The river roads along the Mississippi in Saint Paul and Minneapolis are, rightly, the crown jewels of the Twin Cities’ urban landscape. Thanks to forward thinking planning over a century ago, these bluffs are not private spaces but open to the public for everyone in the whole city to use. And we do! Every nice […]
People driving cars and trucks killed about 400 people in Minnesota last year. That means a child in Minnesota is about 21 times more likely to be killed by someone driving a car as they are to be abducted by a stranger. What’s being done about this at the capital in Saint Paul? Expansion, Improvement, Dead People Every […]
I remember the first time I heard about “distracted pedestrians. I was attending a civic event, mingling with a long-time traffic engineer. As we began chatting about street safety, he brought it up immediately. “Distracted pedestrians,” he said, and went on about the increasing problem they posed. He was concerned, and spent a long time […]
Everyone needs to pee. This is an observation so obvious that it shouldn’t need to be stated. Yet it seems it’s not an observation that has made its way into our urban planning. It’s really a simple equation. People need to pee – no public bathrooms = peeing in public (or worse). Much of the […]
Recently state representatives Mark Uglem and Frank Hornstein introduced a bill to the Minnesota Legislature to criminalize talking on a handheld cell phone while driving. The benefits of this bill are sold to be increased safety, particularly from having two hands ready and on the wheel at all times, and easier enforcement of the texting […]
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is currently finishing the planning process for re-decking the Smith Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River in Saint Paul. As part of this 2018 project, they are also repaving Smith Avenue, from Grand Avenue all the way south to Interstate 494. The Smith Avenue Bridge, also known as “The High […]
A lot of ink has been spilled over state Representative Duane Quam’s proposed bill HF499 requiring “urban bicycle lane permits” in order to ride in a bike lane. The full text of the bill can be found here. Lots of people in the cycling community wrote, called or met with him. Many wrote columns, blog […]
Here’s a depressing chart, ripped from StreetsBlog’s end-of-year post of 2016 high- and low-lights. It uses Federal transportation data to chart the increase in fatality rates for different modes of travel on US roads: According to the Streetsblog post, the rise in fatalities, particularly for people walking or biking, is a worrisome counter-trend: Bucking a […]
Snow emergencies are a big deal here in Minneapolis. You hear about it on the TV news. There’s an app–tens of thousands of people have installed it on both iPhone and Android (“avoid the cost and hassle of a ticket and tow…”). People are very interested in not having their cars towed, so people become very interested in […]
Last Thursday afternoon I was driving westbound on West 7th Street (Highway 5) in St Paul. As I approached the crossing in front of Mickey’s Diner, I saw someone crossing in the crosswalk from Mickey’s towards the bus stop on the north side. As I watched him cross, I was thinking what an awful crossing […]