St. Paul to replace car lane with bike lane over Rondo residents’ objections
The first thing to know is that pretty much no one currently gets where they’re going via bicycle on Concordia/Rondo Avenue in the area set to be resurfaced this fall between Snelling Avenue and Marion Street in St. Paul.
“Historic manual count data estimates for weekday bicycle trips on Rondo Avenue east of Griggs street do not show an appreciable number of bicycling trips,” according to the project overview compiled by city planners.
At the same time, the report acknowledges that thousands of cars and other vehicles drive down that strategic stretch of road every single day.
“Concordia Avenue and Rondo Avenue are classified as a major collector street within
the project limits. Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) ranges from 2,200 and 4,850
vehicles per day. Higher volumes of traffic exist in immediate vicinity of on- and offramps from and to Interstate 94 (Snelling Avenue, Lexington Parkway, Dale Street).”
So naturally, the St. Paul City Council recently approved an unpopular plan to eliminate a traffic lane on the crucial corridor and replace it with a bike lane. Never mind the strongly stated concerns on the part of many residents of the Rondo neighborhood, who the Pioneer Press noted, flat out oppose the plan for financial and practical reasons.
“…several residents have objected both to their assessment for the mill and overlay project and the prospect of losing a driving lane to bike infrastructure.
Facing bills ranging between $3,000 and $5,000 per house to be paid over 10 years, several residents showed up to the July 17 city council meeting to voice their opposition.
“That is a lot of money to pay just for improvements of the street,” resident Susanne Lovejoy said. “We are just working people and $5,000-plus is a lot of money to pay.”
Besides the impact on their pocketbooks, residents worry about the effect on the traffic congestion that already plagues the neighborhood. Then there’s the inconvenient truth that few use or consider bicycles a major mode of transportation.
Many homeowners along Rondo Avenue don’t bike, they said, and they object to paying for something they aren’t going to use. They also worry the bike lane will make existing traffic congestion even worse.
Christine Flowers, a Rondo neighborhood resident, wrote a letter to the city council calling the bike lane a form of gentrification.
“This is retraumatizing Black people all over again,” she wrote.
It’s also worth noting the city will wipe out nearly 50 of the 360 parking places currently available along the roadway. But no worries, city planners say it’ll all be worth it.
The loss of parking will be relatively minimal for the benefits in terms of improved traffic safety and availability of transportation modes aligning with city plans to increase the numbers of people bicycling and walking.