Touring Northfield with a bike and pedestrian expert

This week, I was fortunate to join Steve Clark, the Walking and Bicycling Program Manager at Transit for Livable Communities, during his day-long visit to Northfield to share his professional expertise.

Bruce Anderson, the executive director of RENew Northfield, and I met Steve downtown. He had traveled from St. Paul on his motorcycle, and when we met him he had already seen some of our city. We sat down for a brief talk, looking at some maps and discussing some of the issues facing nonmotorized transportation in the Northfield area. We then got on our bikes and toured part of town. Charley Skinner had loaned us his dual recumbent bicycle for the tour, so Bruce and Steve were able to sit side by side and talk.

We began by going east on 4th Street from downtown, using one of the few bike lanes in Northfield. At one point we stopped and Steve measured the width of the lane, saying it was narrower than it should be. However, he also noted that the parking lane to the right of the south lane was wide, which helps prevent bicyclists from being hit by opened car doors.

We made our way east of town a short ways on Wall Street Road, which we noted had no shoulders, and looked at a site of a future housing development. We  wondered how those residents would safely reach town in anything other than a car. We returned to town and made our way to Second Street and onto the Carleton campus. We then went west on Second Street and crossed Highway 3, turned north on Spring Street, turned right on St. Olaf Avenue and examined the railroad that goes under Highway 3 near Water Street.

I had wanted to show this to Steve because I’ve thought that a bike/pedestrian path might be placed next to this lightly used railroad—provided right-of-way could be established and safety ensured. This, I think, would give the town an attractive way to cross Highway 3. Steve was unsure about how achievable and useful this would be, but he didn’t dismiss the idea. We all noted that this was an indirect way to get across town, since it involves going about a block out of the way.

Later in the day, several  local citizens and I discussed this option again, and some suggested that it would work better if there were a bike/pedestrian bridge across the river near the point where the railway crosses Water Street. City council member Kris Vohs said that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources would probably not allow this, given the designation of that section of the river as scenic and wild.

We then continued our tour, going west on St. Olaf Avenue and eventually making our way north to Dresden Avenue  and past the Viking Terrace Trailer Court. We then went over to Highway 3 and back downtown.

At that point we joined about 40 or more people who had gathered for a Critical Mass ride, which was composed largely of students from the two colleges, with a few of us older folks thrown in. Such rides are meant to show people that there are significant numbers of bicyclists out there. We rode down Division Street from Second Street to the high school, taking up the entire lane and probably making a few motorists behind us unhappy.

Later that afternoon, Steve spoke about nonmotorized transportation to 24 local leaders in the  Northfield city council chambers. Those attending included city staff, city council members, appointed officials, and concerned citizens.

During his presentation, Steve made a good case for the importance of nonmotorized transportation. He argued that biking and walking provide solutions to serious problems: pollution, urban sprawl, high energy consumption, and physical inactivity. He also shared photos from his recent trip to Europe, where a far greater percentage of the population walks and bikes regularly.

Steve noted that 40 percent of all trips are less than two miles and that many of these could be replaced by walking and biking. He also discussed top techniques for promoting bicycling and walking. One of those is mixed-use zoning, which is of “huge” importance, he said. He argued that cities need to stop creating large zones that are strictly residential or strictly commercial, because people will need to use cars to travel the large distances between such areas. Zones that mix residential and commercial development are better, he asserted. “You want to create an environment where people are not dependent on automobiles to meet their needs,” he said.

Steve also emphasized the importance of the Mill Towns Trail and the Greenway Corridors project. Both could go a long ways toward improving nonmotorized transportation in the Northfield area.

Following Steve’s afternoon presentation, there was discussion of a variety of issues, including how cities can best use the services of bicycle-pedestrian planners. “You want a plan to focus on hot spots,” Steve said, including spots where there have been accidents involving bicyclists or pedestrians.
 
Specific Suggestions

During the course of the day and later in his evening talk, Steve made specific suggestions for improvements in our area. Regarding bicycling and walking downtown, he said that one bold step would be to turn part of Division Street into a pedestrian mall with bike lanes. If the city isn’t ready for that, he suggested turning the angled parking on the west side of Division into parallel parking, then adding a bicycle lane between the parking area and the sidewalk, with a curb between the bike lane and the cars—and doing the same on the other side of the street.

Another idea mentioned by someone else was to turn Division into a one-way street and doing the same with Washington Street or Water Street. If that was done, Steve said it was important that bike lanes run in both directions on either side of these one-way streets; in other words, don’t restrict the bikes to one-way travel.

Steve focused a lot on Highway 3 as an obstacle to east-west travel in Northfield, particularly for bikers and walkers. He said that it would help to recognize that the highway goes through the heart of the city and that traffic should be slowed. He proposed converting the highway from 4 to 3 lanes and said this had been done elsewhere without reducing traffic flow. He also proposed creating landscaped islands that would facilitate crossing for pedestrians and bikers. He liked the idea of a traffic light at 3rd Street. Steve was not very impressed with the new bike lanes on Highway 3; he called them “large gutters” and said that many people would not feel safe riding so close to high-speed traffic. How unfortunate that these ideas were not implemented in the current redesign of Highway 3.

A few of us gathered after Steve’s evening talk and discussed priorities. We focused on one option for action in the near future: a signed bike route between  St. Olaf College and Carleton College. That route might go from Carleton to Second Street, then west on Second, right on Linden Street, left on St. Olaf Avenue and up to St. Olaf College. That would be a nice way to encourage interaction between  the two campuses. It would also better unite the two sides of town.

Bill Ostrem is an advocate for bike-friendly communities and was the lead organizer for Steve Clark's visit.