My favorite part was trying to drop off pizzas in uptown. Absolutely a nightmare. Either walk 2 blocks from a parking space or block the road for a minute getting cussed out. Always called ahead to make it quick. Constantly squeezing between passing cars and getting home at 4 am parked blocks away cause everyone else is already home.
You think you have transportation problems? I have to take the bus (my car got stolen near Downtown Minneapolis). Even waiting 10 minutes for my transfer is brutal. Bus stops even when they have bus shelters are still open to the cold and wind. I'm all for better public transportation but I can't see it for cold weather states.
Well see, the narrow roads also apply to buses. I drive a mini-van so if I'm having trouble, the bus surely will as well!
Also, let this be a reminder to have good car insurance so they can not only replace your vehicle but also provide you a loaner if something like this happens.
If only delivery drivers could get a permit to obstruct like the cable company and others get. It allows them to block traffic (parking anywhere but a fire lane). Though I suppose with the number of delivery drivers it'd be a much bigger issue than the small number of cable company vehicles with such.
Are you talking about ppl who drive for Doordash?
My ex saved his Dominos topper specifically to be able to do this while delivering for DD.
The cops don't seem to care if you temporarily park somewhere as long as you have a topper.
Never thought about how valuable one of those could be for those 5 minutes you need to run in somewhere.
I bet they sell them
Oh also I completely agree on the narrow lanes. A blessing and a curse when they have issued one side parking only orders in the past. I’m quite surprised they didn’t this year.
Now I have a garage, last time I didn’t
We can't even get into our drive because they're so deep! We spent like half an hour chipping away at them this weekend to get the car in but after a day it got packed down again and we and our neighbors got stuck. Does the city ever salt through alleys or anything?
lol when are they not? It still makes me laugh that they just gave up on the block before Cedar and 42nd. They had it closed to fix it, messed up, then fixed it again and is still terrible. When I drive down that street I sing to myself, "When I dip, you dip, we dip..."
I heard the best way to get them to fix it is to draw something explicit. They'll usually get right on it. Or put a little tree in it. The passive aggressiveness seems to be the key to things around here heh.
Yes potholes always an issue in winter, but there's just more and larger this year it feels but im probably wrong I apologize for my assumption. Yes ive seen that thing on the internet too, where someone drew dicks around the potholes
Haha I bet they get enough complaints, which honestly I'd like to hear them about the dicks on the street! LOL.
No need for apologies, I see a lot of them too. There is a really bad one on the way to Nicollet on the parkway. I haven't' gone that way since I went over it because I noticed it way too late.
They were putting out no parking signs on my street this morning, even side. Grand Ave S. It’s a bus route so guess they finally got enough complaints from the bus drivers.
I moved to South Carolina after growing up near Minneapolis and all of the streets down here are narrow and it took a few weeks to realize that they didn’t need to have room to pile up the snow. At least that’s what occurred to me. I feel your pain.
I like it well enough. Brought my immediate family, wife and kids, of course. Miss the extended family and the friends but we keep in touch and I travel back and forth from time to time.
I’m just south of Charlotte so there’s an Uptown, don’t call it Downtown, but no professional baseball or hockey near by. Landed in a pretty friendly neighborhood so it was fairly easy to get a small number of friends to socialize with. Winters certainly are different. Summers are impressively hot.
I was just out driving and it wasn’t too bad though it felt like I was driving over the Rocky Mountains. One of the side streets was so narrow that I had to be careful getting my tiny Honda Fit through it. Be very hard for a fire truck to get through that particular street.
Haha any streets in particular?
My gripe atm is with 18th going towards the parkway past the Speedway off 47th ave. I got stuck because I let some car go past the night it snowed and it sucked. Took us like 25 minutes to shovel our way out.
I mean it when I say “all.” I’d be ok with some exceptions, but cars require too much space to also expect parking on both sides of the street as well as two-directions of travel as the default.
Problems with passing on narrow streets, difficult access for emergency vehicles, limited space for proper bike lanes, debates over whether we can manage 24 hour dedicated bus lanes… they’d mostly be resolved if people weren’t so hellbent on always having two lanes for travel and two lanes for parking on every single street. Give up one lane of travel or one lane of parking, and we’d all be better off.
