Bill Lindeke said he was shaken but not surprised by the tragic death of a cyclist at the intersection of Summit and Snelling avenues last week.

It’s happened before — in 2008 — as have other serious crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists in the years between.

Lindeke, an avid cyclist who holds a doctorate in urban geography, wrote his dissertation about bicycle planning.

He sits on St. Paul’s Planning Commission and blogs about ways to make city streets more pedestrian- and bike-friendly.

For Lindeke and his cycling peers, the answer at Summit and Snelling is protected bike lanes.

Summit Avenue already has bike lanes in both directions, but given its unusual intersection with Snelling — a busy state highway — cycling advocates would like to see the city take things a step further.

Minneapolis amended its citywide bicycle plan in recent years to include a network of physically separated and protected lanes, which the city has been rolling out in different neighborhoods.

“There’s different types,” said Lindeke. “You could do it with a row of parked cars. Some people like that, some people don’t. It’s easier to put up plastic bollards.”

Would protected lanes make for a safer intersection?

Even cycling advocates acknowledge the Snelling-Summit intersection is unique. With turn lanes and carriage roads included, “you have five lanes of Summit meeting five lanes of Snelling, with medians to make it even more confusing,” said Andy Singer, co-chair of the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition.

Singer said a Google search of “protected bikeways” and “images” provides an instant education on the many different ways protected lanes could be implemented.

“It’s an idea worth trying,” Singer said. “It is our oldest and most used bikeway in St. Paul, and it should be comfortable.”

But there are plenty of obstacles and considerations — both political and practical — from maintenance, aesthetic and parking concerns to questions about changing street patterns within historic districts. Even snow removal along protected bike lanes requires special equipment.

Brian Martinson, a bike commuter who lives a few blocks from the Snelling-Summit intersection, thinks the lanes are overdue.

“If you have an actual physical barrier, it is demonstrated to reduce the number of interactions between cars and bikes,” said Martinson, chair of the Mac-Groveland Community Council Transportation Committee. “Put a concrete barrier or an asphalt barrier between the car lanes and the bike lane. I’ve ridden in Amsterdam and the Netherlands, and they make cycling so much more comfortable. We would be moving the city toward more sustainable modes of transportation if we made cycling feel safer for people who right now are too afraid to do so.”

Martinson said he spent part of last Wednesday wondering if it was a friend or family member who had been killed.

“This has been really hard. I hope we don’t have to wait for another fatality at this intersection.”

NO NEW POLICY, BUT A FEW STARTS

St. Paul hasn’t yet adopted an official policy calling for physically separating cyclists from drivers. But the city has begun experimenting with protected lanes in a few select areas, such as along the St. Anthony Avenue frontage road between Prior Avenue and Snelling.

Another protected lane was recently installed along Pelham Boulevard between the river road and University Avenue/Raymond Avenue area. In downtown St. Paul, the city installed a bikeway along Jackson Street that is separated from the city street entirely.

Lindeke said he still believes the city needs to be more aggressive about installing protected lanes in areas popular with cyclists and drivers alike that have proven to be sensitive pinch points.

Snelling and Summit would be an important start.

On Wednesday, 75-year-old Alan “Al” Grahn was killed in a school bus collision at the intersection. In 2008, cyclist Virginia Heuer, 51, was killed at the same intersection, and the driver who struck her pleaded guilty to failing to yield the right-of-way.

Between 2011 and 2015, there were at least three crashes at Snelling and Summit between vehicles and bicyclists, according to a Pioneer Press analysis.

In 2014, a bicyclist was seriously injured when a truck turned in front of him. In 2015, a vehicle struck a bicyclist’s wheel as he rode in the Summit Avenue bike lane, throwing him to the ground.

Mitra Jalali Nelson, the DFL-endorsed candidate for the open Ward 4 seat on the St. Paul City Council, said on Twitter this week she was “actively listening to our cycling community for solutions that save lives” and called protected bike lanes “a clear place to start.”

30,000 CARS VS. 5,000 CARS

Part of the challenge is that Snelling Avenue, which was once envisioned as a future freeway, is technically a state highway. As such it carries a wide mix of truck traffic and local and crosstown commuters through residential neighborhoods and Macalester College.

The avenue, which intersects University Avenue and exits onto Interstate 94, carries some 20,000 to 30,000 cars per day.

I'm so heavy-hearted to hear of today's tragic fatality at Summit/Snelling. Nobody should ever fear for, or lose, their life while biking in our city. I'm actively listening to our cycling community for solutions that save lives. Protected bike lanes are a clear place to start. — Mitra Jalali Nelson (@mitrajnelson) May 9, 2018

Meanwhile, Summit Avenue — one of St. Paul’s oldest and widest streets — carries between 5,000 and 10,000 cars per day, with quite a different configuration.

“When (Summit) was designed in the 1800s, people were thinking about carriages, not cars moving 30 or 40 miles per hour,” Lindeke said. “Summit has a lot of weird design features you wouldn’t see designed today. At Snelling, it has an odd frontage road that creates a lot of complexity for drivers — engineers call it ‘conflict points,’ places where drivers would have to look before you go or make a turn. Engineers are trying to design roads to minimize those.”

Singer said protected bike lanes along Summit Avenue could also solve another problem: cars blocking winter cycling routes.

“There are a lot of people — I’m one of them — who bike all winter,” he said. “Because the parked vehicles pull back and forth on the snow, it forms ice layers. People gradually pull further and further from the curb, and it ends up blocking the bike lanes.”

Beginning this summer and continuing into next year, the city will replace the Summit Avenue bridge over Ayd Mill Road.

St. Paul Public Works has studied the possibility of adding protected bike lanes along the bridge, though nothing has been finalized. The concept has been frowned upon by some historic preservationists who note that the avenue spans multiple historic districts.

“That’s in the works,” said City Council member Rebecca Noecker. “Generally, I’m in favor of protected lanes because the safer you feel, the more people will bike — and all the infrastructure will be even more worth the investment.”

That said, Noecker acknowledges the downsides, from loss of parking to maintenance costs.

“Those white bollards get pretty dirty pretty quickly,” Noecker said. “There’s something very clean about white painted lines.”