Secrets of the City

The Star-Tribune reports on a turn arrow in St. Louis Park that will not change and an obstinate physician who seems to have been driven mad by it. Worse still, he can’t get any help from city hall, because, apparently, they like the light to not change. The comments range from interesting to insane, as it typical of the Strib. (Via Brandi from IM)

Great Star-Tribune graphic, or greatest Strib graphic ever? Be sure to click trough to see the animated car. Pointed out by Alexis.

KARE11 runs a story about a Hudson man who made an illegal lane change, and, when a state trooper pulled him over, found himself of the receiving end of a PIT maneuver. What is that? It’s when the officer uses their car to ram yours. The man claims he was just looking for a place to pull over, the trooper claims he seemed to be trying to flee. There were children in the van and the man ended up with $1500 damage, leading to the question: was this use of force justfied. KARE11 has the footage from the trooper’s dashboard camera, so you can make up your own mind.

No, not the sort that accompanies a cold, although I know a lot of you are experiencing that.No, I’m talking about the stuff that block up highways and makes a commute to and from work into an ordeal. Minnesota Monitor takes a look at some of the causes and costs of congestion.

Aric McKeown analyzes his experience with the signals above the lanes in the Lowry Hill Tunnel. At one point, the “red lanes are moving quickly while the arrow lanes are stopped.” Are they useless or was Aric’s encounter unusual?

Replacing the 35W Bridge is an opportunity to replace a lost monument to our Veterans; not only WWI veterans , but from all wars. More that 100,000 cars will again use this bridge daily. A new majestic Memorial Bridge would be accompanied by a string of riverside markers bisecting the East and West Bank Campuses; representing each foreign war and for the bridge collapse victims. This will be Minnesota’s most visible and debated interstate highway bridges. Let’s make it a strong, well planed and monumental bridge that will honor our Veterans; the way Memorial Stadium once did.

This was just too comical to pass up: Road rage brings two women to blows in the center lane of I-694 yesterday afternoon, at the height of afternoon rush hour. Soooo, did this mess up anyone’s commute?

OK, so I’m a resident of the Loring Park area. I’ve had it with this scam of 2 hour parking, no parking 5 ft from driveway. Give me a break! I can see if you’re blocking the driveway, but what an excuse for the city to continue its towing and continue to rape people of their money! It’s hard enough to find parking over here for the residents and yet they continue to make it harder. Every other day it’s a ticket or a tow… grrrrrrr. The city is making more money then I bring in. I was wondering if anybody out there knows how to start a petition to remove some of these signs in order to help out the residents?

WCCO: Why Minnesotans can’t merge onto the highway.

The Star Tribune has a story about a transportation study which finds a LRT line to Eden Prarie appealing. One of the proposals is for a line running through uptown, between Lake of the Isles and Calhoun and ending up on Nicollet Mall. Another advantage of light rail is that it doesn’t pollute (at least locally, but the energy can potentially come from a clean source).
Sounds pretty awesome to me. Yay for more transportation options! What do you guys think? Does anyone else feel there should be a moratorium on building new roads in the Twin Cities.