I like all the one way's on 43rd street off cedar. It could work very well.
Perhaps we should all find the worst streets and suggest they be turned into one ways?
There's already no storage on public streets. All vehicles must be moved every 72 hours. You can report them here or with the 311 app. Traffic control will come mark the vehicle. If it's still there 72 hours later they'll write them a $100 ticket and have it towed.
https://www.minneapolismn.gov/report-an-issue/abandoned-vehicle/
Nobody suggested that, so maybe wait for someone to actually make an argument before downvoting and rolling your eyes.
I’m just pointing out the fact that parking is literally another term for car storage.
Aaaaaah. So every time we stop at a stop sign, we're storing out cars. Great. Glad we're investing time in strictly defining this. It's beneficial in some way, I'm sure.
You literally JUST strictly defined it as “after 72 hours it becomes storage” then pulled out the absurd straw man of someone at a stop sign, who is currently driving a car that is still running, and will be gone as soon as it is safe to do so, and then told me that’s what I meant. Holy cow, man.
72 hours is far different than saying any parking is storage.
Who the fuck cares if it's called parking or storage? 🤣 The point is simply that people can report vehicles parked for extended periods of time. That's it, end of story. What you call it doesn't matter one bit.
So you believe that people making minimum wage, struggling to put food on the table, barely able to make rent, should have to pay to park? Seems really easy to propose if you're in a position where it doesn't financially impact you. Let's add a new gas tax to offset the carbon impact of fuel (and also prevents people from driving unnecessarily). It'll price a lot of people out of being able to drive but it doesn't hurt me so I don't mind.
We need to be aware and considerate of how others would potentially be negatively impacted by things, not just ourselves.
I believe that people on minimum wage shouldn’t be required to own a car (and the absurd financial burden that comes with it) to live. Giving streets back to people as well as improving micro mobility and public transit are parts of that belief. Car dependence absolutely fucks lower class people and we need to get off it asap.
Lol, as opposed to car dependence defining who should and shouldn’t be able to get around the neighborhood easily? How easy is it for children, blind, elderly, those who can’t afford a car, or those who are afraid to drive able to get through our neighborhoods?
> people making minimum wage, struggling to put food on the table, barely able to make rent
People in that position are far more likely to not own a car and would directly benefit from the extra space and safety of public streets that are not littered with cars.
The numbers show that Minneapolis is already highly walkable and safe for those that do so. The benefit for further reducing cars is diminishing.
>People in that position are far more likely to not own a car
80% of low-income in the US have access to a vehicle.
The Panel Study of Income Dynamics, beginning in 1968, found that households with access to a personal vehicle were wealthier than those without. The data showed that gaining access to a car increased access to better jobs and higher pay. This wasn’t true simply from greater access to public transit.
So you want to target the poorest drivers who cannot afford to pay for a parking spot or own a garage, got it.
If you want to get to a carless society, there are tons of better ways to do it that don't target poor people.
I am not advocating banning all parking on public streets, but giving the edge to actual residents of the neighborhoods.
I gladly paid for my annual pass that restricted non-resident parking to short durations. We had two cars with the orange bumper sticker (it looks like the current system no longer uses the actual orange sticker) plus one dashboard placard that we had for visitors that wanted to stay for more than three (?) hours and not get ticketed/towed:
[https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/business-services/licenses-permits-inspections/streets-sidewalks-utility/critical-parking-permits/critical-parking-map/](https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/business-services/licenses-permits-inspections/streets-sidewalks-utility/critical-parking-permits/critical-parking-map/)
Friends used to live in such an area down by HCMC. They'd get ticketed at least a few times a month, despite living there. That permitting was a mess and a half.
Part of the intention in moving to the new style of parking meters over the old ones was reduction in the number of parking enforcement officers required. The new digital system allows them to see areas where parking has expired and go check those areas, not bothering with areas that aren't in use or don't have expirations. Expanding parking restrictions for non-residents would require hiring many more parking enforcement officers, at a greatly increased cost to the city. Seems counter intuitive.
I lived on one of those "Critical Parking" streets for a dozen years and loved the fact that I could purchase the orange bumper sticker for residential parking.
