Why do some Eden Prairie streets not have sidewalks?

An Eden Prairie street without a sidewalk might be annoying if you treasure a long, safe stroll close to home, or if you’re a youngster learning how to ride a bike. But a system where one street has sidewalks on both sides and another nearby has none is the path Eden Prairie chose long ago. Most residents appear to be perfectly content with this uneven reality.

In the City of Eden Prairie’s latest quality-of-life survey, 70% of respondents said the ease of walking in the city is excellent or good, even though Redfin, a national real estate company, gives it a walkability score of 18 on a scale of 0 to 100.

Research has shown that a city’s walkability and the health of its residents – both physical health and mental health – are linked, and researchers generally say suburbs, predicated on car travel, are less walkable than urban areas.

But the prospect of better health doesn’t always win the day.

In the city’s roughly every-other-year survey of residents’ opinions, “walkability” – that is, walking and biking paths – as a need and want of survey respondents always falls well below favorites like improved shopping choices and less traffic congestion. Walkability ranked eighth in the 2024 survey’s list of wants and needs, 10th in 2023, and 11th in 2020. More sidewalks, it seems, are not on residents’ wish list.

 “I think people are happy with the system we have out there,” said Robert Ellis, the city’s public works director and a city employee since 2011.

Sidewalk strategy dates to the 1970s

In Eden Prairie, the emphasis when it comes to 5-foot-wide sidewalks and 8-foot-wide bike trails is on connectivity, not complete coverage. That is, the goal isn’t to line every street with sidewalks and bike paths, but to build a basic system that safely connects neighborhoods to destinations such as shopping areas, schools and bus stops.

As a result, many streets with a lot of vehicle traffic have sidewalks on both sides, or a sidewalk on one side and a bike path on the other. Some have a sidewalk or bike path on only one side. Still others – including most of the more than 600 low-traffic cul-de-sacs – have nothing at all. And you can find all three scenarios in the same neighborhood.

(That’s true in my own central Eden Prairie neighborhood, where busy Cumberland Road has sidewalks on both sides, but quieter streets such as Saratoga Lane, Westridge Drive and Berkshire Lane have none, pushing pedestrians into the street.)

It’s a sidewalk and bike path philosophy that has history.

The Hikeway/Bikeway Task Force of the 1970s recommended specific roadways where trails should be provided, according to Ellis, and these recommendations gave rise to the city’s initial, and then expanded, system of walking and biking routes.

The original “spine” trails of Eden Prairie’s walking and biking system, identified in the 1970s, included County Road 4, County Road 1, Valley View Road, Duck Lake Trail and Scenic Heights Road.

Then, more streets were added to the list, including Baker/Mitchell Road, Anderson Lakes Parkway, Dell Road, Homeward Hills Road, and Highway 62/Crosstown Highway.

The 2003 Park and Open Space Plan took another look at Eden Prairie’s needs, expanding the system and adding policy considerations as well as design and construction guidelines.

The sidewalk and bike path system got another review with the 2014 Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan, which concluded that the city’s system generally provided connectivity, though it was sometimes compromised by difficult-to-cross roads and intersections.

That’s a lot of study over the decades, the upshot of which is this: Most of Eden Prairie’s network of sidewalks and bike paths has been built: 98 miles of sidewalks and 129 miles of trail, according to Ellis. But, there are also ongoing efforts to build missing links and make busy roads easier to walk or bike across.

For example, city staff has begun recommending that more Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) be installed to make crossing busy streets easier for pedestrians and bicyclists. RRFBs are pedestrian-activated warning devices that use flashing yellow lights to alert drivers to pedestrians in the crosswalk. The city is also addressing the gaps in the sidewalk and bike path system identified in the 2014 report, and adding infrastructure near the light-rail transit (LRT) stations that are scheduled to be operational in 2027.

The city’s 10-year Capital Improvement Program calls for about $4.7 million, or an average of $470,000 per year, to be spent on sidewalk and bike path/trail maintenance and replacement, Ellis points out. Another $5.24 million has been identified for new sidewalk and trail installation.

But, Ellis said, priorities established over the years rule the day, and installing sidewalks or bike paths on every street is not the goal in Eden Prairie.

“Efforts since the 1970s have placed a priority for sidewalk and trail infrastructure investments on the roads connecting key destinations like parks, schools, jobs, and other highly trafficked community facilities with areas of dense housing,” Ellis explained. “Cul-de-sacs and similar low traffic, low speed, and low pedestrian volume roads were not good candidates for sidewalk installations based on these priorities.”

Cars are king in the suburbs

To truly understand Eden Prairie’s sidewalk system, one needs a little history.

Archaeologists say sidewalks, used to separate pedestrians from wheeled traffic, have been around for roughly 4,000 years. It’s not a stretch to say sidewalks have significantly shaped major cities, providing safe and reliable access to the many small businesses serving dense urban neighborhoods.

That includes Minneapolis, which has a sidewalk system – sidewalks on both sides are required for newly constructed streets – that was also boosted by a sizable streetcar system up until the 1950s.

