Creating those great places is the foundation of Bike/Walk Twin Cities. Bike/Walk Twin Cities is a special initiative of Transit for Livable Communities, and it’s designed to get people out of their cars and onto their bikes or their feet. Even more good news: there’s $21.5 million in federal funding available to make this vision a reality.  

Through the Bike/Walk Twin Cities initiative, Transit for Livable Communities is working to raise awareness of how bicycling and walking can create places where people want to live, shop, and play. Here is what’s coming up in 2008:

• A New Infrastructure Funding Round. This winter, Transit for Livable Communities released a solicitation to disperse up to $5 million of the federal bicycling and walking funds. These funds are available to government entities that want to create 1) livable streets, which make existing streets work better for bicycling and walking, or 2) bike/walk streets, which are low-traffic neighborhood streets that provide direct, attractive routes for bikes and create safer, more welcoming environments for pedestrians. One of the primary strategies of the Minneapolis pilot is to enhance opportunities to walk and bike in short trips. This funding will introduce new innovations locally, some of which have been tested in other urban settings. The board of directors for Transit for Livable Communities will determine funding on July 2008. Click here for further information.
• Workshops. Transit for Livable Communities is committed to providing educational opportunities through its Bike/Walk Twin Cities initiative. Recently, TLC has brought internationally renowned bicycling and walking experts to town. This winter, Dan Burden, the founder of Walkable Communities and a renowned expert in urban street design, hosted workshops for engineers, planners, and policymakers about creating communities that are friendly to bicycling and walking. On April 8, Mia Birk from Alta Planning and Design will hold a public presentation on how to create bike/walk streets on existing low-traffic streets. Bike/Walk Streets (also known as bike boulevards) are a funding priority this year, and they give priority to cyclists and pedestrians over car traffic. Click here for the materials from Dan Burden's workshop.
• Educational Partnerships. Transit for Livable Communities and the City of Minneapolis will launch the Bike/Walk Twin Cities Ambassadors program this spring. Funded through federal dollars, the program will create an on-the-ground team of bicycling and walking “ambassadors,” who will appear at events across the region. Their mission? Helping residents overcome barriers to bicycling and walking. TLC’s Bike/Walk Twin Cities staff are also helping to plan the annual Twin Cities Bike/Walk Week, which will happen on May 12-18, 2008. It will encourage residents to try walking and bicycling to work, to church…to anywhere!

Most importantly, the Bike/Walk Twin Cities initiative is connecting people who want to make the Twin Cities region a better place to walk and bike. Advocates, government, business, and elected officials need to work together on shaping an ambitious vision for walking and bicycling, and this program is initiating conversations about collaborating to make our communities even stronger!