After my last class today, I took a ride on the route 4 bus–including the slow crawl along Nicollet–from Minneapolis College to the Central Library, where I was able to attend the downtown Community Workshop for Minneapolis’ Transportation Action Plan. This workshop was one of a series of community engagement opportunities to interact with the city’s Public Works staff. The meeting was part of the Phase 2 Engagement process for developing the transportation portion of the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan. Open to the public, the workshop offered engagement models covering an entire spectrum of transportation knowledge bases (my favorite was ranked-choice voting, casting ballots by placing leaves on trees).
A comprehensive overview of the issues at the workshop
The workshop had seven stations for the seven different topics to be included in the Transportation Action Plan–Advanced Mobility, Pedestrians, Bicycle, Transit, Freight, Street Operations and Street Design. Each station provides information about the topic and allows for voting on existing ideas or attaching a post-it note with new ideas. I was able to chat with the Public Works employee at each station, digest the information and give my input in only 40 minutes.
A look at future High-Frequency route coverage in Minneapolis.
These workshops are an excellent form of public engagement and there are still two opportunities for you to participate in-person: The next opportunity is on Thursday, April 24th from 5-7pm at the Fairview Rec Center (621 N 29th Avenue) with another opportunity for in-person engagement on Thursday, May 9th at the Longfellow Rec Center (3435 36th Avenue S.)
If in-person workshops do not work for you, the City of Minneapolis is hosting an online Open House through their Facebook page on Tuesday, April 30th from 6:30-7:30pm. During this online Open House, you will have the same opportunity to vote on existing ideas (or submit you own) as those who were able to attend the in-person workshops. Browse the Transportation Action Plan website beforehand and let your voice be heard during the online Open House.