Lyndale Avenue redesign draws criticism from bike, walk advocates

Writing in MinnPost, urban geographer Bill Lindeke argued the design "won't age well," singling out a shared-use path that stopped at 29th Street, short of the busier blocks to the south where the separation is most needed. Hennepin County, which controls Lyndale, plans to rebuild the corridor between Franklin Avenue and 31st Street, with construction set to begin in 2028. The county says it has had more than 43,000 points of contact with the community over four rounds of engagement.

Lyndale bounds Lowry Hill East, the dense, renter-heavy neighborhood of roughly 9,000 residents that locals call the Wedge, where many people walk, bike and ride transit. Since the commentary, the county has revised the plan, replacing the shared-use path with a separated two-way bikeway on the east side and reserving space for a future northbound transit lane between 31st and 28th streets, along with a center median, curb bump-outs, wider green space and narrower lanes.

Advocates say it does not go far enough. More than 100 people rallied for the reconstruction to include a protected bikeway running all the way to 31st Street and dedicated, all-day bus lanes, organized by Move Minnesota and the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota.

The debate echoes the fight over Hennepin Avenue, where the city ultimately traded car lanes for bus lanes, a protected bikeway and wider sidewalks. With Lyndale a county corridor carrying heavy regional traffic, the county is weighing that demand against a neighborhood that, like the Hennepin advocates before it, wants the rebuilt street designed around people on foot, on bikes and on the bus. Hennepin County runs the public process, and LHENA tracks issues on the neighborhood's boundaries.