‘Twas the night before Christmas and out on the street, not a creature was stirring…and that’s where my imagination runs out. And the year is running out, too – next week’s Sunday Summary will be on the last day of 2017. If you are in the habit of making year-end donations to organizations you value, we hope you’ll click the orange button to the right so help support streets.mn this year. We have new people involved, have staged some cool events this year, and are looking to 2018 to continue making streets.mn a place where we can all talk about how we (could) plan, design, and build our places. Although Festivus is “officially” over, you can still help us celebrate A streets.mn Festivus.

Bike Barriers

Tony Desnick identifies Barriers to Bike Share Equity in St. Paul in NiceRide’s process to expand their network: “In September, Nice Ride Minnesota let an RFP for an operator to come into the Twin Cities and operate the current Nice Ride station-based system until 2010 – or the end of the useful life of current equipment. Additionally, proposers were asked to create for the Twin Cities a station-free (AKA dockless) bike share. Simply stated, station-free bike share allows bikes to be parked anywhere as defined by community parking rules and rent them from anywhere for $1 per half hour or hour depending on the provider.” The biggest obstacle to greater equity is exclusivity of relying on one provider, rather than inviting multiple vendors into the system.

Station-free bikes in Seattle

Quick looks and longer walks

One chart with Chart of the Day: Retail Spending Trends in Wausau with “One big takeaway is that people seem to like small, local businesses, and going downtown.”

One map (and last minute gift, perhaps) with Map Monday: Cutting Board Neighborhoods of Minneapolis and Saint Paul is exactly what it sounds like.

One walk with Max Hailperin (on a much warmer day than you’ll see this week) Western Diamond Lake.