It’s been a very quiet week here on streets.mn; perhaps we’re hung over from the busy end to the legislative session or anticipating the Memorial Day/Commencement weekend.
Holiday weekend ideas
For a holiday weekend, what better than a critique of CHS Field, a Perfect Cap for Lowertown, home of the Saint Paul Saints (where you could go see the Saints play Fargo-Moorhead and the Memorial Day Fireworks Super Show tonight)? After a look around the stadium and environs it concludes the stadium really is the best use for the site. During slow bits of the ball game, you can read some of the other recent posts about Lowertown and then check out the neighborhood.
Or, you could take a field trip to Portland: Beyond the Hubbub which does some thoughtful observing and reporting on what’s behind the buzz, but also makes some lighthearted suggestions for what Minneapolis and Saint Paul might do to brand ourselves successfully and become the Portland of the North.
Walking in Saint Paul – Books, Statues, Poetry and Planning takes us around Saint Paul by foot to point out some of the little delights along the way (and highlight current planning efforts in Saint Paul for making walking more accessible, too); you could recreate this walk or walk your own neighborhood and write about it for us.
Whales, the new Minneapolis mascot?
Transportation
Current events often drive our content, so this week’s Rail Is Safe–What About Our Roads? reflects on the recent Amtrak derailment near Philadelphia to review how safe rail travel really is despite the headlines and to ask why a small number of fatalities on a train gathers so much more publicity than many, many more fatalities on our roads. Following this post, What’s the Right Metric for Transportation Safety? asks some additional questions about how we measure and report on safety.
Minnesota’s 10 Busiest Intersections follows up on a streets.mn comment which named the Snelling and University Avenue intersection in Saint Paul as the busiest and finds that intersection doesn’t make the list, but gives us the top ten plus photos of several. Beyond the list, there’s some consideration of what factors go into expanding intersections or adding interchanges. Comments ask about methodology and projects, but also comment about the difficulty of navigating these places in any way except a car.
The Importance of Floating Bus Stops highlights this design tool to alleviate bike/transit conflicts at bus stops by routing the bikes behind the bus stop, letting the transit stop “float” between the bike lane and motor vehicle traffic with multiple photographic examples.
This bus stop is literally floating. And that bus is flying. Hopefully circa 2025.
Audiovisual department
Two offerings. A video of Antonio Rosell Presentation at Solutions Volume 3 from 2008 and the commencement of a repeat performance of the Roadkill Bill comic in The Return of Roadkill Bill.
Enjoy the holiday weekend, watch those seniors graduate (gift memberships to streets.mn would be a thoughtful gift for any aspiring urbanist, transportation planner, engineer, walker, biker, or interested citizen), and spend some time on your streets. Have a great week!