The Decline of HourCar Makes ‘Car-Free’ Less Convenient
In the last five years, HourCar’s service has seen a steep decline, due to a reduced number of vehicles, a lack of basic maintenance and plain old neglect.
Author: Andy Singer
Summit Master Plan First Draft Is Great!
Saint Paul Bicycle Coalition co-chair Andy Singer, longtime chronicler of all-things-cycle in St. Paul, reviews the city’s initial master plan for off-street paths on Summit Avenue — and he approves!
The Case for a New Summit Avenue Bikeway
Summit Avenue has the city’s oldest, most historic bike lanes and is the second most popular place to bike in St. Paul. So why push for a multi-million-dollar project to improve the lanes? Because the bikeway can be better — and safer — for all users.
The Alt-Bike Movement of St. Paul
I said, “We’re gonna make Saint Paul a world-class bicycling and walking city.” My slogan was “Get America Walking Again”!
Some Mental Health Cartoons
Last week, I went to see my Cycologist. I told him I was depressed about all the climate change induced flooding in Australia. He suggested that humans would develop new ways to adapt. I told him that I was also depressed by the lack of color on winter streets and the fact that everyone in […]
Minnesota’s Deadly Pedestrian Refuge Islands
The way St. Paul Public Works and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) design pedestrian refuge islands is awful. It’s symbolic of how oblivious and uncaring they are about pedestrian and bicycle crashes. It’s also one of many indicators that little has changed in this state during the past 20 years. Consider these pedestrian refuge […]
The M.U.T.C.D. Revisited
From the FHWA website:“The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways or MUTCD defines the standards used by road managers nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices on all public streets, highways, bikeways and private roads open to public travel”. It is “a compilation of national standards for all traffic control […]
The Bleak State of Local Journalism in 2020
It breaks my heart to see Minneapolis CityPages, The East Bay Express, The Bay Monthly and dozens of other alternative newspapers and magazines around the country go out of business. It has resulted in hundreds, perhaps thousands of unemployed freelance writers, editors, cartoonists, artists and journalists. Many factors led to this moment but, more than […]
Five New Saint Paul Bikeways
This fall, Saint Paul completed five major new bikeways, the most in the city’s history. We’ll look at all five of them and discuss some of the political and design work that enabled each of them to happen. Como Avenue First up is a multi-use, off-street trail on Como Avenue between Raymond Avenue and Hamline […]
2020 Cartoon Shout-outs!
Your friendly Saint Paul Crank here. It’s time for some late summer cartoon shout-outs. This first one goes out to the organizers of the Minnesota State Fair Crop Art competition. If not for the pandemic, you would have been able to see this piece hanging in the horticulture building with all the other excellent seed-art […]