How Will Transportation Needs Change With More Jobs?

In ISEEK's latest email newsletter, they sent out a story explaining why job recoveries have become slower and slower after each national recession. With 45 months and counting having passed since the recession's official beginning in December 2007, the country is still 2.5 million jobs short. It took 37 months to recover from the 2001 recession, and 23 months to recover from the one in 1991.

Economists Martha Olney (University of Cal-Berkley) and Aaron Pacitti (Siena College) believe the economy is slower to recover because it has moved away from goods production and more towards the service sector. Because of this shift, the economy should take an extra year to bounce back.

When it does bounce back, how will transportation be affected? With the recession now in its sixth year, plenty of infrastructure changes have been made since 2007, including the beginnings of the Twin Cities' light rail system. Rush hour on the highways, although better than other cities, is already thick. What about expanding bike lanes? When the recession does end and job opportunities are back in full swing, we propose that a transportation surge will follow. Are we ready?

Photo courtesy of Scott Nolan/Flickr

Walk Score Ranks Most Walk- and Bike-Friendly U.S. Cities

Walk Score, a database that gives a numerical score for how walkable neighborhoods and cities are, recently released their Top 10 Most Bikeable Large U.S. Cities list. Normally focused on walkable neighborhoods, Walk Score used their same scoring and search technologies to grade how bike-friendly  each city is on a scale of 1 to 100.

Surprisingly, Minneapolis/St. Paul did not make their list of top large cities, but that's because the Twin Cities were not combined into a single area. Separately and without regard to size, Minneapolis is the sixth-most friendly to bikes while St. Paul sits at number 31. See the entire list here.

As for walking, Minneapolis sits at a comfortable ninth among the top 50 largest cities. We're proud of our presence among multiple top 10s, but we wish the country's overall score could rise together. Also, we wonder if developments will pay attention to consumer desires for walk- and bike-friendly communities.

New Green Line Minneapolis Saint Paul Light Rail Route One Step Closer

Courtesy  Benjamin Orlovski, from the Noun Project

The Metropolitan Council has been working on connecting downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis via light rail for a long time, so it was very encouraging to learn of a new step in progress. Running past the state capitol and the University of Minnesota, 11 miles of track were tested on April 28 when a new Green Line LRV was towed at walking speed between cities for the first time. The trip was accompanied by Metro Transit police.

This inaugural test run was the first of several, and the plan is to have LRVs regularly testing the new track by late 2013. The project is now 92 percent finished and is waiting on final wire installation.

Read this newsletter bulletin from Metropolitan Council on the inaugural light rail test, and click here if you'd like to learn more about the Green Line project overall. 

Northfield Named as Having a "Complete Street Policy"

A "Complete Street" is one that holds an ideal ratio of bike lanes to pedestrian walkways to roads, aligning with several of our smart growth principles. There are 488 cities, states and regions with Complete Street policies in the U.S., and in 2012, 130 new policies were passed.

Of those 130, The National Complete Streets Coalition ranked the top 10 Complete Streets policies of 2012 based on ten ideal elements, including vision and intent, networking, design, performance measures and more. Minnesota was represented on the list by Northfield, a college town that sits an hour south of the Twin Cities.

"Our ranking of top Complete Streets policies is intended to celebrate the communities that have done exceptional work in the past year," the Coalition says on its website. "These policies are a model for communities across the country."

LandOf.org is proud of Northfield for making this list. Do you know of any other Minnesota cities particularly well-balanced in street design? Comment below.

Photo courtesy of SmartGrowthAmerica.org

Plan for Mixed-Use Project Aims to Transform East Downtown

By the time the new Minnesota Vikings stadium is built in east-downtown Minneapolis, Ryan Construction wants to have a five-block, multi-use project nestled right up next to it.

A park, a multilevel parking structure and two 20-story office buildings are part of a proposal that Ryan Cos. released Tuesday. The area, currently occupied by the Star Tribune and several single-level parking lots, is in close proximity to the Downtown East/Metrodome light-rail station. According to the proposal, the downtown skyway system would also run through the office buildings and lead up to the new stadium.

Wells Fargo & Co is considering moving as many as 6,000 employees to the two towers and becoming the sole tenant, but no agreement has been reached yet. The towers would include 300 residential units along with retail stores. 

This project falls in line with several of LandOf's principles, making strides towards improved transportation variety, compact building patterns and a range of housing opportunities. Do you like the proposal? Or would you like to see a different one?

Rendering courtesy of Ryan Construction

Join Smart Growth America for Discussion on Better Budgets

Smarter development strategies can save money and increase revenue. It's up to your community municipalities to make changes in their budgets, and Smart Growth America has completed research that might answer your questions. The group is hosting an online discussion on May 21, 2013 at noon central time.

How much can your community save? How can smart growth strategies impact an average municipality's budget? Municipal leaders, members of the press and community advocates will all be joining the discussion.

Speakers on the call include executives Rick Bernhardt (Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County, TN) and William Fulton (Smarth Growth America) along with Arlington County (VA) board member Chris Zimmerman. Register by visiting this link.

Another Reason to Build Compactly: Building Costs Rising

One of our main smart growth principles is compact building; following this model reduces distance and travel time, and it also saves money when building structures.

Now, according to a recent article in Bloomberg, the cost of building materials, land prices and skilled labor are all rising. As U.S. housing recovers from its toughest stretch since in nearly 80 years, it’s getting harder and harder to build.

This makes compact building even more sensible. As we move forward, will we embrace this or chafe against it?