Here in the midst of #31DaysOfWinterBiking, winter bicycle commuters will tell you that biking through a snowstorm is icy, slow and treacherous, but it may be the most fun you can have on a bike.
St. Patrick’s Day, that day of green things which should not be green and (this year anyway) things which ought to be green are still buried under snow and ice. We could repurpose St. Patrick’s Day as a happy and green climate action day (and a few green beers would probably be ok in this […]
It wasn’t always like this. This changed roughly five years ago. I’m talking about the parking restrictions, that is. See that sign? As I said, roughly five years ago my neighborhood’s sixty-year-old streets reached their functional end. When we moved in about 11 years back the streets were horrendous. Every Spring potholes were patched. The […]
At the corner of Portland Avenue and Third Street in Minneapolis, I stood in a large sneckdown corner, no tire tracks in the area since the snow had started falling only a few hours previous. (For the uninitiated, a sneckdown “is effectively a curb extension caused by snowfall,” according to Wikipedia, which calls this charmingly […]
January 2018 I tried a self-challenge: “January version of the 30 days of winter biking self-challenge.” It helped me get used to biking in the winter regularly and stop having fear of biking to/from the SE part of Saint Paul, where I live, to near downtown St Paul, where I work. It helped me beyond […]
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, […]
When you live in Minnesota you come to expect that there will be snow during winter. We’ve crafted numerous adaptations to provide comfortable winter living, including the declaration of a “snow emergency” when streets are difficult to pass with a personal car. Is it also an emergency when you cannot travel by bicycle (or walk)? […]
Regular transit users experience the public realm in a very personal way. Instead of cruising through at 30+ MPH, transit users and pedestrians are taking in all aspects of the streetscape. This time of year, snowbanks start to recede and water starts to fill the sidewalks. If your lucky you’ll be able to slide across […]
I hate winter. I can’t help it; I’ve never loved it, even though I’ve lived in MN my entire life. I don’t like cold, I have winter driving fears (my only auto accident was in the winter) and I worry about everyone I love and care about. In fact, winter driving conditions helped bring about […]
Much of Minnesota had a snow day (or two) last week which provides the inspiration for some of this week’s content (both prose and pictures) in addition to some big ideas about projects and policy. Next Sunday, the Super Bowl happens in Minneapolis (without the Vikings on the field) and the impact of that event […]