Author: David Levinson

David Levinson

David Levinson

David Levinson also blogs at The Transportist and can be found [@trnsprtst]. Levinson has authored or edited several books, including The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport and Planning for Place and Plexus: Metropolitan Land Use and Transport as well as numerous peer reviewed articles. He is the editor of the Journal of Transport and Land Use.

Pierce Butler, American jurist

Piercing Butler

The most famous Pierce Butler was a founding father and US Senator from South Carolina. An apparently unrelated Pierce Butler was the first Supreme Court justice from the state of Minnesota, who became a justice after earning his chops as a lawyer for the James J. Hill interests (Jane McClure writes about him on the […]

Transit routes with proposed reconfiguration shown for Routes 2 (brown) and 67 (purple).

Straightening Your Route

While I don’t ride it as a regular, I have on occasion* found myself on the number 2 bus.  It offends my sensibilities as a transportation planner. It runs along Franklin Avenue from near Hennepin Avenue S to the University of Minnesota and then runs along 8th St SE to Hennepin Avenue SE. Each of the […]

Minnesota State Highway 280 Reconfiguration Proposal sketch.

Fixing the 280

Minnesota 280 was first opened in 1959, an element of a freeway network that was not fully realized. It was designed before Interstate standards became standard.  It is an important route, providing access from I-94 west-bound to I-35W northbound, a link that is otherwise missing from the network.  Wikipedia writes: Highway 280 was authorized on […]

The Maroon Line - Engineering Sketch

The Maroon Line

Imagine you had a University with two major campuses connected by an exclusive right-of-way. Imagine the University sends buses back and forth on this transitway at 5 minute intervals during peak times. Imagine the transitway carries 3,197,701 riders per year (2012 numbers via The Transit Camera). Imagine it passes by undeveloped and underdeveloped land. Imagine it cost $6,080,021 […]

Proposed Prospect Park North Street Network.

Prospect Park North – A Street Network

Prospect Park North is the redevelopment of mostly industrial lands north of University Avenue at the Prospect Park North LRT station. I mentioned some of it an earlier post. Working with some of the key actors planning the neighborhood, I organized a class project for my undergraduate students to conduct a travel demand analysis of Prospect […]

Engineering sketch of Cedar-Riverside Wye Junction.

Wye Not?

Imagine arriving at the Mall of America light rail station and seeing trains for both downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul, and not waiting 20 years until the Riverview Corridor is built. When the Hiawatha Line (today’s Blue Line) opened in 2004, it had service every 7.5 minutes (8 trains per hour). [As of this writing, […]

Future Minneapolis Transit Map by Kyril Negoa at Mapping Twin Cities Tumbler

Map Monday: Minneapolis future transit

We have featured Kyril Negoda’s work here before at streets.mn. This is a more recent map of Future Transit in Minneapolis. He writes: Minneapolis future transit map. Work in progress This screenshot covers almost the entire area of Minneapolis. The future lines will continue to closely follow historical development patterns from the streetcar era, which favored north-south  axis […]

Walking to School

The State Non-motorized Transportation Advisory Committee

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is currently seeking people to apply for open positions for the State Non-Motorized Transportation Advisory Committee. Application are online. Applications submitted by today, November 24, 2015 are given full consideration. However, we will consider applications until all positions are filled. So please read below, apply and forward to others. We appreciate your help in getting this […]