Bike Lanes

Is it really worth dedicating lanes to bikes at the expense of cars?

Between reading Susan Lenfestey’s opinion piece in the Hill & Lake Press titled “Will Lyndale Become The Next Hennepin?” and researching the State House of Representatives 61A incumbent/candidate Katie Jones, who is a bike advocate, reignited my pet peeve that bike advocates have too much influence in Minneapolis politics.

First, I want to establish that I am a bicyclist. I ride daily - mostly for exercise and leisure, but occasionally for transportation. I appreciate that our city, county, and state have bike paths focused on exercise/leisure (for example, the Greenway and paths around the lakes/parks). I use these paths regularly. However, I think it is unnecessary to have dedicated bike lanes on streets and to redesign commercial districts to be bike-friendly.

Although Minneapolis is one of the most bike-friendly cities in America, bicycle commuters are still a micro-minority. Per Gemini (Google’s AI): “The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that approximately 4.1% of Minneapolis workers commute primarily by bicycle.”¹ 4.1% seems like a pretty extraordinary number, as it seems much higher than what I see out on the road (the “eye test”). When I am on a street that has a dedicated bike lane, my unscientific estimate is that the car-to-bike ratio is 100:1.

My fellow blogger over at Better Minneapolis wrote a great post about the insignificance of Minneapolis’ bike prioritization on climate change, which adds to my annoyance with the bike lobby, as their argument is mostly climate-focused. I assume their real motivation is a preference for the aesthetics of bikes over cars - they want us to become Amsterdam (I would love that also, but lets be real).

I believe that in a couple of decades, electric vehicles (EVs)², many of which will be autonomous, will completely change the transportation landscape (replacing petro-based vehicles and, for example, eliminating the need for Metro Transit). Planning for the EV/autonomous revolution is what we should be working on, and not disrupting our streets and commercial districts with bike and bus lanes for a micro-minority of cyclists and nearly nonexistent transit riders. No amount of urban planning is going to turn Minneapolis into Amsterdam³.

1. The source of this is American Community Survey (ACS) estimates for 2024-25.

2. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), nearly 30% of all new cars sold globally this year (2026) are electric or plug-in hybrids—up from just 20% in 2024. Most data models project that by 2032, more than 50% of all new cars sold worldwide will be electric.

3. January!