The Case of the Militant Pedestrian

[Image from Dusty Lens]

This is a story that happened to a friend of mine a few months ago.

He was walking along University Avenue near the site of the 35-W bridge rebuilding project, on his way from somewhere to somewhere else, minding his own business on the sidewalk. Now, I should mention that the 35-W bridge area is kind of a crazy place to be these days, as particularly around Rush Hour it starts to resemble Times Square with cars streaming over the river crossing willy-nilly trying to find alternatives, trying to get onto the freeway and to homes in the Northwestern suburbs along the city streets. For a while after work gets out traffic cops man the corners every afternoon throughout near Northeast Minneapolis, waving their arms like lion tamers in a routine that must surely get painfully old for everyone involved.

So my friend is walking along and he comes to one of the busier intersections near the bridge where cars are backed up, everyone trying to turn and get onto the 3rd Avenue Bridge or onto university to head towards the freeway entrance. He's walking along the sidewalk until he gets to the stoplight, and waits there, looking over at the line of cars, looking up at the red light and the pale red "don't walk" sign as it compels him to stop and smell the flowers (or exhaust fumes, as the case may be). The corner is fairly busy, and he's standing next to another U of MN student type walking back to Dinkytown.

At last the light blinks green and the sign says "walk" and he steps off the curb. And that's when the definitive event occurs.

...

Apparently a car had been inching out into the intersection, trying to turn left, and ended up stranded in the middle of the intersection, "blocking the box" as cars now started coming from the opposite direction as the light switched. This car was stuck trying to push the rules of traffic a little too far, and my friend was walking through the crosswalk obeying the signs, enjoying his right of way on his way home.

The guy next to him on the sidewalk, though, said all of a sudden, "Hey wait, let this car through", and that's when my friend turned militant.

"No," he said at least as much with his body language and continued through the crosswalk on his way somewhere. "That's rude", said the other guy.

And that made it stick in my friend's head, long enough to relate the story to me some time later.

Was it rude? Who deserves to be in the street in this situation?

You have a number of people claiming space, and asserting their right to the asphalt. You have the pedestrian, walking home on their two feet, continually paranoid about being hit by cars, looking both ways and nervously occupying the margin between the private houses and the traffic flow. You have the cars on their way home, properly obeying traffic laws, who are suddenly stuck behind a car that's in their way, trying to turn on a red light. And you have the guy who's stuck in the middle of the intersection, who thought he could make it while the light was green, now desperately trying to get out of the way of everybody else.

Something's got to give, and, at least according to my friend, it shouldn't be the person on foot.

Well, who's in the right? What should you do?

In my mind, the answer largely depends on where you are. In New York City, the pedestrian is very much in the right to walk in front of the cars without thinking twice about it. There are a ton of people who are walking around all the time, the sidewalks are packed, and the pedestrian population has achieved a "critical mass" that allows it to assert and claim for itself the space between the crosswalk lines. (New York recently passed a stringent "don't block the box" law that assigns steep fines for cars that get stuck in the middle of intersections in situations like this, meant to discourage overly-aggressive driving.)

In most of the Midwest, on the other hand, it's a lonely man who walks the sidewalk. Cars turning left almost always get their way by cheating through the intersection.

Classic Sidewalks of the Silver Screen #9

In honor of militant pedestrianism...



... the classic sidewalk scene from Midnight Cowboy (1969).

Classic Sidewalks of the Silver Screen #8

... It's the scene from Ladri di Biciclette (1948) where Antonio gets chased from the alley and wanders off to sit on the sidewalk and hang his head, before trying and failing to steal a bicycle in front of his young son. Perhaps the saddest of all sidewalk movies?

<<< News Flash! >>> #17

[On top: the Durham sidewalk project one year ago. On bottom: the same sidewalk today.]

Sidewalk Rating: Summertime

It's been a while, and I'm traveling the country by train again, spending some time revisiting Durham, North Carolina (among other places). Extremely devoted readers of this blog may remember a report on the sidewalk restoration project in downtown Durham that I wrote about last year.

Well, the sidewalks are finished now, and Durham looks fabulous. There is still little sign of much increase in economic activity here,r though, as the slow condo economy has prevented much investment in the historic buildings in this very auto-oriented Southeast environment.

But its a nice place to walk around, and it hasn't been too hot. Plus, Durham Bulls games are a fabulous treat.

