Roosevelt Drive’s new sidewalk

Grant Park trail at Jefferson Parkway Grant Park trail at Jefferson Parkway Roosevelt Drive's new sidewalk

Roosevelt Drive's new sidewalk Sidewalks at Roosevelt Drive and Jefferson Parkway Roosevelt Drive's new sidewalk
Roosevelt Drive sidewalkI noticed last week that the new sidewalk on Roosevelt Drive is being installed, part of this summer’s Lockwood Division Roosevelt Street Improvements Project. (See my black arrows and black loop on a screenshot of the area on the image on the right. It’s taken from the Comprehensive Parks and Trails Map pdf.)

It’ll be great to have more off-street walking/biking in the neighborhood, plus it’ll connect to the Grant Park trail at one end and the sidewalks by the Senior Center and the NCRC building at the other, all part of a network of sidewalks and trails by the High School and Bridgewater Elementary.

Jefferson Park trail at Jefferson Parkway Jefferson Park trail at Jefferson Parkway Trail Route sign; Jefferson Park trail at Jefferson Parkway
One thing that still puzzles me, however, is the end of the trail that goes through Jefferson Park. It connects to the sidewalk but across the street, there’s a sign on the north side of Jefferson Parkway that says "TRAIL ROUTE" with a 90 degree arrow. If the intent is to signal people that now on-street walking/biking is required, it seems like there should be a curb cut there where a section of the sidewalk was just replaced.  Or am I confused?

4 Comments

  1. George Kinney said:

    I think the intent of the Trail Route sign was to get bikes off Jeff Pkwy as it goes into the very narrow ‘traffic control’ area near the schools. I’ve tried jumping the 6 inch curb at the sign -pretty tough to do while making a 90 degree turn, so I usually just avoid that stretch during traffic hours (I live in the subdivision), taking a roundabout way home.

    I’ve mentioned the possibility (to both TJ Henricy and Joe Stapf)that the perfect opportunity exists right now (with the subcontractors working on Roosevelt) to make this accessible — and complete the planned bike trail.

    May 27, 2012
  2. The “trail route” signs are a feature I associate with bike-unfriendly communities like Eagan, Apple Valley, etc — vaguely guiding bikers through which sidewalks they should take to reach undisclosed destinations. Though I do find them profoundly useless, I think you’re wrong about the intent to get bikers of W Jeff Pkwy, George: I think they just indicate the connection between Jefferson Park and Grant Park — I assume they intended you to cross at the crosswalk at W Jeff Pkwy and the western entrance to Roosevelt Dr. Or more likely, the staff who erected that sign however many years ago didn’t have any clear intention on how one would bike the route at all.

    In any case, glad to see the sidewalks coming in on Roosevelt.

    May 28, 2012
  3. George Kinney said:

    Saw you, Sean, at the MNDOT “CSS” and Complete Streets session last night (pretty interesting –MNDOT wants to collaborate; now interested in ‘Complete Green Streets’), and afterward I spoke with Joe Stapf that he has viewed the abrupt trail ending at Jeff Pkwy.

    To your point — the city’s bike trail map (http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/assets/b/BikeTrailMap_Pamphlet_20090728.pdf) doesn’t show any on-street bike trail anywhere on the Parkway, even though there are signs indicating it is a trail — and additional signage across 246. Your sentence about city staff and lack of intention seems right on.

    May 31, 2012

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