The Best Bicycle Ride in Vadnais Heights

bicycle vadnais heights

As you’ve likely guessed, I’m not a huge fan of bicycling in Vadnais Heights, at least compared to places like Shoreview that have relatively good and safe paths to ride on and much safer intersections.

bicycle vadnais heightsThat said, I will nearly always ride my bicycle for trips of one or two miles like to Festival Foods or Target which is a fairly safe and enjoyable ride from my house.

Having done so once, I will not cross 35E to get to Perkins or anything else on that side, it is simply too dangerous in my opinion.

bicycle vadnais heights panera bread

bicycle vadnais heights panera breadHowever, there are times when I quite enjoy riding in Vadnais Heights. Early on Saturday and Sunday mornings before there is much or any traffic on the roads is my favorite. I enjoy riding to Dunn Bros for a cappuccino or sometimes my wife and I will ride to Panera for breakfast. What’s great about our Dutch city bikes is that they’re easy to just hop on a go when we decide to do this.

It’s not The Netherlands or Copenhagen, or even Shoreview, but it does make for a great way to start the day.

A Rare Opportunity for Vadnais Heights

Vadnais Heights has a rare and valuable opportunity to obtain right-of-way along a key road in desperate need of a segregated bicycle and pedestrian path.

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Koehler Road and Vadnais Elementary School.

For many in the western part of Vadnais Heights, about a third of Vadnais residents, one road, Koehler Road, provides the most reasonable and direct access for walking or bicycling to Vadnais Elementary School and to retail stores in Vadnais’ Center District. Koehler though, has numerous curves, narrow shoulders with numerous potholes and mailboxes extending in to the shoulder, and moderately heavy traffic that is often traveling 35 – 40 mph.

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Increasingly over the past three decades, parents have become wary of allowing their children to walk or ride their bicycles to school because of their concern about the safety of doing so along Koehler. Adults and children have also chosen not to ride their bicycles to the school or to local retail stores due to these same, very understandable, safety concerns.

A segregated bicycle and pedestrian path along the north side of Koehler would allow safe and direct access to Vadnais Elementary School and provide a very critical link in a safe bicycle and pedestrian network in Vadnais Heights.

A major issue with building any bicycle and pedestrian path is obtaining right-of-way from adjacent property owners. Increasingly, property owners have realized the increased value that these paths bring to their property which makes the acquisition process easier, but there can still be hurdles.

The owner of a large parcel of land along the north side of Koehler is currently trying to obtain variances to sub-divide this land for building five to six single family houses.

Now, while these lots, sizes, and setbacks are being determined, is the time for Vadnais Heights and Ramsey County to obtain any right-of-way necessary for a future path along Koehler. After the variances have been granted and legal work concluded, this will be much more difficult.

If you have an interest in seeing Vadnais Heights develop safer bicycle and pedestrian facilities, contact Vadnais city council members and Ramsey County commissioners with your interest in seeing them obtain any necessary right-of-way while this opportunity is available.

Providing this safe route to Vadnais School, which will allow children to safely walk or ride bicycles, will provide numerous benefits including improved health and academics, two areas in which our children are far behind other developed nations. This could also improve property values in Vadnais Heights as increasing numbers of buyers look for communities that are safe for walking and riding.

For more on why this is important, read Why Bicycle and Why Bicycling Is Good on the right side of this page.

For more on Vadnais Heights pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure read Vadnais Heights: Seven Wishes.

Ramsey County Projects Overview

These are some road projects coming up in the Northeast Metro (Northern Ramsey County). If you want to see better pedestrian and bicycling facilities included in these projects then make sure you let your county commissioners and appropriate city council folks know. Planning often begins two to four years prior to construction and it’s difficult to get changes included after about 6 months prior to construction. Adding proper pedestrian and bicycle facilities now, during construction, is very minimal cost. If it’s not done now, it will be another 30 years before the chance comes around again.

