Archive | Walking RSS feed for this section

Five Rules for Vital Streets

By on March 11, 2013 in Streets, Walking

Streets are vital when there is the feeling that there is something going on, of being where the action is. Successful places have vitality. By definition, dead places don’t. We don’t want too much vitality everywhere (I don’t want it on my street after 9 pm) and probably can’t support it. But surely we could [...]

Read full story • Comments { 5 }
A view of the US Capitol

The National Bike Summit’s Legislative Record: Progress or Hype?

By on February 28, 2013 in Advocacy, Bicycling, Featured, Infrastructure, Transit, Transportation, Walking

The National Bike Summit, sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists, is scheduled for next week — March 4-6, 2013 — in Washington DC. As happens every year, the NBS is the “most important one yet!” where attendees voices are needed to maintain the “momentum” of the bike movement. It’s the “advocacy event of the [...]

Read full story • Comments { 9 }

I love the U of M

By on February 15, 2013 in Featured, Land use, Neighborhoods, Transit, Walking, What I love about Minnesota

I love the University of Minnesota. With 50,000 students plus large contingents and staff, it is a city within a city, and one remarkably distinct from the rest of the Twin Cities.  There’s a tremendous degree of pedestrian activity each day, particularly between class periods.  The better parts of campus are highly permeable, with small [...]

Read full story • Comments { 9 }

University Avenue’s Evil Twin: 4th St SE

By on February 6, 2013 in Bicycling, Parking, Transportation, Walking

Gather around, students and colleagues. I am going to tell you a story about a magnificent avenue called University, and its less acknowledged disgruntled twin, 4th Street. Once upon a time, these two thoroughfares happily ran side by side. 4th Street housed one of Twin City Rapid Transit’s most used streetcar lines, and University Avenue [...]

Read full story • Comments { 9 }
child in rear-facing car seat

Kids, Carpools & Walking: How a Safety Mentality Creates Unsafe Spaces

By on January 30, 2013 in children, History, Housing, Infrastructure, Land use, Neighborhoods, Parking, Streets, Transportation, Walking

In the long-ago days of my misspent youth, I lived in an absolutely flat suburban community named for one of the seven hills of Rome. As children, we all walked to school, crossing two moderately busy streets along the way. On days when it unexpectedly began hailing sideways during the school day, a parent or [...]

Read full story • Comments { 11 }

Three Ways to Improve Walkability Without Touching the Street

By on January 29, 2013 in Walking

Most US cities, Minneapolis and St Paul included, are in dire need of traffic calming and complete streets.  Critical streets are dangerously overbuilt: corners have been widened, lanes widened, streets widened. Over the last half century, Herculean governmental and financial efforts have been thrown at reshaping our cities for driving at the expense of those [...]

Read full story • Comments { 43 }

Pedestrians prohibited north of the light rail station

By on January 25, 2013 in Infrastructure, Streets, Walking

Most metro area cities content themselves with ignoring pedestrians. A couple of cities have taken the unusual step of at least paying lip service to the idea that bipedal transportation should be safe, convenient, and comfortable. Bloomington, on the other hand, is trying to make a name for itself by actively discouraging pedestrians from using [...]

Read full story • Comments { 11 }

Newflash: St. Paul isn’t Minneapolis (and that’s a good thing)

By on January 21, 2013 in Environment, Featured, Governance, Neighborhoods, Walking

If you were to read the City of St. Paul’s legislative wish list, you’d see a list of big projects such as: $14 million to improve the Children’s Museum $7 million for parking and transportation improvements at Como Park $32 million loan forgiveness tied to the Xcel Energy Center (in an effort to not pay [...]

Read full story • Comments { 24 }

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 [...]

Read full story • Comments { 8 }

In praise of contiguity

By on December 17, 2012 in Carfree, Walking

In February of 1999 I visited Minneapolis with my then fiancé to decide whether to take a job at the University of Minnesota. It was Valentine’s Day, and unseasonably warm (high 40s F), and there was snowmelt and piles on the ground, but the streets and sidewalks were not covered. We asked the concierge at [...]

Read full story • Comments { 2 }