Brandon Long has lived on Cleveland Avenue in St. Paul’s South Highland neighborhood for seven years, and he’s eager to see safety improvements for travelers who don’t use a car.

St. Paul Public Works officials are just as eager, but they differ on what those improvements will be.

Long and fellow cyclist Nate Hood, a professional transportation planner and former chair of the Highland District Council, wrote a six-page study of a 0.7-mile stretch of Cleveland Avenue, from Mississippi River Boulevard north to Magoffin Avenue, a few blocks short of the Ford Little League fields.

They think the city could eliminate on-street parking on one side of Cleveland with little impact to homeowners and businesses, who largely rely on their own garages and off-street parking lots. A new north-south bike lane would take its place.

By Long’s count, only 11 of some 270 parking spots line are in use at peak hours.

“You could eliminate half of them and still have an excess of parking,” he said. “I mean, it’s crazy. No one feels unsafe crossing the road. We feel unsafe biking. They’re trying to come up with a solution to a problem they don’t have.”

Public Works officials have other ideas.

They say they’re weeks away from installing a series of pedestrian refuges known as “bump-outs,” or sidewalk curb extensions, on both sides of Cleveland as a strategy for calming traffic and improving pedestrian safety.

They say a bike lane would not fit what’s been laid out in either the St. Paul Bicycle Plan or a long-planned mill-and-overlay project slated for the fall.

Long is not in favor of the city’s plan.

“It’s just so bizarre to have a 42-foot wide road and have the bike plan cited as a reason not to put a bike lane in,” said Long, who was dismayed to learn the city planned to install “share the road” markings rather than an actual bike lane. “Sharrows are just not bike infrastructure. At the end of the day, it’s really disappointing that we created a creative solution for the city, and the city just said no.”

The Highland Park District Council has yet to issue a formal opinion on Hood and Long’s proposal. Council Member Chris Tolbert, who represents the area, did not immediately return a phone call.

A CONTENTIOUS ISSUE FOR THE CITY

In 2015, planned bike lanes on Cleveland Avenue between Summit Avenue and Highland Parkway drew dozens of supporters and opponents to public hearings before the city council, delaying their installation for months.

Long predicts his proposal will be far less contentious as it sits south of Cleveland Avenue’s small business and university corridor.

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Long said Public Works has pointed to the bike plan as one reason not to install a bike lane. But the plan makes clear it’s not a rigid document and invites new infrastructure ideas, he said.

In a May 22 email, the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition asked Tolbert and Public Works Director Kathy Lantry to put the sidewalk bump-outs on hold on one side of the street while the bike lane is considered.

“We support eliminating the sidewalk bump-outs so that a discussion of how the street is ultimately striped can happen at a later date,” said coalition co-chairs Andrew Singer and Ian Buck.

They note that Minneapolis has moved away from “shared lane” markings in favor of separate, in-street bike lanes. They asked that temporary lane markings be added to Cleveland Avenue “using less durable latex paint to reduce costs if and when changes to the street are desired.”

Hood and Long’s transportation study found that 91 of 93 properties between Mississippi River Boulevard and Magoffin have garage or alley access.

“We have a lot of kids who ride in the neighborhood,” Long said. “We had a family at my house who has young twins, and they don’t feel safe biking.”

St. Paul Public Works plans a total of seven bump-outs — four on one side of Cleveland, three on the other — at four intersections.

“We have speed studies that indicate speeds well in excess of the speed limit, so I think there is a documented need for some improvements,” said city Transportation Engineer Reuben Collins.

Collins said the city is federally-mandated to reconstruct street corners, or pedestrian ramps, to make them handicapped-accessible in any scenario, at a cost of roughly $10,000 per corner. Bump-outs can add $10,000 to $20,000 to that cost.

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With new shops and street improvements, Saturday’s ‘Rice and LarpenTOUR’ showcases three cities In addition, shared-lane markings and bike signage will be installed by this fall, sometime between August and October, following a scheduled mill and overlay project.

“We’re implementing shared lanes, that the bike plan recommends, and we’re also implementing pedestrian improvements,” Collins said. “And we don’t see those as being in conflict.”