Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/conrad-defiebre/page/3/)
While U.S. driving has been on a flat or downward trajectory for nearly two decades, another transportation trend is pushing in the opposite direction. That’s the steady migration of scheduled airline service from smaller airports to the big hubs. Continue Reading
As Minnesota’s two seasons — winter and road construction — collide again this month, the state is launching transportation projects worth $1.1 billion at 74 Twin Cities locations, 194 in Greater Minnesota and 40 others not on highways. Continue Reading
As winter slowly melts into spring around here, the one smart transportation policy every Minnesota driver supports is Fit it First. As in: Please fill the gaping canyons along my daily commute before they wreck my shocks, struts and backbone. Continue Reading
Minnesotans are invited to weigh in on a forthcoming statewide bicycle system plan at nine public meetings around the state over the next several weeks. Public comments “will help us identify and recommend bike routes, improve existing facilities in the bike system and more effectively address the needs of bicyclists,” says the state Department of Transportation. Continue Reading
More than 42 years after the last intercity passenger train left St. Paul’s Union Depot, Amtrak’s Empire Builder service to Chicago and the Pacific Northwest will return to the beautifully refurbished 1920s historic landmark in Lowertown on May 7. Continue Reading
It’s common in autocentric polemics to dismiss walkability as a plaything of chic-chic urban elitists, having nothing to do with real Americans’ modes of (motorized) living. As usual, this kind of ad hominem attack is but a lame attempt to mask the weakness of the fundamental argument. Continue Reading
With more than 20,000 job openings and the nation’s lowest unemployment rate, North Dakota is desperately seeking skilled workers to build infrastructure that keeps pace with its oil boom. Despite the conservative state’s laws unfriendly to organized labor, six Minnesota-based trade unions are stepping up to help. Continue Reading
The recent explosion — both literal and figurative — of railroad shipments of crude oil from North Dakota has opened a new front in the long-running tension over which interests are served by our transportation system: people’s or commerce’s. Continue Reading
Thanks to MN2020 reader Kim L for a suggestion to map out the freight rail routes on which up to nine trains a day traverse Minnesota, each carrying 3 million gallons of North Dakota crude oil, nearly all of it on the way to far distant refineries. Continue Reading
It’s been called a blow for Big Government struck by one of the Legislature’s most conservative members, and another beneficiary is Big Insurance. The losers may include drivers cited for moving violations in many Minnesota counties, local government coffers and even general traffic safety.