Northfielder, Ole, and web designer Sean Hayford O’Leary has put up a web page titled We need a Jefferson Road Bikeway.
His introduction:
Jefferson Road, once a rural route from Northfield to Dundas, is now the only city street that follows the same route as South Highway 3. As Highway 3 has a high speed limit and almost no nonmotorized accommodations, Jefferson Road has become a popular bikeway for accessing the southwest corner of Northfield, including retail areas at Target and Heritage Square. This document discusses Jefferson Road from West Jefferson Parkway to Hidden Valley Road, which is being resurfaced in 2011.
Jefferson Road’s resurfacing and associated issues are before the Northfield City Council. See:
- Nfld Patch: Jefferson Road Residents Oppose, Council Reconsiders Assessments
- Nfld News: Council will rethink road costs
The issue was on the agenda for this week’s (June 14) Council work session. See pages 4-6 of the packet, as it contained this information about extending the bike/walking trail:
Trail – Staff was asked to consider extension of the trail that ends at 1605 Heritage Drive (Community Resource Bank property). Because of the time constraints for providing this information, a complete evaluation could not be completed. However, some preliminary information is provided below.
- For the purposes of this review it was assumed that the trail would be extended from the current dead end, north along the east boundary of TH3 to Jefferson Parkway. The length of trail is approximately 4,500 feet. Alternate alignment options should be considered if this option moves forward.
- Section 5 of the Comprehensive Transportation Plan provides preliminary planning costs for various types of transportation improvements. Basic trail is estimated about $150,000 per mile. The basic cost only includes minimal grading, subbase and trail surface. Special project needs such as property acquisition, easements, soil corrections, etc. are not included. This segment of trail is estimated to cost more than $130,000.
- Location of the trail in the ROW of TH3 would require coordination with MnDOT and acquisition of appropriate use permits.
- Location of the trail on private property would require coordination with MnDOT and acquisition of appropriate use permits.
- Location of the trail on private property would require acquisition of permanent trail easements along with temporary construction easements.
- Most of the residential lots are wooded along the west property line. Tree loss is expected to be needed to accomplish this trail. Until a survey is completed to define property boundaries in relation to tree locations, a true impact cannot be determined.
See Sean’s analysis and proposed solutions and chime in here with your questions and reactions.
why?
you don’t even have to cross highway 3. you can go under the 5th street bridge.
As a person who grew up in this area, I agree with Sean. I’d love to see this happen.
This is an excellent idea and well-presented. Much less expensive and more immediate solution than adding a trail on the east side of HWY 3. There are other streets in Northfield with similar potential for encouraging cyclists to feel safe. I’ve suggested to City staff for years that Lincoln Street on the west side could be striped with bike lanes from Greenvale all the way to Cannon Valley Road and then Cannon Valley Road to North Avenue. These are streets with virtually no parked cars. All it would take is some paint and a few signs.
A little paint, and Northfield would be a better place. Great Job Sean!
As always, Sean’s thoroughness, thoughtfulness, and intelligence are shining through. I keep hoping he’ll run for office someday. His commitment to positive civic engagement should be inspiring to us all.
An update on the bike trail and sidewalks along Jefferson Road:
Nfld News: Road assessments may drop
It would seem to be a good idea for someone to attend the Council meeting this week and speak to this issue of the need for a bikeway along Jefferson Road.
Thank you all for your support. I regret that I am out of town until mid-August, and can’t attend the upcoming Council meeting, but am hopeful that a representative from St. Olaf Green Bikes will be there.
Just before leaving town, I got an anonymous letter from a Jefferson resident (signed “A Taxpaying Resident”). It starts:
Of course, I would prefer to address the homeowner’s concerns directly, but with no return address or name, I’ve instead responded to the letter in full here.
Sean,
How did you respond to the other residents who contacted you?
Two were emails, and the other was a phone call. Neither e-mail made as many general claims as that letter, but simply described that resident’s need for parking. Both e-mail writers expressed support for a compromise solution that would allow for some parking on the street. Neither was totally opposed to a bikeway. My only responses generally clarified, for example, why sidewalk bicycling was not generally a good idea and was not a substitute for a safe space to bike northbound.
The phone call, we talked for about 10 minutes. She was not supportive of a bikeway, but her main concern was the assessments. We went back and forth for a while… I tried to explain the use of the road, particularly for college students — but really for all residents — as safe, nonmotorized access to Target/Cub/Heritage Square. I don’t think I really convinced her, but again, she seemed most concerned with lowering her assessment, certainly a reasonable point of view for someone living on the road.
Nfld Patch: Jefferson Road Residents Get Reprieve on Assessments
Re: you comment in #7, Griff, I sent the following note to the council late last week:
Councilor Erica Zweifel responded: “We already directed staff to do this at our last work session.”
Jane, that’s great to hear. Thanks so much for doing that. Any idea on which staffer at City Hall will be most involved with this since Katy Gehler is leaving soon?
To be clear, Erica meant that the council directed staff to research/present details of the shared lane option, which was shown last night at the council meeting (thanks to KYMN for the very helpful streaming). Well, actually, no such diagram was shown; the consultant from Bolton-Menk simply copied and pasted some diagrams from the Mn/DOT Bikeways Manual into a PowerPoint.
What was shown looks pretty bad, though: it is essentially the same setup as it is now, with a striped parking lane and an offset center line. The only difference would be a few “share the road” signs — those aren’t a bad thing, but, of course, you should always share the road! 😉
This may be a limit of being a Municipal State Aid street, but the consultant did indicate that exceptions are possible. I still feel very strongly that a striped parking lane is damaging to a bikeway and unhelpful on a street with very few parked cars at any given time. Staff clearly indicated that bike lanes (no parking) would have the best traffic calming effect, which was a major concern of residents.
It seems to me that the Council needs to ramp up its public engagement with residents along Jefferson Road soon. Otherwise, many people are going to be unhappy, no matter what gets decided with parking/bike lanes.
Nfld Patch: Jefferson Road plans chosen
The final design is quite unusual and not a great bikeway, but I think the council had the right spirit in mind, and I’m hopeful it’ll be well-used.
To clarify, if north is up, what they voted for was:
|-8-|-11-|-11-|-5-|
The idea being that bicycles will ride in the 8′ parking lane going south and the 5′ bicycle lane going north. I’m not sympathetic to Mayor Rossing’s concerns about width. They’re stripes, not guard rails — if, once in a blue moon, a really wide truck needs to use the road, the exact location of the paint on the pavement doesn’t matter all that much.
In any case, I do think this is a good gesture of the council’s and a solid step in the right direction. I also am very pleased that the council approved the completion of the west-side sidewalk. This means continuous sidewalk coverage on both sides all the way from W Jefferson Pkwy to Roosevelt Ridge Rd/Cty 1.