urbanMSP

Isn't it a bit sad that we have to schedule "tours" to drive people around to "experience pedestrian improvements"? People should be out walking every day, experiencing the good and bad of our infrastructure so they can make it better. It's like good design is an endangered species.

So I see the northeast corner of Portland and 28th Street intersection (both one ways) is completely torn up in order to install some sort of pipe. Literally a quarter of the intersection is dirt right now, so this will require entirely new curb and sidewalk approaches for the corner of the intersection.

Remind me again why we don't use the excuse to move in the curb every single time we install new concrete curb? Ridiculous.

Gotta do a couple years worth of modeling before you try something drastic like that.

Remind me again why we don't use the excuse to move in the curb every single time we install new concrete curb?

Because, much to your chagrin, they still don't let you run the city.

We need a pedestrian bridge over NordEast Hennipen [sic] Ave at 5th st. That yellow flashing sign is a joke.

You expect a city that's apparently too poor to use flashing yellow arrows on brand new signals can pay for engineering studies and intersection redesigns every time a pipe needs fixing?

Same place I was almost hit last year (second car didn't stop; thankfully the stopped driving slammed their horn). I've avoided it ever since because I don't want to risk fate.

So, uh, if the city is actually serious about letting people bike through this area without getting hurt, yeah there should be a new bridge. (Or a median! East Hennepin doesn't need four lanes here! Traffic counts == 6-7000!)

I don't think you're talking about the same location, are you?

I was talking about the intersection of Hennepin Ave E and 5th Ave SE, where there is a useless flashing yellow sign; Hennepin and 5th St has a full stoplight. I assume therefore that's the intersection Mswilliams meant.

Edina officials stunned when a neighborhood filled with children begs for sidewalks to be installed when streets get rebuilt.

http://www.startribune.com/sidewalks-ge ... 381872781/

Stunned because a neighborhood to the south screamed bloody murder at the city officials attending the public meeting.

Personally, the demographics of the two neighborhoods must be a big part. The angry neighborhood is filled with many stuck old timers. The neighborhood begging for sidewalks is exploding with teardowns and filled with young families.

Sidewalks = hades

We wouldn't want the same thing that happened to Saint Louis Park to happen to them.

St. Louis Park is on its way to becoming “an inner-city wasteland” with “hoodlums standing around on the corner to harass the young women.”

http://m.startribune.com/some-in-st-lou ... tion=local

Neighborhoods would have no teens if there were no sidewalks. So I hear.

We wouldn't want the same thing that happened to Saint Louis Park to happen to them.

St. Louis Park is on its way to becoming “an inner-city wasteland” with “hoodlums standing around on the corner to harass the young women.”

http://m.startribune.com/some-in-st-lou ... tion=local

I think it's time for us to abandon our characteristic Midwestern reticence and bring a new frankness to our politics. Fear-mongerers who act as though the mere presence of other people is a public safety problem should be called out as the Archie Bunkers they truly are.

I think it's time for us to abandon our characteristic Midwestern reticence and bring a new frankness to our politics. Fear-mongerers who act as though the mere presence of other people is a public safety problem should be called out as the Archie Bunkers they truly are.

Absolutely.

Plus 1

The Edina-side of Xerxes, between 56th to 60th, will be getting a sidewalk finally.

http://www.startribune.com/metro-briefs ... ple%20News

Continuing my pedestrian ranting today...

I have long been annoyed that many lights in downtown St. Paul put up the steady "do not walk" signal long before the traffic lights actually change. Like literally the traffic light is still green.

Most places I'm familiar with in Minneapolis flash "do not walk" near the end of the green cycle and make it solid when the traffic signal goes yellow.

Except it all changed last night. Julian and I walked to the Walker Library (I forgot it was Thursday and it was closed). 28th and Hennepin now has the same behavior. We were trying to cross 28th and the "do not walk" went steady long before the Hennepin traffic light went yellow. So we had an extra-long wait.

I feel like this is a recent change as I would have noticed it before. Did some kind of new regulation kick in or are we really regressing the pedestrian experience? I was really hopeful the early-walk functions at Lagoon and Lake would spread rapidly but alas it is not so.

In my experience, it starts flashing when they estimate that a person walking slowly may not make it across the intersection before the next cycle, and it turns solid when they estimate that a person walking at a normal pace may not make it across. Obviously if you're up for a scamper, you can still make it across in the solid phase.

Perhaps, but I really think the behavior of the light at Hennepin and 28th changed recently.

At least in St. Paul, the signal goes steady long before someone walking at a normal pace wouldn't be able to cross. It's ridiculously early.