Welcome to June! Summer arrived in Minnesota in temperature terms this week, so now’s the time to look at the outings described in posts below and think about how to get out and enjoy (or improve) your streets(s). The old joke is that Minnesota has 4 seasons and one of them is construction season, so current Summer/construction season projects also figure in the posts this week. And, as an organization, streets.mn continues to try to make this blog and its comment section conversation somewhere everyone feels welcome, so look for more about our new comment moderation practice very soon.
Particular projects
Stephanie Rouse looks at Complete Streets in Action by noting how a current Minneapolis project is implementing the new Complete Streets policy one area at a time. The post helps publicize what’s in the policy and looks at the 18th Avenue project in the Northeast neighborhood and the improvements to be made and the problems they’re intended to address. The comments pick up on street width and crossing treatments in greater detail.
Walker Angell finishes his trio of posts on the improvements to Snelling Avenue with Snelling Plan III: Comparison To Other Facility Types (see part one – A Relatively Good Plan For Snelling From MnDOT & St Paul and part two –Snelling Plan II: A Lot Of Room For Improvement). Walker is streets.mn’s most ardent advocate for Netherlands-quality biking and walking facilities and while this project falls short of that standard, it still receives high praise: “This design is better than I expected and a significant safety and usability improvement over the existing road and for that I am very thankful. This is a very rare instance where a U.S. traffic engineer says ‘improvement’ and I agree.”
In Three “Game Changer” Streets Projects Worth Checking out Right Now, Daniel Choma lists the 4-3 conversion of Maryland Avenue on Saint Paul’s East Side (see Bill Lindeke’s post on this project here), the Ford site redevelopment (see more posts about that project here), and considering a Midtown Greenway extension. Beyond the list, however, there are lots of links to news coverage, county and city documents, and other information. Commenters add a few more projects to the list, too.
Bike rider fatalities by facility type
Outings
I Love the Traveling Tap, and You Should Too, says Tom Basgen, and takes us on a fun trip: “The Traveling Tap is one of those beer bikes that Minnesotans love to hate. I myself was a card carrying member of the “I hate the Pedal Pub” Facebook group for some time. No longer. Never has a finer vehicle been created than the Bar Bicycle. An elegant mix of comfort and a blatant disregard for antiquated Blue Laws combine to make for the most enjoyable experience a citizen can enjoy while traversing the roads of our fair cities at a blistering 5 mph.” This positive and entertaining outing is in contrast to the pedal pub criticism we’ve seen multiple times on streets.mn, but we encourage more research this summer by streets.mn readers and writers.
Southern Cleveland in north Minneapolis is the next walk in the alphabet of Minneapolis neighborhoods by Max Hailperin. The pictures show a winter walk, but one worth taking again in warmer weather (although the snowmen Max photographed along the way will have disappeared).
Lucy Craft Laney Community School, 3333 Penn Ave. N.
Quick looks
National Links: No Parking at the Stadium continues our crossposting of interesting links from The Direct Transfer and Chart of the Day: New York City Uber Effectiveness with and without Surge Pricing.