It’s been a slightly different story for American suburbs, which are intrinsically linked to the popularity of cars. When it comes down to who controls suburban streets, cars or pedestrians, the cars have triumphed. Retail, industry, schools, churches, and more are oriented to drivers, providing large parking lots fed by a system of busy collector and arterial streets. 

In the last year, sidewalks on two of Eden Prairie’s most prominent street corners have seemingly been made superfluous with the development there of high-end, automatic car-wash palaces. Who in the world is walking to a car wash?

But residents may be walking past the car washes. To the library or Eden Prairie Center, in the case of the car wash at Flying Cloud and Prairie Center drives; or to Smith Coffee & Cafe or Prairie Village Mall, in the case of the car wash at Highway 5 and County Road 4. The sidewalk therefore becomes important for that connectivity, is the city’s logic.

Getting from Point “A” to Point “B” in Eden Prairie on a sidewalk or bike path is also complicated by the fact that Eden Prairie, like most suburbs, built many curvilinear streets and cul-de-sacs rather than use the right-angle street system common in urban areas.

In general, suburbs like Eden Prairie have a land-use pattern where jobs or stores are concentrated far from where people live, according to William Lindeke, an associate faculty member and lecturer in the urban studies program at the University of Minnesota, where his classes include “A Suburban World” and “Geography of the Twin Cities.” The suburban resident needing a half-gallon of milk typically gets in his or her car and drives because a store isn’t within easy walking distance.

Further, because suburban streets and sidewalks aren’t organized around a grid pattern, it’s harder to walk in a straight line. “Even if you can see the Taco Bell from your house, you can’t really walk to it,” Lindeke said.

Meanwhile, low-traffic courts and lanes feed into roads that are wider with more and faster traffic: nightmares to cross or walk alongside, adding to the incentive to get in the car and drive.

Added Lindeke: “You end up with an unwalkable city.”

He thinks the suburban tilt to lower-density land uses and fewer sidewalks sacrifices public health, good access to important destinations, and social relationships.

“I think we should invest more in our sidewalks, for community, for health, and just getting outside, smelling the flowers,” he said, adding that sidewalks also encourage occasional interaction with neighbors.

“I think what we need is more connections, not fewer.”

No hue and cry for sidewalks

But Eden Prairie residents seem ambivalent about whether a more walkable community is a priority.

Kyle Schrieffer and his family bought a home on Boulder Rise in 2019 with a sidewalk system in mind. Their cul-de-sac has none, but there are sidewalks just beyond the neighboring lot. It’s the best of both worlds, he said: a sidewalk nearby but no sidewalk of his own to shovel and otherwise maintain.

“I should add that our opinion and preference of having a sidewalk close by has not changed and is probably even stronger, now that we’ve been spoiled by it,” he noted.

For many others, a sidewalk in front of one’s Eden Prairie house seems to be nice to have but not necessary. Realtor Nate Thompson says not once in his more than 25 years in selling homes has a buyer said: This is what I’m looking for, and it has to have a sidewalk.

Still, demand for good sidewalks can vary by community, he adds. In Excelsior, where there is a vibrant main street patronized by residents, walkability is more of a factor for homebuyers. “Eden Prairie doesn’t have that cutesy downtown,” he said.

Thompson’s first Eden Prairie home didn’t have a sidewalk in front; his second did. It was never a dealbreaker. “But it’s a nice perk,” he added.

“If they’re there, they do get used, I think.”

Walkers’ advice: Be alert

Making the best of Eden Prairie’s system of sidewalks and bike paths are people like Laura and Kevin Bluml, who were featured in a May 24 EPLN story. Laura hasn’t missed a daily walk in more than 27 years, and Kevin has missed just a few. Lately, their daily walk is about four miles long, on streets with and without sidewalks or bike paths.

Like so many residents, they don’t have a sidewalk in front of their southeast Eden Prairie home, but find their neighborhood street quite walkable given the low volume of traffic. In fact, they find the community as a whole generally safe for walkers – “as long as you plan for it,” Laura said. That means keeping safety top of mind: adjusting their daily walk to avoid rush-hour traffic and bad weather, or avoiding a walking route that would put the sun directly in passing drivers’ eyes, reducing visibility.

“If you plan for safety, I think you’re in pretty good shape,” Laura said. “We always feel we have to be our own safety advocates. And don’t depend on someone seeing us on the road.” 

They’re comfortable with the city’s approach to sidewalk and bike path placement and construction – with the exception of missing segments they feel need to be built. Laura added that they’d also like to see more marked pedestrian crosswalks and better police enforcement of stop-sign laws and right turns on red.

At the very least, the Blumls say, Eden Prairie needs to properly maintain the sidewalk and bike path system it has constructed. “If you built it, fix it!” is their maintenance-related advice to city officials.

The U of M’s Lindeke uses a different phrase to wonder what may lie ahead for suburban sidewalks: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? As in, which should come first to create a better Eden Prairie – a fully connected, easy-to-use sidewalk and path system, or a stronger walking culture among residents?

No one really knows for sure. Ultimately, Eden Prairie’s sidewalk future seems to be one of balancing historical priorities with evolving needs, leaving the question open as to whether residents will ever clamor for a more comprehensively connected community on foot.