<<<>>>

Driving around so much in my rental car, I'm really experiencing life on the road for the first time in a while. It makes me appreciate this recent post by the Strib Roadguy about the rules of the road.

So, today’s quiz show topic is “Who’s More Annoying?” The contestants:

Car 1: A law-abiding citizen, this driver went at or below the speed limit for many miles on a curvy road with few or no spots to pass. Never engaged in risky behavior, never pulled over to allow faster vehicles to get past.

Car 2: Unwilling to accept his fate stuck behind Car 1, he apparently had no ability to learn, as the butt-crawling never worked, yet he persisted.

Car 3: A large vehicle with the longest stopping distance, it had nothing to gain by riding closely behind Car 2.

I intentionally drive at about the speed limit, like they do up in Canada. I guess that makes me annoying.

You can see the lengthy discussion of this situation on the Strib site. It's an interesting mediation of the different perspectives of road behavior. It's amazing how much time we spend as a culture thinking and talking and thinking about all the microscopic details involved in driving on roads. It only makes sense given what a big part of our lives auto-commuting has become.

But still, driving is inherently boring! It's dull, dull, dull! You just sit there, and occasionally you move your arm. You can't even turn your head and look out the window for fear of plowing into something. It's probably the least interesting thing you can possibly do with your time. Sure there's a certain peaceful serenity to the experience, but were it not for the car radio, people in cars would be the functional equivalent of zombies.

Spending a great deal of time thinking about driving a car seems like a great deal of wasted energy to me. Wouldn't it be far better to be reading a book while riding a train?

<<<>>>

I helped with the video shoot for this short video on Saint Paul's Instant Runoff Voting campaign.



As the local notables suggest, IRV or Ranked Choice Voting is a great democratic system because it:

• eliminates the "spoiler effect" for third party candidates (e.g. Nader 2000)
• tends to minimize negative campaigning
• is more inclusive of outside and unorthodox opinions
• is cheaper, in the long run, because it eliminates the primary
• tends to increase turnout

Now, it turns out there's some pushback from some of the Saint Paul city officials, who claim that IRV/RCV is too expensive or illegal. I'd like to think that it's simply a matter of concerns in a tight budget year, but isn't it likely that some Saint Paul councilmembers are concerned about job security in the new, more democratic environment?

(Turnout for city elections in both Saint Paul and Minneapolis is terribly low!)

<<<>>>

Five articles from elsewhere:

• Seniors can't get around in the sidewalk-less culs-de-sac of Buffalo, NY
• Sidewalks are the key to democracy in the developing world, according to the former mayor of Bogotá Colombia
• A critique of the US Auto industry pretty much defines kicking a horse when its down
• A terrible photo of a car plowing into a pack of bicyclists illustrates every biker's nightmare
• An anti-planner polemic from Denver, CO that I pretty much agree with

<<<>>>

Ridership is up on Metro Transit, of course.

In the Twin Cities, 11 percent of commuters have blown past their break point of $3.50 per gallon gas and already are making changes. Another 27 percent are poised to make changes if gas hits the $4 mark.
We're nearly there with the average price of regular unleaded in the Twin Cities at $3.82 a gallon, up 39 cents from a month ago and 68 cents from a year ago, according to AAA. Twincitiesgasprices.com, a Web site that compiles reports from members, showed prices above $3.90 at several area stations Thursday.

And if the price hits $4.50 per gallon, more than half of the commuters in the Twin Cities said they'll be looking at changes in their daily commute.

Even if people want to look at alternatives, the unfortunate truth for the vast majority of TC residents is that there aren't any alternatives to the long car commute. Most people live in houses ill served by any sort of public infrastructure, far away from sidewalks, corner stores, or transit. And most jobs have moved away from the kinds of places that can be easily served by mass transportation. For example, the "third downtown" along the 494 in the Southwest Metro is composed mostly of a series of isolated office parks and stand-alone buildings. How will people ride transit to jobs at the Best Buy HQ, to give but one example?

<<<>>>

Here's another blog about sidewalks from an Juneau, Alaska newspaper, called Sidewalk Blog.

It's not really about sidewalks, unfortunately.

It's mostly about hiking, environmentalism, and energy issues.

<<<>>>


Adam Platt puts the finishing touches on the U of MN's trouble with trains.

