Welcome to Twin Cities Streets for People
Our mission is to transform Twin Cities streets into community spaces that are inviting for people of all ages and abilities to walk, bicycle, socialize and play.
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Introducing StreetsTalk: a monthly event to reimagine streets
Join Twin Cities Streets for People the last Tuesday of every month for a series of events aimed at sparking dialogue, promoting networking and inspiring change for better streets. The events will kick off this month with a discussion event about Ciclovias, or Open Streets.
After a thought-provoking presentation from TC Streets for People's Melissa Constantine, participants will be invited to question, discuss and develop the idea of hosting an Open Streets event in the Twin Cities. Interested participants will be invited to join a working group that will develop this idea beyond the night's discussion. Read more >
Central Avenue Facilities, Minneapolis Bike Plan Discussed at Today's BAC Meeting
Today's Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting included the following topics (details in the full post)...
- review of preliminary ideas for bicycle facilities on Central Avenue NE
- announcement of upcoming Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota events
- citizen complaint about horse manure in bike lanes
- potential to reconfigure the structure of the Bicycle Advisory Committee
- announcement that Bicycle Design Guidelines will be presented next month Read more >
2009 Bicycle Film Festival
The 2009 Bicycle Film Festival is coming to Minneapolis July 8 - 12. For show times, locations, and ticket information visit their web site: http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/?p=minneapolis
Plus O' The Day: June 29, 2009
One of the best city streets for bicycling is 5th St SE, which runs parallel to 4th Ave through Southeast Minneapolis. It's a narrow one-way street with lots of stop signs that runs along a park and a school with parked cars and bumpouts along one side.
The other side of the street has a one-way bike lane striped down its side, running the opposite way as the direction of traffic. What ends up happening, though, is that cars basically yield to bicycles all along the route. It's an excellent route for biking, and because there is basically zero threat of being passed by a car, it feels very safe.
To me, this what the bike boulevards proposed for Saint Paul is going to feel like. It's wonderful that Northeast Minneapolis already has a street like this. And it makes me think about how easy it would be to put a network of these streets all through the Twin Cities. Roads like this feel safe, and help to get people who are afraid to bike in traffic out on the roads. Might a network of these streets be a cost-effective use of transportation dollars?
Headlines -- June 29, 2009
Cloudy streets news for you!
- East metro at the back of the line for Federal transit $$ (PiPress)
- Prelude to LRT set to begin next week (PiPress)
- Mpls unallotments = public works cuts (SWJournal)
- Struggling to make a downtown in Ramsey (Strib)
- Greenway power lines are political pickle (MinnPost)
- Uptown Rainbow Foods nixes its big parking lot (UptownPPF)
- Not in My BackYard: Lake Calhoun's parking lot project (SWJournal)
- Please In My Backyard: Nicollet Avenue paving (SWJournal)
- Tips for responsible biking & driving (SWJournal)
- Difficult to sell townhomes in the city these days (StPRE)
- Summer community garden in North Mpls (MayorBlog)
- Minneapolis: The LA Art Show (SAMpls)
- Twin cities poem in the New Yorker (WLIH)
Five years of Light Rail
From MPR:
Today marks five years of operation for the Hiawatha line, Minnesota's first light rail service. Ridership is much greater than projected, and that success has helped spark a debate over how te expand transit in the Twin Cities metro area, and how to pay for it. Read more >
Another Twin Cities pedestrian killed
Another Twin Cities streets fatality, as a woman was killed by the driver of a garbage truck while walking her dog near a park in downtown Saint Paul this morning. This crash continues a deadly summer trend, with an elderly woman killed by an ambulance earlier this week, a man killed by a car while waiting for the bus earlier this month, and a cyclist and pedestrian killed along Park Avenue last month. Read more >
Headlines -- June 26, 2009
End of the week headlines:
- A 2009 legislative session transit report card (TLC)
- Memorial photo show for killed cyclist (SOTC)
- No Turn on Red signs disappearing at Mpls intersections (KARE)
- LRT celebrates 5 yr anniversary (MPR)
- Chicago v. Mpls transit system: LRT in Mpls needs right of way (Brummund)
- StCloud going for bike parade world record (MPR)
- StPaul cyclist going for freeway biking statutory record (MPR)
- Keillor: need to acheive solitude without cars (ChicagoTribune)
- China to reject gas guzzling Hummer deal for environmental reasons? (TorontoStar)
- A look at un-planned Houston (DavidByrne)
Mitigation Fund for University Avenue Businesses
The Central Corridor LRT line is coming and business owners along University Avenue are predictably very nervous about it. With loss of revenue and parking, the real concern is over the construction period. Can the businesses stay viable while the streets are torn up and closed to most traffic? Well, the University Avenue Business Association (UABA) is taking the issue up now. Read more >
Minneapolis top biking city
Travel and Leisure have chosen 11 cities around the world as top biking cities. To your surprise, or not, Minneapolis is one of three US cities covered. Read more >
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