This week perhaps you can take your Valentine for a walk (see a couple of options below or more here) or revisit some of our older posts about What I Love About Minnesota. We are also still looking for people who love us; the deadline for submitting an application to join the streets.mn board is Friday, February 17, 2017.
Legislation
HF499: An Email Exchange with Duane Quam is just that. After learning of Representative Quam’s bill HF499 requiring “urban bicycle lane permits” to ride in bike lanes, Andy Singer emailed Representative Quam and Transportation Committee members to object to bill’s requirements and point out some of the issues. Rep. Quam replied on a bicycle safety and education platform generating another strongly worded reply from Andy Singer. Commenters point out that while Rep. Quam introduces many, many bills, few progress through the process, some observations about impacts and mitigating them, and some observations about government in general.
A Modest Proposal for Better Minnesota Bike Legislation goes beyond complaining about HF499 to propose new legislation. Luke Van Santen “took a stab at modifying the core Statute of Minnesota bike law (Section 169.222) to reflect the reality of conditions on the ground” including changes to the “as far right as practicable” standard and adding Idaho and Paris stops. There’s some extended discussion about riding on sidewalks and some consideration of e-bikes, too.
Walking the City
Two more walks from Max Hailperin (as he walks all 87 Minneapolis neighborhoods) in Western Audubon Park and Eastern Audubon Park with the usual mix of history, interesting buildings, and other details only able to appreciated at walking speed.
No Clowns Allowed! (2700 Block of Fillmore Street)
Smart Cities
New writer Blaine Kelton considers Minneapolis-St. Paul’s Smart City Transformation in the context of Transportation for America (T4A) and Sidewalk Labs collaborative project to improve mobility through “smart cities” for which Minneapolis and Saint Paul were selected.
And that’s the week – if you’re reading this, would you like to be writing this? We are always looking for new writers to help us expand the conversation on transportation and land use.