I was reviewing the comments to the Draft Minneapolis Comprehensive Plan, and I came across an unexpected theme: That’s a weird and surprising notion. I didn’t expect to come across someone who’d suggest a popular form of winter transportation and recreation was not feasible in the winter. I continued reading… Whaaat? Well, maybe this […]
Saturday, September 22 is World Car-Free Day! OurStreets Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Downtown Council and a few local groups are celebrating it on Friday, September 21st. In honor of this blessed event, I’m posting a few car-toons. The U.S.A. (including Minnesota) remain “The Land of the Cars!” Here’s a new American flag proposal so outsiders will […]
I’m coming up on my two-year anniversary of being car-free in Minneapolis. But it didn’t happen at the snap of my fingers. Selling my car was the last step in a gradual, deliberate process that involved becoming aware and making decisions based on how I move around the city (and the world), and no small […]
We constantly hear that driverless cars are just around the corner. We’re told they will revolutionize transportation and enable us to continue using our car-based transport and land-use system. If they’re made by Tesla, they’ll be powered by magic, solar-powered, super efficient batteries and we’ll all be able to keep living our hyper-mobile, hyper-consumptive lifestyles […]
I have been struck lately by how much space privately-owned automobiles take up. It’s the Starbucks on Marshall that got me thinking about it, and just the sheer percentage of that lot that is devoted to moving and storing cars. All space devoted to use for cars is people-unfriendly. Car space increases distances between destinations. […]
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 […]
Quite a furor surrounded the recent death of Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, AZ, her body broken by a ton of steel and glass, processors and sensors. The most perplexing aspect of the tragedy, though, was the subsequent frenzy of legislative action, an outpouring of posturing that revealed, if nothing else, the deep denial we as […]
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 […]
This post is in conversation with Carol Becker’s post. I decided to write a post instead of a comment. My name is Pine Salica and I ride a bike. I know that I have encountered negative consequences for saying this. I don’t ride a bike because I especially like biking. I bike because I have […]
Of course, last week was April Fools’ Day, but the Summary preceded the joke. Here’s the streets.mn Foolish offering from Bill Lindeke adding yet another hazard to the SWLRT process: Endangered Kenilworth Shark Another Hurdle for Light Rail Planners. Housing How Many Homes Does Minneapolis Need? asks Anton Schieffer. Looking beyond the discussions of building affordable housing, […]