‘Good Enough’ Isn’t Good Enough on Summit Avenue
St. Paul’s most popular bike route is already halfway to achieving greatness. If we invested in some cycling upgrades, the payoff would be huge.
Category: Safety
Autonomous Cars Can Be Safe or Mass-Marketable, Not Both
You might remember a rash of people on social media becoming suddenly interested in “the Trolley Problem” a few years ago. A classic ethical thought experiment about the dilemma posed by a runaway trolley, contemporary interest in it has been revived as corporations and engineers (PDF) begin grappling with programming and design decisions that will govern […]
The Death of 4-Lane Death Roads
If you don’t know about Saint Paul’s Maryland Avenue, you really should. To catch up, take a look at these past Streets.MN articles: June 20, 2016 – Maryland Avenue Pedestrian Safety Meeting Recap May 19, 2017 – So Much Depends on the Next Six Weeks on Maryland Avenue July 12, 2017 – Maryland Avenue: The […]
What the North Star Can Learn from the Lone Star
This past week I attended a conference in Austin, Texas. I had only ever been to cruddy parts of Texas before, but was excited to see a city I had heard great things about. People told me about the great music scene, amazing food, and beautiful parks. I knew they have bike share and had […]
Unsafe Streets Are Inequitable: For Vulnerable Road Users, “Doing Everything Right” Isn’t Enough
On July 30, 2015, I was riding in the bike lane of Marshall Avenue, commuting home from work, when I was hit by a car driver turning left (midblock, into a parking lot). I am only just this month—May 2018—settling with the driver’s insurance company. Here are just some of things that have to go […]
Chart of the Day: Kinetic Energy of Bicycles versus Cars
Via the Twitter feed of Juan Melli, a resident of New Jersey, here is a chart showing the kinetic energy (i.e. energy generated because of motion) of a bicycle going 20 miles per hour versus a car going 30 miles per hour. It’s a pretty one-sided chart: Melli writes that: Kinetic energy that would hit a […]
How To Tell If Your Car Is A Lemon
When I was a sophomore in college and I needed a car my parents gave me $200 towards a vehicle and a “good luck” pat on the back. I was rough on their cars, so it’s no surprise to me that they weren’t willing to invest much else into my own vehicle. My budget was […]
Helmets Shouldn’t Be A Question in the Snelling-Summit Bike Fatality
(Also published on Ride Boldly) Yesterday, in St. Paul, a cyclist was killed when hit by a school bus. The accident happened at Snelling and Summit, which is a complex intersection involving service roads. You can get a sense of it from this Google map: The cyclist was headed westbound, straight, per witnesses. The bus […]
Dangerous Intersection Profile: Lake & Lyndale
Originally posted on Our Streets Mpls as part of a series of blog posts featuring the most dangerous intersections in Minneapolis. The intersection of Lake Street W and Lyndale Avenue S had the highest total pedestrian crashes (24 crashes) according to the 2017 City of Minneapolis Pedestrian Crash Study. Lake and Lyndale is a signalized […]
Walking West River Parkway
West River Parkway can be an ideal route to walk, bike, or drive. The speed limit is 25 mph with mostly proper bike and walk lanes, safe crossing and even some zebra stripes. Yesterday with the mobile and Google Maps and Reviews in pocket I strolled up and down the downtown part of it to […]