Readers React: Wooddale Avenue Losing Advisory Bike Lanes

When Patch reported last week that the Edina City Council had voted to bring an end to the short-lived advisory bike lane experiment on Wooddale Avenue, it brought about a flurry of comments from local readers.

For anyone who might have missed it, Council members voted to remove the advisory bike lanes on Wooddale—which run from 50th Street to Valley View Road—and repaint the roadway's centerline. A dedicated bike lane would then be placed alongside southbound traffic between 50th and 56th streets, with sharrows—markings of a bike with two chevrons above it—painted on the remaining portions of Wooddale to remind drivers the avenue is shared with bicyclists.

The parking lane will be retained on the east side of Wooddale, under the approved plan.

Readers were largely in support of the Council's decision, with Marty Mathis thanking the members for making the right move as it relates to Wooddale:

I'm proud of our City Council trying a different way of making our town a more active and viable community. Keep up the good work City Council.

User Nellie said a dedicated bike lane would be a great change for Wooddale:

Apparently none of you or very few of you even ride a bike let alone use a bicycle for commuting. Having a bike lane to go along with traffic is ideal in any situation. It can speed up the commute almost like having an express bike lane. It's quite evident from reading the comments so far that we are dealing with ignorance, politics, and the almighty dollar in regards to what really will happen at Wooddale. I highly doubt the "good" people on the City Council really give two shakes about the bikers in Edina. Perhaps Mike B. should become a 1% and try riding a bike once in a while. I ride 365 days a year, so nothing precludes me from getting out there and riding!!!! Like I said the City Council will do as they please regardless of input, data, or any other extenuating influence.

Reader David F thought the City Council should have waited before implementing experimental road designs:

Crashes and speed are not a true indicator of safety. Edina was not the first to use these advisory lanes but the second. Since when is a small community of Edina a leader in new types of road design? Traffic circles that have started to pop up in Edina have been used for decades around the US. Next time take a wait and see on any new ideas for roadways.

Terry Johnson proposed the Council consider an alternate route for the Wooddale bike lane, instead jogging it down Concord Avenue:

I am proud of the city trying to find ways for helping our citizens to become more active, but I believed from the very beginning that Wooddale Ave was a poor choice. How about having this bike lane run down Concord Ave, past the elementary school, middle school, Community Center and Kuhlman Field? It may be a tiny jog out of the way for bicycle commuters, but it would be a boon for the hundreds upon hundreds of children and adults that flock to that area every day. This would be a great way to get our kids engaged in the activity of bicycling, and would keep them off of one of the city's busiest streets.

Interestingly, reader Sean Hayford Oleary said bicycling in a fully developed suburb like Edina is actually more dangerous because the city is developed:

Sidewalk cycling is particularly dangerous in older cities and suburbs like Edina, Minneapolis, Richfield, etc, as there are many more driveways and cross streets where there is potential for conflict -- as well as poorer sight lines. But while it's more dangerous in older cities, the number of cyclists choosing to use a sidewalk is a good proxy for how dangerous they perceive the road to be. The road is nearly always safer, but if the road is poorly designed, more will flock to the sidewalk.

For what it's worth, sidewalk cycling is generally prohibited in business districts -- though some permit it everywhere, and some ban it outright, especially for adults.

Meanwhile, reader mary kosters said she has anecdotally heard some bicyclists stick to sidewalks simply because of safety concerns:

An 18 year veteran of biking RAGBRI just told me that she will bike where she has biked for years--on the sidewalks--she has no idea what those bike lines mean or even care to take a chance riding in them let alone drive around them. The path on 54th street has so many pot holes that bikers have to go out into the road to get around their pot holes in their lane.. Do we not have any "better" ways of spending our intelligence. What about Highlands school which has to endure the next months without their principal because he thought biking was safe in the winter time. Maybe someone who is responsible for so much and so many should think twice about taking this kind of risk--which it obviously was--I understand accidents occur but personal responsibility also has to be accounted for.

What do you think about the move to alter Wooddale Avenue's controversial bike lanes? Was it a good decision by the City Council? Tell us in the comments section below.

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