I am not including general signal revisions or mill & overlay projects. These though can be found in the Ramsey County TIP Report. Even though not major projects, these do offer opportunities for improvements to pedestrian and bicycle transportation such as better designed signals and button placements or narrowing of vehicular lanes and/or inclusion of bike lanes, cycle tracks, or paths on mill & overlay projects.

2014

Lexington Ave from approx 694 to County Road F (AH/SV) – Reconstruction.

Maryland Ave @ Payne Ave (SP) – Reconstruct Geometrics/Signals.

Highway 61 through downtown White Bear Lake (WBL) – Mill & Overlay plus additional improvements

2015

Hiway 96 from 35W to Old Hiway 8 (AH/NB) – Reconstruction

Lexington Ave @ Hiway 36 (RV) – Reconstruct Interchange. It is critical that they include adequate pedestrian and bicycle facilities on both sides of Lexington as well as allow safe crossing of Lexington.

Hiway 10 @ County Rd H (MV) – Geometrics/Signals.

County Rd E @ Snelling (AH) – Bridge Reconstruction. Critical that they include adequate pedestrian and bicycle facilities on both sides of Cty E and include a bicycle path along Snelling (under Cty E). Sadly they have included no safe bicycling facilities where Cty E has been reconstructed this summer between Snelling and Lexington. This is doubly critical to provide students at Bethel Univ with a safe route to Lexington Ave retail (they currently use the railroad line & bridge).

Raymond Ave from Hampden Ave to Energy Park Dr. (SP) – Reconstruction.

2016

Rice Street from Cty B2 to Cty C2 (RV/LC) – Reconstruction.

Hodgson Road from Gramsie to Bridge St. (SV/VH) – Reconstruction.

Raymond Ave from Energy Park Dr to Como Ave. (SP) – Reconstruction

County E2 @ 35W (NB) – Bridge Replacement.

2017

White Bear Ave @ 694 (WB/MW) – Interchange Reconstruction.

Hiway 96 @ 35E (WB/VH) – Interchange Reconstruction

Cty Rd D from Cleveland to Fairview (AH) – Reconstruction

Rice Street from N. Owasso Blvd to Vadnais Blvd (VH/SV/LC) – Interchange Reconstruction.

Vadnais Heights: Seven Wishes

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Note: Updated 25 July, 2013 to correct some information about Vadnais’ 2011 Comprehensive Plan.

Vadnais Heights comprises numerous island neighborhoods separated by Ramsey County roads with little or no planning for walking or bicycling. While some people are comfortable walking and bicycling outside of their neighborhood on busier roads with narrow shoulders, many, and perhaps most, are not. Many of those who do venture out also say that riding with traffic scares them and discourages them from riding very often. This is made worse in winter when many of these shoulders are not plowed or plowed inadequately for use by pedestrians or people riding bicycles.

Vadnais Heights’ 2011 Comprehensive Plan acknowledges some deficiencies in its walking and bicycling infrastructure, but also indicates a lack of understanding of the difference between recreational trails and safe, functional bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure that allows it’s average citizens to safely walk or ride to local amenities. Instead of striving for segregated pathways and intersections that are safe and desirable by most people, the plan too often relies on road shoulders that are only comfortable for a minority of citizens, primarily the lycra crowd. Worse, the plan touts striped on-street parking lanes as effective bicycle lanes. These are actually quite dangerous for cyclists as they cause cyclists to swerve into traffic to dodge parked cars and put cyclists in the ‘door zone’ where many have been injured or killed by opening car doors. To their credit they have now installed “No Parking” signs on Arcade and Belland Avenues.

This lack of safe bicycling and walking routes will not serve Vadnais Heights well as increasing numbers of people choose to walk and bike more often for transportation and to make home purchase decisions based on the pedestrian and cycle friendliness of communities. 

Every major road in Vadnais Heights should have, at a minimum, a wide, well designed, and well maintained path to allow residents to safely and comfortably walk and bike to local schools, shops and restaurants, or to visit friends. Every intersection should be safe and feel safe for pedestrians and people on bikes. 

Here are seven wishes for Vadnais Heights.

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