Archives

St. Paul Flooding Puts Landing Underwater

Due to high river levels, the city of St. Paul has closed Shepard Road from Chestnut Street east to Highway 61. This closure impacts the river connections in that area for bicycles. Based on basic observation, some of the Samuel Morgan segment west of Chestnut along Shepard Road is underwater — standing on the Science Museum [...]

Nine Mile Creek Trail: Progress & Stasis

The proposed Nine Mile Creek Trail extension through Edina has stirred up a lot of controversy, including NIMBYism disguised as faux environmental concern. This is normal in Edina, which has an excellent Bicycle Task Force working hard despite many residents who just don’t get it.

The proposed trail would link Edina to the main regional network of [...]

Trails vs. Transport: Misaligned Goals?

One comment common to many alternative transport advocates — including individuals like former Congressman James Oberstar — is that we need to push the idea that bicycles are transportation. One of the big challenges is to overcome perceptions that bicycles are toys or recreational. They can be, certainly — but so can cars and motorcycles.

The bikes-are-toys [...]

Women & Bicycles

On this International Women’s Day, I thought I’d address one of the skeletons in the room when we discuss bicycle-friendly infrastructure and the interested-but-hesitant cyclist: A pretty good portion of that 60% is female.

Data suggests that men outnumber women on bicycles in the United States by a ratio of two-to-one. In many European nations, the ratio [...]

Bicycle Facilities, Best Practices & Reluctant Cyclists

I’ve previously written about the challenge of getting the 60% of would-be cyclists who are “Interested but Concerned” onto bicycles more frequently and as users of bicycles for transport. I’ve also written about the design issues associated with bicycle facilities and challenges of bike lanes.

Following the publication of a (flawed) study about cycletracks, many people are [...]

Transportation Cuts This Week?

Transportation Nation and the League of American Bicyclists are reporting that this week may be critical for budgeted 2011 investments in transportation and infrastructure. House Republicans want to cut nearly $15.5 billion from the section of the budget carrying transportation and housing funding. The cuts impact highway projects, infrastructure investments, and particularly high-speed rail.

This is expected [...]