Sustain Saint Paul supports safety upgrades on Summit Avenue
Sustain Saint Paul strongly supports upgrading the safety and usability of Summit Avenue for pedestrians and bicyclists
Summit Avenue at Lexington Avenue. Photo credit: City of Saint Paul
In June, the City of Saint Paul unveiled potential design concepts for the Summit Avenue Regional Trail Master Plan in a public meeting. All concepts featured bike paths separated vertically from the roadway, creating a physical barrier between bikes and cars. Sustain Saint Paul strongly supports these concepts for the following reasons:
Current bicycle infrastructure on Summit is unsafe. Summit’s bike lanes are sandwiched between speeding cars and parked cars. In the winter, the situation is even worse: the bike lanes become unusable because they are covered in mounds of compacted snow and ice, forcing people on bikes into the car lane. Summit has already taken the lives of too many of our biking neighbors.
We need to invest in a healthy climate future. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota. Getting more people to choose biking, walking, and other low-carbon transportation options is critical for addressing our climate crisis. Converting more car trips to bike trips will require a strong network of safe bicycling infrastructure. Summit Avenue could be a stronger backbone of that network. We know many people choose to bike on Summit despite its dangerous design and poor conditions, but how many more people would choose to bicycle on Summit if they didn’t have to bike in the “door zone” or worry about being struck by a distracted driver?
We’ve done this before, and it’s awesome. The impressive work done by the city in recent years showcases just how pleasant a Summit Avenue Regional Trail could be. For instance, the off-street trails along Como Avenue and Wheelock Parkway attract riders of all abilities in all seasons. The same could be true for Summit.
In the process of improving safety along Summit, Sustain Saint Paul supports maintaining the charm of today's avenue, while at the same time better channeling Summit's heritage as a welcoming place for non-motorized transportation (it is perhaps the oldest bikeway in the entire city).
Sustain Saint Paul appreciated the many welcome recommendations in the City's recent public presentation, and will continue working with staff to ensure that our city provides safe, low-carbon alternatives to work, school, recreation, and more.
