The danger of designating infrastructure is that it requires use and maintenance. Sometimes the infrastructure designated is not particularly useful or used. And lack of use makes it less useful for others, as it leads to entropy.
One such piece of infrastructure is a well-signed (though well-hidden) “bike route” in Prospect Park (map). Some is on-street. Some is off-street trail. Some is street-adjacent trail. I don’t know when it was installed, clearly sometime after I-94, and well before I arrived in the neighborhood in 2001. It has the feel of late 1960s design.
Note this route is not considered part of the “Existing Bicycle Network” despite the signage, according to the “Draft Protected Bikeway Update to the Minneapolis Bicycle Master Plan” (Figure 6). I wonder how many other such abandoned networks there are? I wonder what will remain in three decades after the current bicycle wave of popularity?
Some pictures below.
Bike Route, as you exit Luxton Park (on Williams Avenue). Freeway wall to the rear.
Good of them to put in a ramp to connect the bike lane to the street. It looks to be an afterthought. Like bicycles were supposed to jump the curb. (Connecting Williams to Arthur – not shown on Google maps)
This is the best image of nature taking its course. Arthur, along the Freeway. The Bike Route is clearly on the side of the road, but no one has successfully ridden this trail in years I imagine.
In case it wasn’t clear, this photo in the other direction, indicates the bike route (from Arthur toward Williams) follows the asphalt between private property and Luxton Park. This part is actually well-maintained for a late-1960s/1970s trail, it makes a nice short-cut to the park. It is off-street, and very dark at night.
The trail where Arthur meets Melbourne. I am not clear exactly what the signs are supposed to mean. I think one of them is turned around to confuse invading German tanks.
This is another useful shortcut, between the freeway wall, Arthur, and connecting to Franklin Avenue (which is shown on Google maps). This gets some maintenance. It does not get cleared in the winter.
The Bike Route here is designating that you should be riding on Franklin Avenue, not at off-street trail, not a side trail, not a cycle track.. It is aimed at people coming up Arthur from the I-94 Pedestrian Bridge connecting Prospect Park with East River Road.