We at @OurStreetsMpls have been asking that Hennepin County does the bare minimum—a 4-3 conversion on Lyndale Ave S to improve safety on the corridor. Lyndale is just one example of a much larger systemic issue in terms of street design. Thread 1/15

It’s not just Lyndale Ave that doesn’t put people first—it’s also E Lake Street, W Broadway Ave, Lowry Ave NE, E Franklin Ave, and many other streets owned and operated by @Hennepin County in Minneapolis. We need to change the entire system of street design. 2/15

Here are some existing challenges: 3/15

Today, residents in Minneapolis have very little control or understanding about how Hennepin County streets are designed or operated. We don’t know if our input is taken seriously and we don’t know if our needs are being put first. 4/15

For eg, when Our Streets Minneapolis organized for narrower lane widths on upcoming plans to reconstruct E Franklin Ave, the response from the County was not to reduce lane widths, but to remove all marked dimensions on concept plans so we couldn’t see what the widths were! 5/15

Reducing delay for people in cars is still being used as a major guiding principle for roadway operation. We continue to prioritize car movement on Hennepin County streets. This means that it becomes harder to bike, walk and roll and decreases safety for these modes. 6/15

Car-centric @Hennepin streets also disproportionately cut through communities of color. Native and Black residents are at much higher risk of being hit by a car. It is not clear that these disparities are being taken into account when Hennepin County designs streets. 7/15

Here’s what needs to happen: 8/15

Hennepin County public works needs to engage communities long before plans are put forward—including using community input to shape the purpose and need of the project. How exactly input will be used must be made clear to those participating in any engagement effort. 9/15

Racial disparities in traffic crashes must be acknowledged in street design, and removing those disparities must become a central goal of each project. 10/15

The role of driving in climate change must be acknowledged and each project needs to have a goal to reduce driving--instead of the current goals of accommodating driving demand reducing delay for cars. 11/15

We must move away from car-centric metrics like Level of Service (LOS) and instead focus on providing transportation choice for people. 12/15

We have seen @Hennepin move forward with excellent initiatives—recognizing that racism is a public health crisis, as well as a plan to take action on climate change. These must include changing our system of transportation decision-making so that it puts people first. 13/15

The County Streets for People campaign by @OurStreetsMpls is organizing to do just that. Join us as we build this movement. https://www.ourstreetsmpls.org/countystreets 

14/15

Here's this tweet thread as a blog post: https://www.ourstreetsmpls.org/county_street_design_must_change 15/15