Helmets in hand, members of the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition arrived at St. Paul City Hall on Wednesday half expecting an easy victory.

A plan to install bicycle lanes on little more than a half-mile of Stillwater Avenue, a busy east-west commuter route east of White Bear Avenue on St. Paul’s East Side, drew multiple supporters and a single opponent, who asked that the lanes be rerouted for a few blocks to accommodate street traffic and church services.

Instead of sailing through the city council as predicted, the Stillwater Avenue bike lanes failed on a tie vote of 3-3.

“I didn’t expect anything to be a problem until today,” said Ethan Osten, a co-chair of the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition, who suspects that the project may be reintroduced at council later this month.

The proposal called for bike lanes on either side of Stillwater Avenue, south of Beaver Lake, from McKnight Road to Algonquin Avenue, boosting connections to existing East Side trails to the north and south. The goal would be to complete the installation during mill and overlay work scheduled later this year.

The lanes would sit on both sides of the avenue, but parking would be removed from the south side of the street.



After a sometimes-pointed debate, Council Members Jane Prince, Dan Bostrom and Chris Tolbert voted against the project, while Amy Brendmoen, Rebecca Noecker and Dai Thao voted for it. Council President Russ Stark was absent.

Bostrom asked for more time to consider alternatives, including the possibility of moving part of the lanes to Case Avenue. Prince, who represents the area, said it felt like the lanes didn’t connect to other bike facilities. Related Articles St. Paul PD highlights surveillance photos of looting suspects, seeks tips

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“I just went out and drove the area last night and talked to neighbors,” Prince said Wednesday. “In terms of the business impact, I’m concerned about that. … I really do feel it’s critical that I get more input on this. … It’s not a route for kids. It’s a very fast-moving, heavy-traffic route.”

She suggested rerouting part of the bike way onto Manitou Street instead of Algonquin Street, but city staff noted that Algonquin links to the existing bikes lanes on Ruth Street to the south.

“I think the steps have been taken to do a good, thorough process,” said Brendmoen, arguing against delaying the vote.

She said it was unrealistic to expect a similar review of alternative routes to unfold within a week or two.

In community meetings, a handful of neighborhood residents and at least one commercial building owner had expressed opposition to the bike lanes, citing blind spots at curves in the road, bus traffic and the potential impact on commercial properties.

The project drew the support of the St. Paul Planning Commission’s Transportation Committee and St. Paul Women on Bikes, among others. Paul Sawyer, president of the District 1 Community Council, said his group had specifically asked the city to fill in the uneven network of bike infrastructure in low-income areas of the East Side.

Proponents noted that city council members had plenty of time before the vote to ask city engineers to explore alternatives.

“How come, with a day to go, it’s like we’d like to completely re-engineer this on completely different streets?” said Andy Singer, a vocal member of the cycling community. “Then we’d have to have a new public process and go to the residents on Case. I see this over and over in public projects.”

Members of the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition said the council members were mistaken in describing the proposed route as an island, given important bike trails to the north and south.

The overall plan is to create direct connections to existing bike lanes south of the project on Ruth Street, as well as the shared bicycle-pedestrian trail along Furness Parkway. Striping sharrows, or shared lane markings, are proposed on Algonquin and Case Avenue between Ruth and Hazel Streets.

Bike lanes are also being proposed on Hazel Street from Case to a nearby bicycle-pedestrian bridge, and parking would be removed from the east side of Hazel between Case and Mechanic Avenue.