Obviously I’m interested in the issue, so I would notice it but one thing that has struck me with my tour of Minneapolis streets this summer is the extent of feeling and action to slow “residential” streets (disclaimer: The way that distinction is used in Mpls is v. problematic)

There are signs all over Minneapolis pleading with drivers to slow down. I am skeptical of the utility of signs in changing behavior. Most of these are probably only legible if you’re at the pretty, please legal speed. They are a telling indicator of sentiment.

More effective, and also fairly common, are obstacles at intersections. These are more likely to be effective, especially when they can cause minor damage to cars.

Some of these are official, and many of them I suspect are not. Even to my non-trained eye I suspect some of these are not as visible at night as they could be.

One problem with these home-made and official barriers for actually slowing traffic is they are typically placed in the intersection. But at many intersections cars are slowing anyway. Then they speed up down the street. Seen it, jumped onto the sidewalk to avoid it.

What would be more effective, but remove someone’s ability to park right outside their house is having these “obstacles” in the middle of the block.

The most interesting thing I’ve seen is at E. 26th St and 18th Ave S, where the whole intersection is now blocked off by planters. It seems, with the Violence Prevention Project logo, that the goal here is not traffic violence but gun and other inter-personal violence.

If that can be deterred by merely cutting off one entrance into a neighborhood, that’s absolutely the kind of low-cost intervention the city should support blocks/neighborhoods being able to implement without too much process.

On the other hand, I’ve seen in my own neighborhood, that blocking off a street entirely even with planters, can create weird traffic patterns that merely shift problems elsewhere. Placed mid-block these planters would force drivers to enter the oncoming lane, and slow down

However, as many of you are aware Minneapolis has some seasonal differences in street conditions There might be places where legitimately snowplow needs mean planters should be moved off the road onto the boulevard for the winter.

This wouldn’t actually be too difficult. If planters were mounted on pallets they could be moved with a forklift or even pallet moving jacks. Pop them up onto the boulevard for the winter, and return them to the road in the spring.

It’s great the city has given people a way to vote on their preference for slower traffic with these signs, but ultimately to slow cars down on straight streets you have to put s#!t in the way as @JoeUrbanist wrote.
https://www.minnpost.com/minnesota-blog-cabin/2012/08/how-slow-traffic-put-st-way/

Planter boxes would be an attractive and literally robust way of doing this. Put some reflectorized material on them to make them visible at night, and instant, traffic calming.

The other thing the city should do is find ways to make streets as narrow as this one (2100 block of 13th Ave S.) which is a two-way street. Obviously that’s for the rare reconstruction times, so in the interim think about community-supported planter boxes for traffic calming.

About my disclaimer: There’s widespread use of the term “residential” to describe streets in Minneapolis that are only residential. But lots of people live on streets like Lake, and Hennepin and Lyndale and 26th and 28th, which also have businesses etc.

I think this is a poor use of language that hides and reinforces inequality in the quality of public space and public health, particularly when the city’s zoning maps don’t allow higher-density structures on many “residential” streets, largely forcing them onto busier “corridors”

Another, but current, problem is that by basically only allowing commercial businesses on busier streets, many of our bars and restaurants are limited in their ability to create pleasant outdoor dining spaces. This year, covid-19 and all that, even more of a problem (end)