Engineers have a lot of options in how they design our streets and roads, how safe they make them, who they serve well and who they serve poorly. This post will examine why road design is so important, its underlying philosophy and, finally, some specific design options and why various elements are important. A future […]
Peter Stalland / Tyr Development has proposed building a 140 unit apartment complex in the midst of low density residential in Vadnais Heights. I believe it will have 140 parking spaces below ground and 140 parking spaces above ground so two per unit. This is the second plan submitted by the developer. This 3-story plan […]
We spend more for healthcare per person than any other country. By a significant amount. Some of this extra cost is in better healthcare facilities, more personnel, higher pay that attracts better caregivers, and other things. These increase costs, but not by much. The biggest chunk, 50-70% of our total healthcare costs, is that we […]
I arrived to my brunch destination this morning sweating a bit after 2.5 miles on my bicycle. Sometimes it can’t be helped. Officially it was 89°f and 74% humidity (77° dew point) which seems just beyond the limit for me to stay sweat free. A little lower temp or humidity and I’d usually be […]
Many of our suburban cities are updating comprehensive plans. These set the course for what our communities will look like over the next 20 to 30 years and are quite important. These impact safety, community desirability (and so home values, city tax revenue and ability to maintain infrastructure), quality of life, physical and mental health […]
A celebration of our streets during this snowiest April.
A very common comment from people is that they don’t ride a bicycle because they don’t feel safe on our streets. This is largely a universal human condition and not limited to just the U.S. Dutch folk feel no more comfortable in various situations than U.S. folk. And this is what drives transportation engineering in […]
What direction do you suppose the drivers in the green Kia and dark plum taxi above are looking (and encouraged to look based on road design)? As almost everywhere in the US, they are legally allowed to turn right on red. They are likely in at least somewhat of a hurry and would prefer to […]
President Trump has a plan to pay for $1 trillion in infrastructure improvements over the next 10 years through various pseudo privatization schemes. There are still a lot of unknowns but the basic gist is; a private corporation is given rights to build and maintain some bit of infrastructure (or given existing infrastructure to care […]
One of the more frustrating events for me when I’m driving, especially if I’m in a hurry, is getting stuck behind a cyclist. Or worse, a bunch of them. Or worse yet, a bunch of them riding side by side on a road wide enough to pass single riders safely. Even aside from the danger […]