The Star-Trib reports that Hennepin County is dropping a plan for a bike-ped bridge over the Mississippi River for the Midtown Greenway.
I can’t say I disagree. Of all the bicycle/pedestrian transit initiatives to spend $10-12 million on, I’m not overwhelmed by the need for this bridge. I think the completion of the Grand Round parkway system is more interesting, or since we are talking Hennepin County, doing something about the Old Cedar Avenue bridge.
The proposed bridge location can’t be more than a half mile from the Lake Street Bridge. I know some people are going to say that’s a mile out of their way (in each direction for some trips). But it’s a MILE. This isn’t like the Old Cedar Avenue bridge problem, where it creates a fairly significant reroute need.
I realize that when getting grants, you can’t just apply one set of federal funds to random other projects. However, I think you need to look closely at even which projects you’re asking to fund. For $10 million, this was something of a dud.
