The Rite and Wrong of Driving
Contributor and transportation leader Mary Morse Marti responds to Ross Douthat’s recent column in the New York Times about driving, asking: Is it really a rite of passage?
Category: Cars
National Links: Rethinking City Sounds
What if we rethought sound in busy cities? In Rotterdam, city officials believe that train bells and other noises are just background noise, but to many, it’s an unbearable hum. Still, some are looking for ways to extract and enhance new sounds to create new and valuable urban experiences.
It’s Not Equitable to Protect Cars on Summit Avenue
A recent editorial argued that bike advocates left out the marginalized in their advocacy for new bike infrastructure on Summit Avenue. What if we applied that analysis to cars?
National Links: Dark Stores and Geographic Gas Taxes
Around the country more dark stores and ghost kitchens are popping up in empty retail spaces. These stores, which promise 15-minute deliveries of food and goods, don’t have a front door and can’t be patronized on foot. Along with e-commerce, they are also wreaking havoc on local businesses and impacting the soul of cities in a way that will be hard to recover.
National Links: No More Demolition
For half a century cities like St. Louis felt that demolition was the best way to solve urban ills tied to out-migration and decay. But according to Tony Nipert, this can result in another type of displacement through neglect. And solutions that include rehabilitation only result in more demolition 10 years later if actions aren’t taken to get people into those homes. Other solutions are needed to revitalize neighborhoods in cities.
Summer 2022 Highway News Roundup
Google Maps Silliness Minnesota has about a hundred legally named highways and bridges, written into law in Minnesota Statute § 161.14. Some of the early ones like the Viking Trail and the Sioux Trail were possibly intended to mark motoring touring routes. But overwhelmingly the highways are named in memory of local politicians, veterans or […]
More On the Robert Piram Trail Story
Wolfie Browender highlights some of the features and history of the Robert Piram Bike Trail with project manager Mary Norton.
National Links: Urbanization and Climate Change
New research out of China shows that the mass urbanization of the country led by rural migration could be beneficial on the road to zero emissions.
Spring 2022 Highway News Roundup
The Chestnut Street Pedestrian Plaza Project to Get Underway in Stillwater As part of the ongoing effort to revitalize its waterfront and reclaim its downtown from the traffic in the wake of the St Croix Crossing opening, Stillwater is prepared to rebuild a two-block section of Chestnut Street leading up to the lift bridge. After […]
Waking Up from the Car Cult
When you hear anyone say that the Twin Cities Boulevard vision isn’t possible as part of Rethinking I-94 — when we face a climate emergency and the literal loss of a stable, civilization-supporting habitat — remember that you live in a car cult.