transportation

The League of Minnesota Cities announced yesterday the appointments to MNDoT’s Complete Streets Advisory Group.  I’ve been selected as the alternate to represent outstate/rural cities.  I’m looking forward to working with this group of people from across the State to help pave the way (pun intended) for streets designed for people, not only for large motorized vehicles.

In celebration of my appointment, and inspired by some of the bikes I saw on my trip to Belgium and the Netherlands a few months ago, I decided to pimp my ride for the spring.  Here’s “Rosebud II”.

MNDoT’s summary page about Complete Streets says,

Complete Streets does not mean “all modes on all roads”;  rather, the goal of Complete Streets should be to

1) develop a balanced transportation system that integrates all modes via planning inclusive of each mode of transportation (i.e., transit, freight, automobile, bicycle and pedestrian) and

2) include transportation users of all types, ages and abilities.

Being one of the first DOTs to adopt a policy requiring Context Sensitive Solutions and with its new Strategic Vision, Mn/DOT is already well positioned to support Minnesota in a Complete Streets approach to transportation investment. Three local agencies (Hennepin County and the cities of St. Paul and Rochester) in Minnesota have already adopted their own resolutions for Complete Streets, indicating that Complete Streets are achievable at a local level.

Mn/DOT needs to be prepared to assist local agencies in developing their local Complete Streets approach and to assist their specific project development needs.

To learn more about the idea behind complete streets, see also:

• The Minnesota Complete Streets Coalition
• Twin Cities Streets for People
• My pages tagged “CompleteStreets” on Delicious.com
• My pages tagged CSAG (Complete Streets Advisory Group) on Delicious.com

I’m sure I’ll be writing more about this as time goes on.

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