Most metro area cities content themselves with ignoring pedestrians. A couple of cities have taken the unusual step of at least paying lip service to the idea that bipedal transportation should be safe, convenient, and comfortable. Bloomington, on the other hand, is trying to make a name for itself by actively discouraging pedestrians from using […]
Is usefulness useful? Broadly speaking, the definition of usefulness as applied to transportation was set in stone a zillion years ago as meaning the movement of as many vehicles as possible as quickly as possible. But those of us whose communities all those vehicles are moving quickly through, or who have lost loved ones to […]
This is Edward G. Robinson; I’ve been torn from my eternal slumber to warn you about a dangerous new wave of degeratism sweeping across this country. But first, some rules: No talking during the filmstrip. No sleeping during the filmstrip. If you have to go to the bathroom, be sure to get some ice for […]
For the past three years, Minnesota has been visited by a TIGER from the east, who brought bags of cash for us to use on transportationy things. This year, the TIGER skipped over us, saving his magic bags to open over other states. What happened? What did or didn’t we do that displeased the TIGER? […]
Bowdlerization helps focus this post on traffic signal programming, also posted on my blog in a more digressive version. It was inspired by a column by CM Tuthill in the latest issue of Lowry Hill East’s neighborhood newspaper The Wedge, which has some great news about changes to signal timing at a couple key Uptown […]
Minneapolis is not Detroit. There are downsides to that, but in general I’d guess that most of us are fine with it. We don’t have Motown, but Prince mostly makes up for it in his weird way. We don’t have a People Mover, but Hiawatha is more useful anyway. We don’t have 40 square miles […]
Two intersections that I pass on my daily commute offer vastly different pedestrian experiences. Walking vaguely north-ish on 3rd St N in the North Loop you first encounter 6th Ave N, where despite the stop signs giving priority to cars on 6th over their automotive brethren on 3rd, I experience the most consistent yielding to […]
Once upon a long, long time ago, Minneapolis didn’t have any neighborhoods. Well, of course the city had neighborhoods, but they were the sort of organic shorthand referring to important intersections, like Cedar-Riverside or Chicago-Lake, you know, the kind of place that in the old world would have been called a square and given its […]
Sorry I’m a bit late with the TPW Committee this cycle. Actually it’s a good thing, because they had a special meeting on Thursday the 12th that I’ll cover below. As always, if you’re curious, see the rest of this year’s summaries here. The big news in this TPW Committee is that Minneapolis is continuing […]
The session’s not quite over, but probably all the bills that will pass this year at the MN Legislature have been introduced. I thought streets.mn readers might be interested in those bills that affect the state’s transit landscape, so here is a bowdlerized version of a summary from my personal blog. Warning: I am not […]