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Fifth most accessible metro area

By on April 4, 2013 in Accessibility

The Greater Minneapolis-Saint Paul region ranks fifth nationally in accessibility to jobs by car, following much larger metropolitan areas: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, according to a study we recently completed at the University of Minnesota. The region is punching above its weight following a boxing metaphor. Why? Accessibility is the product [...]

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Just-in-time consumption: Does the `pint of milk test’ hold water?

By on February 25, 2013 in Accessibility, Shopping

Just-in-time production revolutionized manufacturing, enabling both a reduction in inventories as supplies arrive only shortly before needed, and an improvement in quality as poorly made inputs are no longer stored for long periods of time, but can be quickly identified and feedback provided to the supplier. The widespread adoption of the just-in-time process is itself [...]

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Fastest Metropolitan Area in the United States (outside of California)

By on February 21, 2013 in Accessibility, Streets

If I told you that the Minneapolis-St. Paul- Bloomington Metropolitan area had the highest average speeds (outside of California) of the fifty largest metropolitan areas in the United States, would you be surprised? I was. According to data released with the 2012 Texas A&M’s Transportation Institutes’s Urban Mobility Report, Powered by Inrix, Table A-8 reveals [...]

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I Love Accessibility

By on February 12, 2013 in Accessibility, Featured, Infrastructure, Land use, Streets, Transit, Transportation, What I love about Minnesota

Last year on streets.mn, David Levinson wrote about a study which projected what accessibility in the Twin Cities might look like in 20 years under a variety of planning scenarios. I think accessibility is pretty great, and so I was very happy to get to work with David on another accessibility-focused project. “Access to Destinations: Annual [...]

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Addressing a neighborhood gap

By on January 22, 2013 in Accessibility, Air rights, Infrastructure, Streets, Transportation

Freeway development in the Twin Cities, while considered necessary for economic growth and to address traffic congestion, was not particularly kind to the neighborhoods it went through.  Where it didn’t destroy neighborhoods entirely, it seriously impacted them.  Once construction was complete, the neighborhoods had to contend with the noise and pollution from vehicles using the freeway.  The [...]

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2012 Best Skyway/Undergound System: Downtown Minneapolis

By on December 24, 2012 in Accessibility, Best of, Infrastructure, Skyways, Transportation, Walking

Skyways are often derided by idealistic urbanists. Critics point to barren downtown streetscapes and blame the skyways for lack of activity. In my previous life as a naive urban planning student learning about cities, I criticized them myself. But I now think of skyways in the same way as most people probably do: just another option [...]

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Saying Goodbye to the “Passenger Mile”

By on November 20, 2012 in Accessibility, Transportation

Last week I made a terrible mistake. I accidentally clicked on a link to a radio story from APM’s Marketplace, a “freakonomics” segment that argued that transit wasn’t as environmentally efficient as its supporters would like. Quickly, my brain began to fill with intellectual pollution. Eric A. Morris, the “freakonomics” writer was basically parroting a [...]

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Accessibility Futures

By on May 31, 2012 in Accessibility

Paul Anderson, Pavithra Parthasarathi, and I recently completed a study looking at the accessibility impact of alternative land use and network scenarios for the Twin Cities. The full report is 767 pages! Most is Appendix, with maps of each scenario. The text is only 25 pages, including main figures. This post, drawn from the report, [...]

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