Here’s the week on streets.mn, beautifully blurbed and creatively categorized:
Stop, Look and Listen
- Stop: This week, equity issues (which are almost always lack of equity issues) figure prominently as streets.mn continues to expand the conversation about transportation, land use and include more viewpoints. Three Things You Should Know about the Suburban Equity Cry reviews some of the background and historical funding priorities which undermine the “collar counties” complaint about Metro Transit’s 2040 Transportation Policy Plan. Map Monday: Twin Cities’ Concentrated Areas of Poverty shows the concentrations are distributed. Getting personal, Recognition of Privilege on the Bus considers who sits where and why on the bus; commenters weigh in on their choices and add some context. The latest in the Transpo Convo series introduces us to Benjamin Out Shopping; the series is “an oral history of getting around the Twin Cities, one person at a time.”
- Look: Transit Accessibility in the Twin Cities (2014) (a sobering look at how inaccessible transit is to most of the metro area), MN-DOT Revenue and Expenditures (a must-see flow chart illustrating state transportation dollars), 747s and 777s at MSP (with more than the usual comment activity on a chart as the plane geeks discuss what flies in and out of MSP). Green Art for the Green Line paints possibilities for growing art along the Green Line with examples from elsewhere; Green Art for the Green Line – Part II gives some details about the images. Unique Art on the Green Line LRT Platforms showcases the art already in place at stations. In Transit: Mississippi River is one of a series of videos of a canoe trip the entire length of the Mississippi River; this segment takes us through Minneapolis.
- Listen: Podcast #72 – Designing Minneapolis Streets with Jon Wertjes, Director of Traffic and Parking Services for the city.
Policy problems
Conservation Districts are (still) a Bad Idea but Minneapolis is considering such an ordinance; the new law is less about conservation than about preservation of some lower density neighborhoods while steering more intense development elsewhere. Minneapolis Should Skip Streetcars, the latest capital intensive transit trend, which don’t do much more, but cost much more (to construct) than buses. Saint Paul’s 8-80 Vitality Fund Can Help Saint Paul Work for Everyone reviews Saint Paul’s new $42.5 million fund to build “bold and vibrant places” in the city. We’re thrilled that streets.mn posts are increasingly getting wider distribution, too; the first two posts were picked up by MinnPost, while the last made it to streetsblog.net.
Other interesting stuff
The EU BICI series continues with a trip to Cycling’s Oasis in Odense (Denmark), one of Northern Europe’s best cycling success stories. There are a couple of fun to think about posts this week. Is There a Physical Difference Between the Brains of Pedestrians and Motorists? considers this years’ Nobel Prize in Medicine about the hippocampus and wonders whether pedestrians’ different set of skills and stimuli might change brains, too. GM, Conspiracies, Controversies, and Complications considers the mixed messages General Motors send with its ads and new Michigan bikeshare program combined with some questions about their past practice.
Here in Northfield, crews are working hard to finish 2014 street projects before there’s plowable snow and street sweepers are cleaning up autumn leaves (and leaving them in the bike lanes). Don’t forget the gloves and lights on the bike commute and have a great week!