Podcast #72 – Designing Minneapolis Streets with Jon Wertjes

mpls advisory bike lane 2

An advisory bike lane in South Minneapolis.

The podcast this week is a conversation with Jon Wertjes, the Director of Traffic and Parking Services for the Minneapolis Department of Public Works. A few months ago, Jon and I were joined in City hall by streets.mn writer and planning consultant Sam Newberg and Casper Hill, who works as a communications liaison for the department, and we had a great conversation about all kinds of interesting street design details in Minneapolis.

Our topics included working with the fire department, lane widths, the new NACTO design manual, speed limits, and even the existence of the city’s fabled giant red snow emergency button. Honestly, in all my years studying city planning this was the most candid, open, and helpful conversation I’ve ever heard with city officials, and I am grateful to Jon and the folks at Minneapolis Public Works for sitting down with Sam and I. I think you’ll enjoy the conversation.

Link to the audio is here.

Bill Lindeke

About Bill Lindeke

Pronouns: he/him

Bill Lindeke has writing blogging about sidewalks and cities since 2005, ever since he read Jane Jacobs. He is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota Geography Department, the Cityscape columnist at Minnpost, and has written multiple books on local urban history. He was born in Minneapolis, but has spent most of his time in St Paul. Check out Twitter @BillLindeke or on Facebook.