THE MIDTOWN GREENWAY, MINNEAPOLIS, MN

Tim’s history with bicycle transportation planning and visionary work began in 1992 when he co-founded the Midtown Greenway Coalition.  He then served as its Executive Director from 1995 to 2011.  The Midtown Greenway is a barrier-free 5.5 mile-long biking and walking trail in an old railroad corridor spanning Minneapolis east-to-west featuring wide east- and west-bound cycling lanes and a separate walking lane.  It is lit at night, snowplowed in the winter, and open 24/7. The Midtown Greenway is Minnesota’s busiest off-road bikeway, serving up to 5,000 bicyclists per day as measured at just one location. Characteristics:  

• Runs east-to-west through a 100-foot-wide railroad corridor about one mile south of downtown Minneapolis
• Seven-foot-wide lanes for each direction of bicycle travel
• Six-foot-wide walking lane
• Combined 20-foot width of the travel lanes
• Grade-separated from the surrounding street grid for most of its 5.6 mile distance across the city
• For its middle segment, the Greenway occupies a gorge where trail users pass under bridges carrying streets overhead.
• On its east and west ends, the Greenway is above grade and city streets pass underneath it

 The grade-separated feature affords barrier-free bicycle and foot travel, making cross-town bicycle trips faster than going by car.   The creation of the Midtown Greenway was a collaborative effort among an advocacy organization, the Midtown Greenway Coalition, and public agencies at Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis.  The Coalition began its advocacy work in 1992 and the first of three trail segments was constructed in the year 2000.  The third and final segment was constructed in 2006.  Funding for trail construction came primarily from federal grants.   

In 2011 and 2012, The Greenway Guy served as a subcontractor to Toole Design Group serving Transit for Livable Community to design 12 cutting edge on-road and off-road bicycle facilities in Minneapolis and St. Paul.  As a part of this project, Tim served as the lead consultant on a feasibility study of a new north-south greenway in south Minneapolis on or near the longitude of 10th Avenue.  The concept behind this proposed greenway is to vacate roadways to motorized traffic, thereby creating a car-free greenway offering FAST, SAFE, AND PLEASANT bicycle travel.