Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Minneapolis

Bike Month Begins, Minneapolis Brings Home Cycling Gold

By Tanya Snyder | May 2, 2011 | 4 Comments

Despite having the coldest winter weather of any major U.S. city, Minneapolis has the second highest rate of bike commuting in the country, after Portland. Ridership throughout the city is up 21 percent since 2007 and in some neighborhoods, it’s up as much as 132 percent. Clearly, chilly Minneapolis has become a hot place to […]

Can Transit-Oriented Development Lift All Boats?

By Tanya Snyder | Mar 25, 2011 | 3 Comments

Streetsblog San Francisco reported earlier this week that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has made a $10 million funding commitment to a mixed-use affordable housing project in the Tenderloin neighborhood, a convenient two-block walk from the nearest Muni stop: The development at 168 Eddy Street would provide 153 new apartments reserved for low-income families and space […]

The Secrets to Success for Transit-Oriented Development

By Tanya Snyder | Mar 24, 2011 | 2 Comments

“Transit alone is insufficient to make a real estate market,” said Dena Belzer, the president of Strategic Economics, an urban design consulting firm. Her group is a partner in the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD), which this week released a new report on the effects of transit expansion on real estate markets. Transit won’t, on its own, […]

Twin Cities Rein in Highway Expansions, Tame Runaway Transpo Spending

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 12, 2011 | 1 Comment

The Twin Cities region is reassessing the role of highways in its transportation system. Like many communities throughout the country, Minneapolis-St. Paul is moving beyond the decades-old assumption that the only way to eliminate congestion is with more outward-stretching asphalt. This fall, officials in the Twin Cities voted to roll back highway expansions and increase […]

HUD Announces Winners of $100M in Sustainability Grants

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 14, 2010 | 2 Comments

Planners in 45 regions in 27 states have a little more to work with today in their efforts to shape sustainable growth. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the winners of nearly $100 million in grants from its new Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program, intended to connect “housing with good jobs, […]

How the Information Age Can Make Streets and Transit More Efficient

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 7, 2010 | 9 Comments

In Pittsburgh, elderly para-transit riders get automated phone calls with the precise arrival time of their vehicle. Bus priority lanes and preferential traffic signals in the Twin Cities are improving on-time service. Here in Washington, DC, stored value on SmartTrip cards pays for Metro parking, train and bus, and it can sync with pre-tax employee […]