There are 5 street crossings on the greenway between Hiawatha and the river. At each of these a small stop sign asks bikers to stop. (They often don't.)
All cars are required by Minnesota (crosswalk) law to stop for peds. (Guess what, they often don't either.)
From what I can tell the city is trying to fix this problem. They've temporarily closed where 27th street crosses the greenway. I assume this is to ease friction for pedestrians on the greenway. It's actually really nice, and sorry cars, you can drive a block in either direction and cross there.
The city and MNDOT are currently trying out a new pedestrian activated signal where the greenway crosses minnehaha.
It's been there ~2 months. I've never pressed it. Maybe because it's on a pole that's hard to reach while I'm balancing my bike waiting for traffic to clear? I'll take a better look tomorrow.
But signals wouldn't be necessary if bikers and drivers operated their vehicles attentively/defensively and knew the relevant laws.
Where traffic-control signals are not in place or in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall stop to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk. The driver must remain stopped until the pedestrian has passed the lane in which the vehicle is stopped. Minnesota State Statute 169.21 Subd. 2
A person lawfully operating a bicycle on a sidewalk, or across a roadway or shoulder on a crosswalk, shall have all the rights and duties applicable to a pedestrian under the same circumstances. Minnesota State Statute 169.22, Subd. 4(f)
I think it would also solve problems if the intersection were more clearly marked to favor one type of traffic over the other. The signage today isn't unclear
Stop for Peds/Bikes in crosswalk
But what is unclear is when the peds/bikes are allowed to enter that crosswalk. Some drivers yield immediately, others drive straight through. I've been yelled at more than once when traffic in one direction stopped to wait for me to cross, but a vehicle coming from the other direction didn't recognize it's their responsibility to yield and thought I was the one misbehaving.
Minneapolis is investing big in bike infrastructure. I rode the new protected bike lane on 28th home from work on monday, and it was downright pleasant. The lanes on 26/28th fall on a coworker's daily route (via the protected lanes on Park and Portland). What Minneapolis is doing is making a difference.
But how do we get the message to all drivers that bikes aren't going anywhere, so please don't run them over?