Editor’s note: Walk the Talk is Streets.mn’s carefully curated, highly partisan collection of both serious and fun-loving events, community meetings and opportunities for engagement that we think will interest our readers. Email your ideas to Hawken Habig, one of our daily editors, at [email protected].
Car Free MSP — Month of September
Car-Free MSP returns this September! The regional campaign, centered around World Car-Free Day on September 22, 2024, is headed by several Transportation Management Organizations (TMOs) from across the Twin Cities, who have partnered up to provide resources and opportunities to help people go car-free. Pledging to ditch your car for one trip during the month of September will secure your spot in a giveaway. Find a full listing of events on this webpage, which includes:
- The main Regional Celebration on Sunday, September 22, noon-3 p.m. at Minnehaha Regional Park, which will feature sustainable transportation exhibitors, food and family-friendly activities.
- A Move Minneapolis webinar on Tips to Overcome Transportation Barriers on Wednesday, September 18, at noon.
Imagine Cedarfest — Sunday, September 8, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Advocacy organization Our Streets continues its new series of community block parties, Imagine, this time in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood. In what may accurately be described as a spiritual successor to Our Streets’ previous endeavor Open Streets, Imagine goes further by incorporating discussions of street design and the harmful legacy of auto-oriented infrastructure. The event will feature various local vendors, artists and musicians, and provide a vision for what a more people-oriented street could look like. More information may be found here; you can also sign up to volunteer here!
Saint Paul Classic Bike Tour — Sunday, September 8
Celebrating its 30th year, and helping cyclists celebrate the nationally renowned Saint Paul Grand Round, the Saint Paul Classic Bike Tour returns for the fourth straight year to its post-pandemic home at Como Park Pavilion. Music and food await riders at every rest stop, which highlight the variety of St. Paul parks — from Lilydale and Mounds Park to Lake Phalen Regional Park. No longer a fundraiser for the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, the Saint Paul Classic this year will support Friends of the Parks and Trails of St. Paul and Ramsey County, a nonprofit organization founded in the mid-1980s to advocate for parks, green space and trails. Learn more at the extensive St. Paul Classic website. With a cap on riders at 2,100, and no day-of registration, organizers urge you to register for the ride by the cut-off date of Thursday, September 5. The long ride is 30 or 33 miles (depending on whether you circle Lake Phalen); the shorter Lollipop Ride is 11 or 14.
State Freight Plan Survey & Open House — Tuesday, September 10, 2-4 p.m.
We talk (and walk, as it were) a lot of transportation on this site, yet I don’t often see discussions of freight. That’s not unjustified: Most of us have little intimate contact with the complexities of freight logistics. But our transportation infrastructure is shaped significantly by freight traffic and its demands, which is why MnDOT’s new State Freight Plan — a part of agency’s family of statewide plans that will guide the continuation of freight transport for the next 20 years — will have implications for passenger operations as well. The draft plan was recently released for public comment, which project leads will cover during an open house at the MnDOT headquarters in St. Paul on Tuesday, September 10, from 2 to 4 p.m. Additionally, you may submit comments on the draft plan to [email protected] through September 18.
The plan’s “Policies and Strategies” section neglects to address a few topics, which would be valuable inclusions — such as the frequent delays to passenger rail caused by freight. According to Amtrak reporting, freight trains caused 900,000 minutes of delay on its passenger system in 2023; Minnesota’s own Empire Builder was on time only 51% of the time across its route. Freight companies continue to prioritize their own traffic over passenger trains despite federal laws against such behavior, and the state should address this issue in its Freight Plan. Read the plan yourself and see what other holes you can poke in it!