So this is really exciting. I'm in Minneapolis and there's a group ride going on that's been organized just for me by the pedaling professor. It's a command singer. And the pedaling pastor. And we're going to see a lot of really cool stuff in one of their huge group of people over here. I mean look turning out for street films that's like not unheard of but pretty unheard of. In Minneapolis we've been expanding our bike infrastructure over the last really 20, 30 years now and really starting with you know painted bike lanes and then moving to protected bike lanes. And initially a lot of those are flexible ballers and paints. But then as we are reconstructing a street that's the moment for us to build the ideal design. It's really been iterative in the city and now we're to a point where we have the policies in place from the transportation action plan and then the roadway design guidance that is essentially now mandating that all of our protected bikeways will be not just a flexi post but concrete separated when we are reconstructing street. Our streets in Minneapolis started back in 2009 as the Minneapolis bicycle coalition and a lot of early organizing we did was responsible for the creation of the city's first bicycle master plan which has then resulted in a lot of protected bike infrastructure coming on fine over the last decade or so. Resulting in today Minneapolis being ranked one of the better places for people to be able to use the bike to get from a point 8 and point B. Last two years we've seen about a quarter of the number of bike crashes that we saw 20 years ago in the city and we haven't had any people killed while biking the last two years. Bald Eagle on the branch waiting looking for fish and now we've all stopped walking. We're here in the Mississippi River Gorge there's a number of Eagles nests and I know it's really popular to come see what you can spot hurting. Bicycle friendly I mean I've never been attacked by an eagle on bike so I would say bicycle friendly. I realize we're all in America here and so infrastructure is not anything to brag about too much but in Minneapolis we have awesome infrastructure that once you get the hang you're able to loop, loop around the city very easily staying on bike paths. We definitely need more protected bike lanes and we certainly aren't to the point where you could comfortably take your seven year old very far in the city. You could very well plan out your route and spend a whole day riding on bike paths but you're going to have to plan it according to the trails as opposed to planning it to exactly where you want to go. And here we are at two intersecting protected bike lanes that were still under construction here on Hennepin Avenue in Forestry downtown Minneapolis and you can see here we're going to have a protecting intersection design. It's in progress we just got some new pavement and eventually we're going to have this all connected all intersections with protecting intersection design. We're on Forestry right next to City Hall. Here's one of our newest installations of a protected bikeway up at sidewalk level. This project has reduced traffic lanes and removed some parking. We've also tried a new way to designate parking on a short-term basis. One block to the west is an example of a protected intersection design that we tried out with this project as well and there are additional protected intersections installed with this project the further west we go. Yeah we've had a guy this was a street that was going to get torn down in the 1970s as part of urban renewal. Little houses you see are all original 1890s workers cottages and then some of these are new construction that was built to look like the 1890s houses but they were built in the 70s and 80s so they were able to register it as an historic district and then close it off to cars which is why they got it all landscaped and it's just for bikers and walkers now. So it's like a living place like this. Beautiful they love it so it's just it's gorgeous you can let them roam free and and yeah it's wonderful. We're going to cross over the stone arch here and we're actually going to head over to the university area and so I actually went to the university of Minnesota and spent many years riding all their great bike and infrastructure as well. So here on Washington Avenue on the University of Minnesota campus there's no private automobiles permitted it's only for bikes and buses and the light rail line that runs through here. Do you ever race the light rail? No not the safest thing to do and I definitely wouldn't win either. We included FAFSA as a qualifier for the program so what that means is now a ton of students that are on campus qualify for nice ride for all and what that gets them is unlimited rides for the full year up to 45 minutes on our green classic bikes and steeply discounted rides on the e-bikes and scooters and all that is only $5 for the entire year for the student or anyone else who qualifies for nice ride for all. As many may know this is the Martin Olow Sabo Bridge I made a street film just on this bridge over 10 years ago and it's really nice to be back because this is one of the first bridges I saw in the United States I was like this is the way things should be very wide pedestrian space bike space but most of all it's beautiful. I think it's fantastic I love just riding on it sometimes I go out of my way just so I can go across it. I love this bridge went on a big group ride 300 people that ended here and had a big dance party last year too. On the bridge? Yeah on the 4th of July. Do you have any pictures? I don't because it was the freedom from pants ride so this is a hennapin ride which was started last summer by the group hennapin for people just sort of riding up and down with a big group to bring awareness to the fact that hennapin meets bike lanes so hennapin avenue is going to be reconstructed in 2024 it'll end in 2026 and our hope is that there are not only the wider sidewalks the bike lanes up on the curb but also 24-7 dedicated bus lane. The city has an intention of having three out of every five trips be made by a mode other than a car. That in itself is a very powerful intention which means that as we redesign streets in the future they come with good biking infrastructure, good walking infrastructure and hopefully good transit infrastructure. The greenway is our east west corridor here in town. I remember when the greenway opened up that was like the first really really functional just utility oriented path and it's completely separated from any roads. We have very little traffic that we need to cross our very very few crossings. It's very long right? I think it's five miles long. Wow. From the river to the lakes. I certainly like it for the exercise and I like it for the environmental benefits but I really look for the qualitative pieces around just being connected and of course I always see people I know friends of mine wave at me as I'm riding by and swing over we have a little chat. It's really nice. So this is always my favorite bridge. This along with the Stoenarch bridge are kind of both old railroad bridges and they're just a joy to ride across. All the other bridges across Mississippi River are okay they all have access to bikes but they're really noisy whereas this one is real quiet. Yeah I was on a roof ride with some friends and we were on the number nine bridge and some people were riding by and sort of slowing down and looking over and we were like hey come join the ride with us and we're looking for new friends and tips on biking in the area and they got exactly that. So my husband and I we got rid of our car in 2018 I believe and we haven't looked back could both either bike or take transit and so I you know I love biking in the city because there is dedicated space for cyclists it feels like you know the city is is respecting us giving us a place on the road you know that we deserve mostly using my bicycle for practical transportation grocery stores getting to church getting to a library but also I love that a lot of the most beautiful city parks have good bike infrastructure. Electric cargo bikes are a great focus so many of the people are coming in and they're really thinking about replacing one of their cars they'd like to keep it car light have one car and see if an electric cargo bike is going to work. We lowered our speed limits in 2020 from 30 miles an hour before to 25 miles an hour on our busier streets and 20 miles an hour on our local neighborhood streets it's really important to slow down our folks even five miles an hour makes a huge difference for safety on our streets for everyone but especially for people walking and biking. I think your heavily fantastic is a glorious day so lots of bikeers out good conversation. What do you say? Yeah totally agree. I think we really got to see some of my personal favorite spots in Minneapolis and again I think some of the real highlights that I wish were more widespread throughout all of our cities.