We’ve been down this road before. Urban freeways impact their neighborhoods through noise, pollution, and by creating barriers to biking, walking, and local trips. No matter how many sound walls you erect, freeways erode quality of life for a quarter- or half-mile in any direction. Fumes, noise, asthma, speeding traffic… nobody wants to live next [...]
Tag Archives | infrastructure
Pedestrians prohibited north of the light rail station
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 [...]
Value Capture: Funding Infrastructure – ULI Minnesota
Tomorrow, Thursday January 17, ULI Minnesota will be hosting a program entitled Value Capture: Funding Infrastructure. Scott Polikov of Fort Worth-based Gateway Planning, will be the presenter. Scott Polikov will be demonstrating the link between public improvements like transit service and streetscaping and private investment through the increased value and development potential of real estate [...]
2012 Best Opportunity to Do Something Useful: Dinkytown Trench
Is usefulness useful? Broadly speaking, the definition of usefulness as applied to transportation was set in stone a zillion years ago as meaning the movement of as many vehicles as possible as quickly as possible. But those of us whose communities all those vehicles are moving quickly through, or who have lost loved ones to [...]
Improving Community through Progressive Approaches to Construction Mitigation
Infrastructure projects such as road construction and bridge re-building are more than just public works endeavors. They are events that affect the whole community. Like any disruptive event, construction can pull a community apart or bring it together. If approached holistically with intentional collaboration and wisely applied funding, we can have better roads, and stronger [...]
How should the next regional plan address climate change?
You could argue the update of the regional framework now being undertaken by the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council (now called Thrive MSP 2040) is the most significant piece of land use policy that will be developed this decade. The framework guides the development of various policy plans, which in turn shape the development of [...]
Timing is everything – rated G
Bowdlerization helps focus this post on traffic signal programming, also posted on my blog in a more digressive version. It was inspired by a column by CM Tuthill in the latest issue of Lowry Hill East’s neighborhood newspaper The Wedge, which has some great news about changes to signal timing at a couple key Uptown [...]
The Benefits of High Speed Rail, Part 2
This post is a follow up to The Benefits of High Speed Rail by guest writer Matt Sindt, a recent graduate of the Hamline University School of Law who has worked in both state and local government, serving as a staffer on both the Business, Industry and Jobs Committee, and the Economic Development and [...]
The Benefits of High Speed Rail
[V150 train, modified TGV, conventional World speed record holder at 357.2 mph from WikiCommons] The following post is by guest writer Matt Sindt, a recent graduate of the Hamline University School of Law who has worked in both state and local government, serving as a staffer on both the Business, Industry and Jobs Committee, and the [...]
3/20/12 Minneapolis Transportation & Public Works Committee
The Transportation & Public Works Committee of the Minneapolis City Council discusses a lot of interesting stuff but seems to either use too many or not enough words to describe what they’re talking about. Here is an attempt to add some context to the dry but vital meeting topics. I’ve been summarizing them here at [...]
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The Politics of Dumb Infrastructure
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Three Half-Assed Freeways That Nobody Will Miss
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Rails to Trails…to Rails
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Free transit? A thought experiment.
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All the Best US Cycle Tracks are Street Level
From the network
- Bicycle Registry, Zap Twin Cities Update, Changing State Demographics: Luther Krueger of the Minneapolis Police Department joined the Encouragement, Enforcement, Education, subcommittee last week. His message: register your bike with the city of Minneapolis. It could...
- The Gun Metaphor: Why Bikes are the Guns of Transportation Policy: [Second in the highly unpopular "metaphor series" of blogposts.] [Lyndale Open Streets.]I just learned Open Streets this weekend is going to have an exciting new event this year.For those who don't kn...
- Why transportation doesn’t get the money it “needs”: In the transportation community we tend to think surface transportation is underfunded. We think there are “needs” unmet. National reports from industry groups say more resources are requ...
- All the Best US Cycle Tracks are Street Level: There has been a lot of discussion in the local bicycling scene about cycle tracks lately. “Cycle track” is a bit of a generic term. It may refer to a one-way or two-way facility. It may r...
- If Washington Ave doesn’t deserve bus lanes, what does?: According to Hennepin County, around 7,500 bus riders will travel on Washington Ave at peak hour (4:30-5:30 PM) between Hennepin and 35W on an average weekday in the year 2035. For some perspective, t...
- Three Twin Cities freeways that no one would miss: streets.mn The world’s longest on-ramp, on the west edge of downtown Minneapolis.We’ve been down this road before. Urban freeways impact their neighborhoods through noise, pollut...
- The Politics of Dumb Infrastructure [@ Streets.MN]: We have a political situation in the United States where Democrats are too eager to build anything if it creates a job and the Republicans are too willing to call a project a boondoggle without first...
- Water for our future: Over at streets.mn I have a new post on the importance of water supply planning for the next regional plan. What does all this have to do with Minnesota? We have tons of water, right? Well, on the...
- The Politics of Dumb Infrastructure [Revisited]: We have a political situation in the United States where Democrats are too eager to build anything if it creates a job and the Republicans are too willing to call a project a boondoggle without first...
- What is the Constituency of a Local Land-Use Decision?: cross-posted at Streets.mn 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 s...
- The Zoning Battle Over Al’s Breakfast – A Form Based Code With a Side of Bacon: “Why would anybody ever eat anything besides breakfast food?” – Leslie Knope “People are idiots, Leslie.” – Ron Swanson When I heard Al’s might get redeveloped, I thought the end of the...
- A Timeline of Los Angeles Transit Agencies: This timelime and diagram of Los Angeles transit agencies is impressive. It presents an honest history of transit agencies in Los Angeles and doesn't promote the false idea that there was some type of...
