Sunday Summary - June 23, 2019

Here’s last week on streets.mn with a preponderance of posts on ways to get around past, present, and future. Enjoy!

Politics

Saint Paul’s City Council election is this Fall. streets.mn does not endorse candidates, but we do try and bring voters more information. Bill Lindeke introduces his Podcast #124 – Saint Paul’s Ward One with Liz De La Torre saying, “We had a nice conversation about her background and experience, what her platform looks like, and what her approach toward outreach and equity. Finally, we discussed affordable housing, transit, and other transportation questions that are central to her campaign.” Also listen to the podcast with Ward 6 candidate Terry Thao from June.

Liz de la Torre, Saint Paul City Council candidate

Getting around

Looking ahead, Review: 2019 Tesla Model 3 by Conrad Zbikowski documents his test drive and adds much information about Tesla, this model, and Tesla’s future planning. The post asks many questions about the future, saying “In the days since my test drive, I have been thinking about what my sales rep talked about with Tesla’s long game for taking on Uber. In a decade, will I even need a car to go to Costco or my mother’s appointments, or will we just order up a self-driving Uber? There could be the self-driving, electric SUV for Costco and a smaller car model for trips that would take an hour of time and $2.50 of currency if we took the bus. Will Tesla buy up downtown parking ramps to store its self-driving fleet and charge up during off-peak hours?”

Looking back, Eric Ecklund observes the anniversary of the demise of streetcars with 65 Years Later: Twin Cities Streetcars saying, “While we can’t undo the past, we can learn from it. The main lesson from this is ask yourselves what you want your city to look like in the decades to come, and consider the next generations when asking yourself that question. While streetcars were less cared about in the 1950s, today some of us realize the costly mistake made by those before us. The consequences of those decisions still live on as it has taken decades and billions of dollars and counting to rebuild our transit network, which as of now is still inconvenient and lacks good coverage of our region.”

Saint Paul Should Copy Seattle’s Downtown Bike Lane, says Bill Lindeke, as the city plans an east-west bikeway on 9th and 10th Streets and a north-south route on Wabasha or St. Peter streets: “Seattle’s lane is a relatively simple, sometimes bollards / sometimes concrete-and-planted-barrier with a narrow but contiguous two-way bike lane running through the heart of downtown. Importantly, the signals and intersections are clearly marked to make sure bicyclists have right-of-way through intersections. I think this is what Saint Paul should consider for its interim design.” You can give your opinion in this survey.

In a quick update from Conrad Zbikowski, Nice Ride Gives Membership Extensions Following Setbacks, members received notification yearly memberships will be extended by 45 days. In statements, “Nice Ride implied that the rollout of its dockless hubs was delayed because of a short-staffed operations team, which may have had hiring challenges due to the tight labor market. Regarding electric bikes, Nice Ride said, “the operator of Nice Ride, Lyft, has paused its ebike program in three other bikeshare systems across the country. This has delayed the launch of ebikes here in Minneapolis.”

The C Line Is So Far, So Good says Henry Pan after the new aBRT line debuted earlier this month. The post reports on the trip and troubleshoots some potential issues, “Overall, despite the infrastructure hiccups, the C Line is off to a good start. People are still figuring out the system, and it will take months to understand how much impact the C Line has on transit service in north Minneapolis,” but “With that in mind, the agency should ensure that the Twin Cities doesn’t create a two-tiered transit system.”