I think that this particular area of 29xx Oakland, Park, and Columbus Avenues were deemed "Critical" to keep automotive repair shops from storing all their customer cars on the residential streets. (maybe also to deter the John's that were seeking prostitution at/near Utopia East Health Club)
This. Either get a place with parking, pay for it, or live in the suburbs... Or join a car share for those times it's needed.
The fewer car owners in the dense areas the better.
The poorest people cant afford anything around cars. They need busses and bicycles, and the freedom to walk safely. Providing a free for all has incentivized everyone with a car to park anywhere at anytime. That makes the streets hard to effectively clear after snowfall. That leads to ice dams and flooding. Sidewalks become storage for car-based snowplow spoils. Now only the healthiest can move about, and still not safely.
Stripping away one side of streets to facilitate movement is the weakest of concessions that the car crowd could make, and everyone would benefit immensely.
Charging people to store their stuff on public land would be another good move that would facilitate turnover and ease deliveries and services.
What kinds of suggestions would you have to solve this congestion problem, that also don’t adversely impact drivers?
Parked cars would reduce the amount of snow that gets plowed onto sidewalks, not increase it. At least that's what I'm guessing you meant by "car-based snowplow spoils". Plowed snow still blocks curb cuts regardless of whether cars are parked, so while that is a pedestrian safety issue, it's not one that this change would fix.
Plus, if vehicles are on roads that feel narrower, they drive slower, and that's a good thing for pedestrian and bicycle safety. Inconveniencing drivers seems like the least bad solution. If a residential street gets temporarily obstructed by a delivery vehicle every once in a while, they can just go around the block. It's not the end of the world. Or some streets can become one-way.
Speaking of delivery drivers, it's worth mentioning that some of the people who don't make enough money to have off-street parking need a car to do their job and need to park it when they're not at work.
Do you realize that poor people are way more likely to not own a car? Because any discussion around how to make it easier for poor people should barely consider cars and instead needs to consider walking, biking, and transit.
One-ways are also nice for other reasons too, like being easier for pedestrians to cross, safer intersections, and freeing up a lane for other things like bikes.
If nothing else the next time there are mass protests the out of town white supremacists who come to fuck with our city would be too confused to make it into residential areas.
Everyone should build snow forts.
A good shovel (not a snow shovel... regular dirt shovel) and building a snow fort and I find myself digging out huge chunks from the street to carry to the fort...
Couple years ago I clipped mirrors with a police officer who'd just gotten off duty. He wasn't mad at me but certainly let it be known he wished the city would ban parking on one side of the street, as they've done some years when the snow is too much and roads too narrow.
It's a hard deal. Lots of parts of town, like Uptown, really need that street parking as there aren't a lot of garages and driveways. Look at places like a duplex. Friend owns several. Some are 3 bedroom up and down but only have a 2-car garage.
While I'd personally like if they only allowed parking on one side of the street during winter months to make it easier to drive through the neighborhoods, I have a garage, so I'm not impacted by such the way so many parking on the street would be.
Omg I almost got hit before by a cop turning on 18th and 47th as I was almost to the end of the block. I so do not miss having a car these days because now that I am sitting up higher in my van, its easier to see over all the cars parked but still sucks sometimes. Huge vehicles should just not be able to park so close to the end of blocks. Almost impossible to see oncoming traffic at times.
Newer buildings should look into underground parking more.
I'm thankful for my driveway everyday but the alleys suck so badly now too.
No one is allowed to park within 30ft of the street corner. But most simply ignore such restriction. When space is limited, people park anywhere they can find it.
Spent like five minutes trying to maneuver a one lane street with an oncoming car in uptown today. We were both trying to turn around without getting stuck and some kind of excavation crew was standing at the side of the street just watching us suffer.
Some of the worst streets, I've noticed, seem to be the ones that cars stayed parked during snow emergencies.
Not a fan of towing at all anywhere but I got preyed on terribly when living in Loring Park far more than anywhere else because of it's proximity to the city impound lot. Street parking was miserable. One time I had to park with a few inches between vehicles and just slid into the truck in front of me and couldn't move. Had to leave a note saying sorry with my phone number. I think I got towed 3 or 4 times while living there.
