On March 7 the Star Tribune published a good article by reporter Laurie Blake entitled “Movement grows to get us out of our cars.” Here are the opening paragraphs

With hundreds of miles of off-road trails, Minnesota is already a national leader in recreational biking and walking. But that is no longer enough.

Concerned about obesity and worried about higher gasoline prices and global warming, people are pushing for more day-to-day walking and biking options.

Community workshops on strategies for making it safer and more inviting to walk or bike are drawing some of the largest crowds in the country. A few developments friendly to walking and biking have been built in the past five years.

Now two new programs will aim millions of dollars at getting Twin Cities residents out of their cars. Read the rest of this entry »

…according to this interesting New York Times article, Rural Colleges Seek New Edge and Urbanize. Northfield blogger extraordinaire Griff Wigley has already posted a nice digest of quotes from the article, including those relating to the creation of walkable civic spaces where cars are “de-emphasized.”

Minnesota retained its number one spot on the United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings. A December 6 StarTribune article summarizes some of the findings and contains some interesting quotes. I also dug deeper and found some interesting material in the rankings report.

From the StarTribune article: Read the rest of this entry »

One of the possible uses of a blog is as a searchable database - a way of collecting information without having to file it. While this doesn’t fit the mold of a conventional publication, it can have its uses.

So, with that said, here are some scholarly publications I’ve come across that relate to nonmotorized transportation: Read the rest of this entry »

I was delighted to read two Star Tribune articles recently regarding efforts to make the city of Minneapolis more pedestrian friendly. The first article, “Makeover proposed for downtown,” details a plan that makes pedestrians a higher priority and creates a more pleasant downtown environment: Read the rest of this entry »

And then there are the economic costs imposed by a car-dominated culture. Here are some quotes from an October 12 Star Tribune article on a study that looked at this issue: Read the rest of this entry »

The October 5 visit of Steve Clark to Northfield went well, I’m happy to say. Above you can see me, Steve, and Bruce Anderson standing next to the dual-recumbent bicycle (quadcycle?) that Bruce and Steve used during our tour of town that morning. We had 24 people attend the afternoon Leaders Meeting at Northfield City Hall, and 40 people attended the evening lecture.

There are several places where you can read more about Steve’s visit. I wrote a long post for Northfield.org about our day, entitled “Touring Northfield with a Bike and Pedestrian Expert.” See also Bruce Anderson’s post, which has a photo I took of the Critical Mass ride that we participated in that same day. The latter featured forty or more people, most of them Carleton and St. Olaf College students, with some of us oldsters thrown in as well. Ariel Emery of the Northfield News also wrote an excellent front-page article on Clark’s visit. She did a good job of capturing many of the ideas that he presented.

There’s a buzz now in some corners of the community about what’s possible for nonmotorized transportation here in the Northfield area. I’m not sure where it would be best to direct our energies now, but one idea that emerged after the evening lecture, thanks to Alex Beeby, was to link Carleton College and St. Olaf College with a bike route on city streets. That would be a tangible link between the two sides of our community.

Fellow Northfield blogger Ross Currier recently wrote about a meeting he and I attended on promoting bicycle and pedestrian issues in our hometown. He’s joking when he uses the word “cabal,” though. Really, he is! Anyone interested in promoting the cause is welcome to join us. I’m doing this advocacy as a volunteer with RENew Northfield, a great nonprofit run by Bruce Anderson. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been talking to people in my hometown about making infrastructure changes that will encourage walking and biking, but will those changes actually lead to more physical activity? A University of Minnesota study suggests that they may not. Read the rest of this entry »

My interest in promoting bicycling and walking in my hometown of Northfield, Minnesota, has led me to think more about urban design. I recently checked out a few books on the subject from the library and wanted to share what I found. One of the more interesting books that I discovered was Douglas S. Kelbaugh’s Repairing the American Metropolis (Univ. of Washington Press, 2002). Kelbaugh is Dean and Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. Read the rest of this entry »