Our relationships with our cars are intensely personal. All the time spent driving our cars affects our personalities, our opinions, and our identities. Eventually, our car becomes a key part of who we are. This deep attachment is one reason why behavior surrounding cell phone use in cars is so paradoxical. Even though they know its […]
Peak Drive-Thru
Cross-posted at streets.mn and transportationist.org. Wells Fargo Bank has shuttered the drive-thru bank part of its branch at University and Emerald in Minneapolis (on the St. Paul City Line). [Google Street View image shown.] This may be for several reasons, the branch is immediately across the street from a Central Corridor LRT station (under construction), […]
Bicycle Infrastructure as Educational Tools
I like the Bryant Avenue shared lane markings. I ride on Bryant Avenue nearly every day on my way to and from work. I see the shared lane markings more or less as training wheels for cyclists, which is a characterization I expect the City of Minneapolis would probably distance themselves from. I was recently […]
Really Narrow Streets: A Missing Element in Twin Cities Urban Design
Even the narrowest of Twin Cities streets are pretty wide. With few exceptions, streets in Minneapolis and St. Paul tend to range in width from 30 to 60 feet, curb to curb. Including sidewalks and boulevards, the width stretches to a ballpark range of 40 to 70 feet. Streets get even wider when you move into the […]
The New Minneapolis Plan
Crossposted at streets.mn and transportationist.org The Minneapolis Downtown Council recently released “Intersections” a plan for Downtown Minneapolis. I had nothing to do with this plan, and so am free to comment. The plan is organized according to 10 major initiatives for 2025, I will list and comment on them, occasionally with snark, in order [my […]
Measuring Cycling Growth
Bike Walk Twin Cities released their official 2011 bike and pedestrian counts today. BWTC presented the new data, along with annual counts dating back to 2007. The bicycle counts clearly show a general increasing trend in 2011 compared to previous years. This is good news, since the Federal mandate attached to the $28 million NTPP […]
What is the Constituency of a Local Land-Use Decision?
In the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis, a local entrepreneur put together a proposal to develop a surface parking lot into a 5-story condo building with retail space on the ground floor. The location is a commercial node in an affluent Minneapolis neighborhood that was first developed along a streetcar line in the early 20th […]
Cedar Lake Trail Speed Limit: Back From the Grave
In spite of City promises, a 10 mph speed limit has been signed on the Cedar Lake Trail. This is old news – I got the picture a couple months ago and I’d guess it was added in the City’s signing binge around August or September. I’m not necessarily opposed to speed limits for […]
In defense of zoning
Zoning enables an Economy of Externality.
Neighborhood Greenways
One of the more interesting aspects of the recently completed Minneapolis Bicycle Master Plan is the inclusion of a long-term vision to convert some local roadways to Greenways. The master plan map lays out a network of future Greenways (most facilities we’re currently referring to as Bike Boulevards are envisioned to transition to Greenways over […]
Transportation costs too much
Crossposted at streets.mn and transportationist.org When I was growing up (in suburban Maryland), there was an ad on local TV from Crown Books. Founder Robert Haft asserted “books cost too much”, which led him to create Crown Books, and helped put independent booksellers out of business decades before Amazon became villain #1 among the literati. […]