Finish Line in Parade Stadium to talk about bike routes, show you the products we sell and get your suggestions for changes, corrections or additions to our map and book selection. We’ll also have free bikeverywhere stickers while they last. Join the Minneapolis Bike Tour for a beautiful fall ride, then stop by our table to say Hi.

For more information about the Minneapolis Bike Tour, click here.

I saw them two miles into my homebound commute; father and son, fully loaded with panniers and asking directions. The guy on the street wasn’t very helpful. He only knew the autoroute to their destination. I was going that way, so I volunteered to lead them.

Before we’d ridden a mile I knew they needed more than a shop. They were tired, a bit cranky, lost and carrying camping gear, but faced with an expensive motel stay because there was no way they would get out of the city before dark. I volunteered our backyard for the night. It’s exactly the sort of thing that others had done for me on my long ago trip to Portland, Oregon.

By chance, they were riding west from Portland. their destination was a friend’s house in Vermont. Too far into the ride to carry the novelty of the adventure and too far from the end to feel the accomplishment, they were at a mental low point, and the normal tensions of parent and teenage son were heightened. It would have been great to hear travel stories of wonder and parent-child bonding, of cherished memories and life changing experiences, but that wasn’t for this night. Dad needed someone to talk with and son needed “space” and rest.

What we could offer was an ear and a respite from the road. We fed them cheese and crackers until the large pizza arrived, then followed up with a couple of large scoops of ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. They took hot showers and dried off with the thickest towels we had. We listened as Dad unloaded his travel blues while the boy slept. In the morning Dad woke up early and worked on the bikes in our basement bike shop as son continued sleeping. I made a pancake breakfast for Dad, but son chose to get another hour of sleep.

I gave Dad a copy of the “Twin Cities Bike Map,” marked the location of shops for picking up the gear he needed and highlighted the route out of town. Then I hopped my bike and went back to work. It was a small respite for the travelers and a break from the daily grind for me. For them, I hope they form that bond and settle into a close friendship as they continue their travels.

For me, I’ve made a down payment on a debt. I can never directly repay those who helped me on my cross-country trip. The best I can do is pass the favor to another traveler. I’ve done it once. I still have a couple more to go before the debt will be fully repaid.

West River Parkway – A complete reconstruction of the West River Parkway pathways between Frankin Avenue and Godfrey Parkway will begin next Monday, July 13th. This Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board project will take place in two phases. The first phase will occur between Lake Street and Godfrey Parkway, and is expected to last four to six weeks. The second phase will occur between Franklin Avenue and Lake Street; this work will begin after the first phase is complete. Bicycle paths will be closed during construction. For more information, please visit the Minneapolis Parks website for this project.

[caption id="attachment_874" align="left" width="150" caption="Diagonal Trail North"][/caption]I spent a couple of hours revisiting the Diagonal Trail at New Brighton Blvd and I-35W on Sunday. The visit generated a series of changes and updates to the Twin Cities Bike Map. The most obvious change is the addition of a second leg to the trail at New Brighton Blvd and Stinson Blvd. The Stinson Blvd segment runs south to Hennepin Av. From there 18th Av is signed as a bike route south to Elm St. SE. This makes a good north-south connector in an area that has been underserved by bike trails. Use caution on the Stinson Blvd bike trail, however. It runs next to the road and intersects driveways and streets in an unsafe way. The problems are inherent with any two way bike trail placed next to a street.

Minneapolis has designated Talmadge St as a bike route between 18th and 27th. It’s a pleasant residential street and connects student housing to the greater campus area. It’s a good local connector, but it is short and doesn’t serve the larger area covered by the Twin Cities Bike Map very well, so I haven’t symbolized it as a bike route. While researching it, however, I discovered a very good alternate to the Industrial Blvd/Hennepin Av/29th Av SE route. See the attached map for the alternate. I’ve also added Ridgeway Pkwy between Industrial Blvd and Stinson Blvd. This has always been a very pleasant road, with a substantial hill in the middle, but it didn’t connect well to the rest of the routes until the Diagonal Trail was built.

Just north, on the overview side of the map, I added part of Long Lake Rd and 33rd Av and eliminated most of W. Co Rd C. The new routes, although not as direct, are more bike friendly.

This area still needs some work. One intriguing possibility is to run the Stinson Blvd bike route north to Silver Lake, then connect with 44th/Cty Rd E. If anyone has insights into this option, please let me know.

This is a note I received today from Brady Clark of Smart-Trips.org, a group dedicated to helping folks get around via non-automotive methods.

Hi Doug-
We were producing a neighborhood amenities map for our Smart Trips Neighborhoods program, and noticed that the Twin Cities Bike Map is missing the Aldine bike/ped bridge. Here’s an aerial shot of it:

http://bit.ly/F5cKz
Brady Clark
Communications &
Outreach Specialist
651.224.8555 x23
brady@smart-trips.org

I’ve connected it via Pierce and Carroll to Fry south of I-94 and added Aldine going north to Minnehaha Ave north of I-94.

Thanks to Brady and the folks of Smart-trips.

Maps are dynamic. Bike routes change, new trails get built and old ones extended. Some trails get shut down, temporarily, because of nearby construction or because the trail itself needs an overhaul. Well post the updates here, then provide a permanent, one-top page for all of the posts within each of the metro areas covered. If you want to see what’s chqnged since your copy of a map was printed, click the links below. If you have update information that we should know about, please email us by using the contact form here.

Madison Map Updates

Milwaukee Map Updates

Twin Cities Map Updates

Some things have gotten better and some worse in Minneapolis. Better: The Washington Ave Bridge over the Mississippi River has reopened. Bikes and pedestrians have full access to the upper deck of the bridge again. The bridge had been closed due to structural problems. The problems have been corrected.

Worse: Marquette Ave and 2nd St in Downtown have been turned into gravel lanes as the city reworks Marquette to make it into a bus transit corridor. Cyclists can weave through the construction, but will have to do it on a dirt and gravel lane. The bike lanes will not come back, but when the project is finished, most buses will be rerouted from Nicollet Mall to Marquette and bikes will again have access to the the mall 24 hours per day.

Upcoming changes: Cedar Lake Trail will be extended to the river in 2009 and 2010. Hennepin Ave and 1st Ave will be converted to 2 way streets and the Hiawatha Trail will be connected to the LRT Trail at 11th Ave.

Overall, bicycle facilities are moving in the right direction Downtown, but the changes require some large scale reconstruction. Use caution when riding around the construction areas.

The new Hwy 12 bypass directing traffic around the Long Lake business district is finished. The impact on cyclists should be minimal because most bike routes through the area avoided the busy main drag. Gear West, the venerable bike and ski store in Long Lake, will lose some exposure with the re-routed traffic, but cyclists wishing to visit the store by two wheels will be able to get to and from the store without risking their lives.