rails
to
trails
◆
winter.13
10
I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, I am
in a city where January temperatures hov-
er around 13 degrees, and average season-
al snowfall totals about 50 inches. Here’s
the catch, though: I’m visiting during the
Winter That Never Was, Minneapolis
racking up just over 20 inches of snow.
Ironically, while the snow catches me
off guard, that’s not the real surprise.
Instead, it’s the number of other people
on the rail-trail. I count at least 20 in
my 90-minute trek on the Midtown
Greenway, most of them sporting ski
goggles and riding bikes with chunky
snow tires.
Turns out that Minneapolis has a long-
standing love affair with the bike, which
may explain why it was recently named
Bicycling
magazine’s top bike-friendly city.
Between 2007 and 2011, bike traffic in
Minneapolis grew by 47 percent, many
of these cyclists ditching four wheels for
two. In fact, Minneapolis has the second-
highest population of bike commuters in
the nation, behind Portland, Ore.
Why such a high number? Ask Derek
Olson, who rides the Greenway daily
and doesn’t own a car. He’ll tell you that
cycling is simply cheaper and more prac-
tical than driving. “I can get anywhere
downtown faster on a bike than in a car,
and I don’t have to find a place to park a
car,” he says.
You also have to credit the Midtown
Greenway, which has been dubbed the
“
superhighway of cyclists,” for making com-
muting easier. Between 4,000 and 5,000
people use the trail every day on average,
amounting to a whopping 1.5 million trips
a year. “There’s actually a rush hour on
the trail, especially in summer,” says Soren
Jensen, executive director of the Midtown
Greenway Coalition, a nonprofit organiza-
tion that advocated for creation of the trail
and now works to improve it. He bikes to
work every day, no matter the weather.
The Greenway is now one of the state’s
busiest trails. Granted, its location makes it
ideal for bike and foot traffic. The trail runs
on an east-west path through Minneapolis,
which boasts 167 miles of bikeways. To
the west, it connects with paths around
the city’s Chain of Lakes (where there are
numerous walking and cycling trails), while
to the east it offers access to paths along the
Mississippi River.
Yet the Greenway has other unique
draws. For starters, the railway corridor
was dug as a trench about 100 years ago.
calhoun
village
shopping
area
CR 25
M I
w e s t
c a l h o u n
kenwood
park
Trail access
point
Restrooms
Midtown
Greenway
Total trail length:
5.5
miles
Trail surface:
Asphalt
map illustration by
daniellemarks.com
Other trails
Lake Calhoun
Lake
of
the
Isles
Cedar
Lake
k
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o
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h
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a
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l
a
k
e
t
r
a
chain of
lakes trail
Chowen
Ave. S.
James Ave. S.
Irving Ave. S.
Humboldt Ave. S.
Girard Ave. S.
Bryant Ave. S.
W
W. 28th St.
Hennepin Ave.
W. Lake St.
Excelsior Blvd.
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Map for reference only.
Not for navigation.
Snow is no obstacle to use
on the Midtown Greenway,
which is often plowed
even before city streets;
(
below right) Joshua
Houdeck, one of many
year-round trail users.
TIM SPRINGER
ELLIE KINGSBURY
DAVE GLAD; MAP BY DANIELLE MARKS
