Car Is Still King on New St. Paul Multimodal Projects
St. Paul has added significant infrastructure for cyclists, rollers and walkers over the past few years. But too many examples of auto-centric street design remain.
Category: Infrastructure
Highway News Roundup, Fall 2021
E-ZPass Electronic Toll Interoperability is Now Here As I’ve written about several times before, there was a 2012 federal mandate to have electronic toll collection be interoperable nationwide by 2016. In practical terms this would mean you’d be able to use your same toll transponder to pay tolls nationwide. That deadline came and went without […]
Federal Highway Administration’s MUTCD May Flout Requirements
A document search suggests agency failed to consider safer and more sustainable designs, as required by the FAST Act, in engineering manual update.
Why Don’t They Just Build a Train?
I recently read Sam Penders’ detailed piece about Metro Transit’s E Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and discussed it with a friend. Instead of getting into the details with me, they asked “Why don’t they just build a train?” I was surprised at first but worked my way through their questions as best I could to explain what BRT even is.
How to Build Great E Line Stations
Metro Transit is upgrading the busy Route 6 bus corridor to an arterial bus rapid transit (BRT) line, named the E Line, with an opening date of 2025. This corridor runs from Southdale in Edina, through Uptown, Downtown Minneapolis, and the University of Minnesota, before terminating at the border of Saint Paul. BRT provides higher-quality […]
Make Your Voice Heard About How Met Council Disburses ~$200 Million in Federal Gas-Tax Funds!
Did you know? Did you know that the Metropolitan Council is our region’s federally designated “Metropolitan Planning Commission,” or MPO? Among its duties as the MPO, every two years, the Met Council puts out a “Regional Solicitation,” the first step in a competitive grant process that determines how investments of federal transportation funds (i.e. sweet […]
Report: The Dakota County River-to-River Greenway is Complete
You can now ride across Dakota County between Lilydale and South St. Paul on trails the whole way – about eight miles. I just rode the newly widened and paved stretch through the woods in Garlough Park and Marthaler Park which then connects to the NEW TUNNEL UNDER ROBERT STREET. It then winds through the woods behind […]
Revising the St. Paul Bicycle Plan
The City of St Paul has begun the process of revising its Bicycle Plan! This document, first adopted in 2015, lays out the city’s goals and priorities for making our community a safer and more pleasant place to bike. The most significant impact has been the map of the Planned Bicycle Network, which labels streets […]
Minnesota’s Deadly Pedestrian Refuge Islands
The way St. Paul Public Works and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) design pedestrian refuge islands is awful. It’s symbolic of how oblivious and uncaring they are about pedestrian and bicycle crashes. It’s also one of many indicators that little has changed in this state during the past 20 years. Consider these pedestrian refuge […]
Merriam Park Public Library
By Seth Buikema Editor’s note: streets.mn is once again presenting essays on Twin Cities’ public space from students at Macalester College. Read through all the essays from this and previous years here. Discussion of public libraries in the mainstream media is often grim and uncertain. Taken for granted, these public spaces are often seen as […]