urbanMSP

^^^For some, it's a great idea!!

I DO bike in the city- That why I'm wondering why you are encountering all these problems.

There is more to a city than one person's world- People do work, commute, deliver goods here, if you haven't noticed.
They'd like to get where they're going, too.

Or uncontrolled intersections that use shared space principles. Of course this would require far narrower streets that induce slower moving auto traffic (that ultimately would have the same throughput without waiting at a light for 30 seconds every other major intersection).

You're creating a false choice. Allowing eastbound bicycles to know the Parkway has a green light so they can cross Lyndale does not prevent cars from getting anywhere.

I'm not suggesting anyone here wants to ban cars, but you get the impression on some other forums.

When I last visited Germany (I was in a small city for the most part), I noticed that they have several uncontrolled intersections, and in driver's ed, they teach you "rechts vor links" (right before left). This means that when one approaches an intersection, if there is a driver on the cross street, they have right of way if they are to your right, and you have right of way if they are to your left. I've always thought that was kinda neat.

Yes, in general North Americans try to over-control their streets; driving in Europe you notice how much less traffic control is present, and how much more steadily you move - at least, from a traffic control perspective. All our attempts to control cause us to spend a lot of time sitting, and a lot of time braking. Roundabouts help of course, but even without roundabouts most intersections function better with yield signs than with four-way stops. Of course, you don't see distracted driving there like you do here - I suspect there's a complex relationship of causality between our heavy-handed traffic control mechanisms and Americans' distracted driving style.

When I last visited Germany (I was in a small city for the most part), I noticed that they have several uncontrolled intersections, and in driver's ed, they teach you "rechts vor links" (right before left). This means that when one approaches an intersection, if there is a driver on the cross street, they have right of way if they are to your right, and you have right of way if they are to your left. I've always thought that was kinda neat.

It's the same here.
Brought back memories of taking the USAREUR test for driving Bradley's, HMMWV in Europe.

I obviously haven't confirmed this, but I think there's a lot of stop signs that are used inappropriately for the purposes of speed control. Also, outside of Minneapolis / St. Paul (which build their own signals to their own special standards), Minnesota has a *lot* more protected only left turns, thanks to our nanny state complex maybe. At least with flashing yellow arrows some of these are being replaced and few new ones will go up. The four justifications for new protected only left turns are 1) multiple turn lanes, 2)speeds above 45 mph, 3) limited sight distance, or 4)judgement of the engineer due to unique situations. All other new turn lanes on state trunk highways (and counties and cities generally follow Mn/DOT standards) must be flashing yellow arrows.