Here’s a roundup of last week’s streets.mn posts, in case you missed any. But even if you caught all of these the first time around, you might want to revisit them for the stellar comments.
Mass transit
Two state legislators wrote an op-ed in the Star Tribune calling streetcars “faddish” and “obsolete.” Sam Newberg wrote a post demolishing their arguments and building up a more thoughtful framework for cost-benefit analysis. The commenters wrote about population density details, the potential of bus rapid transit, and the possibility of a Gordian urbanistic calculus that could determine the perfect use of public right-of-way for any given neighborhood.
Voter guides
Katie Hatt and Ken Kelash are running for the open board seat in Hennepin County’s 3rd District, and they answered questions about transportation and land use. Expect more to come.
Bikes
Kevin Krizek reviewed international and local efforts to paint a safe space for cyclists. Commenters piled on the so-called bike boulevard of Bryant Avenue South.
Tony Desnick chatted with MnDOT commissioner Charlie Zelle, who reminisced about an ambitious 140-mile bike ride from Minneapolis to Camp Ripley.
Wolfie Browender took a bike ride and got some great stories and photos of/about an old Steinway piano.
Infrastructure
Janne Flisrand took a look at Norwegian intersection treatments and thought about how their rules result in “fantastically efficient and predictable traffic management.”
Julie Kosbab fumed over the less-than-fantastic state of our bike lanes this time of year. The commenters compared the ridability of mixed-use paths and protected bike lanes to conventional bike lanes.
History
Nokohaha brought us a welcome variation on the “look what urban renewal destroyed!” theme with a “Then and Now” from north Minneapolis.
Allie Klynderud dug up some quaint, historic postcards of Minneapolis. There are steamboats, sparse skylines, and trains on the Stone Arch Bridge.
Potpourri
Bill Lindeke and an anonymous Real Life Graphic Designer (RLGD) reviewed city logos. Nerdy hilarity ensued. The commenters revealed a suburban logo that’s scandalously bad.
Speaking of city logos, Matthias Leyrer reported on Mankato’s new one, which features a cyclist. (There happen to be no bike lanes in Mankato.)
Audrey Kletscher Helbling took some beautiful photos of rural Rice County.
Local animator John Akre took a shot at car culture with a short video. Akre imagined a future in which America is cleaved in two: bike-loving Lower Canada and oil-dependent Kingdom Come.