The bottom line is the U almost (still may have) jeopardized federal funding for the most important public transit effort of the decade simply because it doesn’t want to have to deal with traffic mitigation issues on Washington Ave., which will have to close to cars.

If the U is actually the intellectual hub of our state, the place where the most unbiased, forward thinking happens, might anyone there have noticed gasoline is $4 a gallon? Might they not have wondered if many of their students living hand-to-mouth and middle-income staff and faculty driving gas-guzzling cars or riding buses in freeway gridlock might not benefit by an LRT line through campus built sooner rather than later?

Personally, I can't wait for 2014. Of course, I'll be long gone from the U of MN campus by then.

<<<>>>

Three photos:

1) A deer on the sidewalk in South Minneapolis -- h/t Treehouse Party






2) What looks to be the sidewalk in front of the La Parisien condo building on Lyndale -- h/t Uptown Mpls Blog


3) The dust-ridden streets of Inner Mongolia -- h/t Benoit Aquin at Walrus Magazine

Sidewalk of the Week: Malcolm Avenue SE

[The Witch's Hat Water Tower towers over Pratt School in Prospect Park.]

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be going past Prospect Park during its annual Pratt School Ice Cream Social. It was an overcast cloudy day, a bit drizzly, but it happened to be the only day of the year where the distinctive “witches hat” water tower is let open to the public. Someone in the park department manages to let the good citizens climb up to the highest point in Minneapolis, to look down on the fair city from just under the brim of the Witch's Hat. You have to wait in a bit of a line, but once you get there you're welcome to climb the near-endless spiral of stairs along with everyone else in the neighborhood.

[The car's eye view of the Pratt Ice Cream Social reveals a primary colored castle looming in the distance.]

The event, called the Pratt Ice Cream Social, is a fundraiser for the neighborhood school, Pratt Elementary, which sits in the shadow of the water tower, in heart of the Prospect Park neighborhood. The neighborhood blocked off the streets for a couple blocks surrounding the school, and root beer floats, ice cream, brownies, and a variety of other kids games mixed with food, including the beanbag toss and ‘jumpy castle’.

It made me thankful for the Twin Cities’ wonderful street fair season, part of the general spirit of frivolity that comes with the onset of summer after months of wintertime stir-craziness. Like Grand Olde Day (which just ended) or a number of other festivals in various TC neighborhoods, neighborhoods through the city tell cars to shove it for an afternoon and become street fairs, or parades, and people come out of their homes and mingle with the neighbors. Even though I don’t live in Prospect Park, I saw a few folks I knew (like State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, Papa John Kohlstad, and Councilmember Cam Gordon’s assistant Robin Garwood).

[All it takes to change your street around is a traffic cone.]

I’d really like to see more Twin Cities neighborhoods do things like this… It's really terrific to see the way that, with such a simple move like putting up a yellow-and-white striped barrier, a neighborhood can transform itself into a wonderland of street activity. That's definitely what happened along Malcolm Avenue on this particular Friday. The very same pavement that had normally served to zip cars around the curving Prospect Park streets became a place for feet, children, tables, dancing, mingling, and families. Everyone packed into this little two block stretch and enjoyed the warm rain.

[The proverbial ball toss.]

Prospect Park, though, is kind of a unique case that has a distinctive, strong, and probably slightly oppressive neighborhood identity. As I understand it, the neighborhood was threatened during the construction and planning of Interstate 94, which was slated to go right through the middle of the community (and demolish a F. L. Wright house). This caused the neighbors to band together to lobby for an alternate route, and the current compromise route where 94 runs through a concrete trench around the edge of the Prospect Park neighborhood.

Since then, the neighborhood has been dealing with the ever-encroaching presence of the University of Minnesota (and their eminent domain rights) which not only constantly tries to build new properties in the Prospect Park area, but emits an endless stream of students with rent checks looking for cheap housing. As a result, the Prospect Park neighborhood has an unusually high degree of political activism and Not-In-My-Back-Yard sensibility.

[A little kid steps on the curb and, for once, his mother doesn't seem to worry.]

But even though the Prospect Park (and esp. its neighborhood group PPERRIA) has a clicque-ish reputation I was touched by the diversity of people who attended the Pratt social on a drizzly overcast Spring day. Young and old, black and white, wet and dry, happy and sad ... (well, nobody seemed really sad)... everyone came down to the Ice Cream Social!

[All ages gather and mark space along the street in Prospect Park.]