Notable Tunnels of the Twin Cities Suburbs
Many suburbs have retrofitted bicycle infrastructure, usually so that vulnerable users won’t slow automotive throughput. Along the way, many of these projects have spawned tunnels, which are always fun.
Author: Dan Marshall
Every Tunnel Tells a Story: the Underground Passageways of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Here’s a question: Why does Saint Paul have so many more tunnels than Minneapolis? Because we keep Saint Paul boring! Indeed, Saint Paul’s geography has featured the subterranean since the very beginning when Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant staked his claim at Fountain Cave. And although Saint Paul was well positioned at the northernmost navigable point […]
An Appreciation of the U of M Transitway
Living in the Midway, I consider the U of M Transitway to be the best bike route in the Twin Cities–even better than the Midtown Greenway. It’s our neighborhood’s safe link with the U of M and downtown Minneapolis. We need many more routes just like it. Yet, for some reason, the Transitway is the […]
A Few Streets St. Paul Would Be Better Off Without
New streets are being built every day, mostly in the exurbs, where forests and farmland continue to give way to new subdivisions. Here in Saint Paul we pretty much stopped building new roads half a century ago. The problem is, there seems to be a law of nature that once those roads are built, they […]
Best and Worst Pedestrian Bridges in MSP–an Unscientific Sampling
Last week’s article calling for a ban on slip lanes in Saint Paul is spot on. Too many of our city streets are built like highways, endangering pedestrians and bicyclists by design. The comments on the article, however, turned toward pedestrian bridges, in particular the bridge at Aldine over I-94, as an alternative to walking […]
Restoring Summit Avenue’s Historic Bike Lanes
The recent death of cyclist Alan Grahn on Saint Paul’s Summit Avenue has rightfully fueled a movement to improve Summit’s bike infrastructure with protected bike lanes and improved intersection design. As the city’s main east/west cycling corridor, Summit is heavily used year round by both commuters and recreational cyclists but lacks the protections of the […]