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One of my favorite summer activities is watching all the new bike infrastructure projects as they progress through various stages of construction. There’s a lot happening in 2016, but one of the projects I’m most excited about is the Mississippi River Regional Trail-Spring Lake Park Reserve Segment in Nininger (which I had never heard of before […]
The Minneapolis Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is easily one of my favorite urban amenities that makes Minneapolis a great place to live. According to the MPRB website, The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway System encompasses 4,662 acres of parkland, including 50 miles of parkways, 51 miles of walking trails, and 51 miles of biking trails. (Unrelated […]
A key bike route in the east metro that has been closed for construction for the past two years was finally reopened this week. The Sam Morgan Regional Trail, which follows the northern/eastern banks of the Mississippi River through Saint Paul, is sandwiched between Shepard/Warner Road and the river. The trail was closed while Ramsey […]
Every year, MnDOT publishes a number of safety statistics. A lot of that data is available here. One of the products they publish annually are the “Green Sheets,” which they publish for both various intersection types and roadway section types. The chart below is adapted from the 2013 Section Green Sheet. It shows the statewide […]
One of the arguments I hear frequently against investment in bicycle facilities is that people don’t bike in the winter (and winter is eight months long). We know that some people certainly ride bicycles all year regardless of weather, and we can probably guess that if we did a better job maintaining our bike infrastructure […]
I see a lot of similarities between Minnehaha Parkway in Minneapolis and Wheelock Parkway in Saint Paul. I thought it would be fun to compare the two corridors. Here we go. Minnehaha Parkway is 5.3 miles stretching from Lake Harriet to Minnehaha Falls through South Minneapolis. Wheelock Parkway is 5.4 miles stretching from Lake Como […]
I go for a lot of walks around the neighborhood with my kids. My 3 year old walks at a glacial pace, so I have plenty of time to look around and notice details of the streetscape. One thing that always stands out to me is the large number of types of light fixtures being […]
The American Community Survey (ACS) 2012 1-year estimates were released recently, and the Star Tribune ran a piece titled ‘Minneapolis sees surge in residents choosing to walk or bike to work’. More than 11 percent of the city’s residents opted for one of the two nonmotorized options in 2012, the Census Bureau’s American community Survey […]
Bike lanes, generally, are a minimum of 5 feet wide. But a lot of roadways have shoulders that are less than five feet in width, which can be problematic for cyclists when this space is mistaken for bike lanes. Shoulders in the range of 2′ or less are narrow enough that it is pretty clear […]