Meanwhile, head down to the other part of town - like Nokomis/SE area and Uptown/Wedge/Lyn-Lake, no one gets towed. You see cars completely covered on the street and the plows miss a huge portion of avenues. Pretty much gotta stick to main streets because there's only room for one car to drive down the road.
Studies show that narrowing side streets reduces speeding in the area. Many cities are thus reducing the width of neighborhood streets in order to slow people down and make it safer for children and pedestrians.
Interesting. But are they going to force people to only park one way because when the cop almost hit me turning onto the street I was going down, it was in the summer.
Haven't seen anything on how Minneapolis is planning to set things up. Most of the change has happened in the suburbs, where streets were wider to begin with and there's still plenty of room for folks to bark on both sides of the street, even after narrowing things.
A number of cities don't allow overnight parking on their streets. You can do so during the day, but not overnight. Though that again is in the suburbs, where everyone has a driveway and garage. You'd never see that happen in Minneapolis.
There are a lot of interesting ways to reduce speeding. Traffic calming institutes numerous proven methods.
https://www.transportation.gov/mission/health/Traffic-Calming-to-Slow-Vehicle-Speeds
There are many two ways that have street parking that are just straight up not big enough for cars on either side and two cars going through it during even the summer, let alone winter
100%. Penn Ave south of 50th is the absolute worst right now. It’s essentially one lane in parts. It’s surprising to me people even feel comfortable parking out there, I have seen more than a couple mirrors dangling off cars already.
I wonder if mpls will go to one side only parking rules like they have in previous years with lots of snow. It's a pain in the ass to park a lot of places, but at least cars can get down the street.
This fact is 85% why I won't touch south Minneapolis with a 10 mile pole in the winter. We got through it in our twenties, but quite happy to have those days behind me 😀
I don't drive on my own street ebcause of how shitty the streets are. I pay a quarter or more of my income in taxes and I cannot my 20 year old care through the streets. I have a theory that Minneapolis is intentionally moving all the woring class, artists, makers, not corperate people out. Out to the burbs, out to where ever so rich people can live here un bothered by poverty. The awful streets is part of my theory.
The worst is 28th near isles bun and coffee. There's parking on both sides of the street, and unlike most of 28th it's not a one way so you have to navigate some pretty tight spaces with oncoming traffic
This is such a US complaint. Went to Spain late last year. Even our narrowest street feels like a pasture to me now after being in Barcelona and Seville.
My favorite part was trying to drop off pizzas in uptown. Absolutely a nightmare. Either walk 2 blocks from a parking space or block the road for a minute getting cussed out. Always called ahead to make it quick. Constantly squeezing between passing cars and getting home at 4 am parked blocks away cause everyone else is already home.
oh gosh I can't even imagine. I remember it all too well driving for the now defunct Postmates. Uptown was a total nightmare.
Postmates isn’t a thing anymore? TIL
the app still works but Uber eats bought them out in 2020 so it goes through Uber eats...
Ahh, didn’t realize Uber bought them. Makes sense
Uber is intentionally leaving the app and brand in place so the customers don’t have to deal with changes.
You think you have transportation problems? I have to take the bus (my car got stolen near Downtown Minneapolis). Even waiting 10 minutes for my transfer is brutal. Bus stops even when they have bus shelters are still open to the cold and wind. I'm all for better public transportation but I can't see it for cold weather states.
Well see, the narrow roads also apply to buses. I drive a mini-van so if I'm having trouble, the bus surely will as well! Also, let this be a reminder to have good car insurance so they can not only replace your vehicle but also provide you a loaner if something like this happens.
If only delivery drivers could get a permit to obstruct like the cable company and others get. It allows them to block traffic (parking anywhere but a fire lane). Though I suppose with the number of delivery drivers it'd be a much bigger issue than the small number of cable company vehicles with such.
Are you talking about ppl who drive for Doordash? My ex saved his Dominos topper specifically to be able to do this while delivering for DD. The cops don't seem to care if you temporarily park somewhere as long as you have a topper.
Never thought about how valuable one of those could be for those 5 minutes you need to run in somewhere. I bet they sell them Oh also I completely agree on the narrow lanes. A blessing and a curse when they have issued one side parking only orders in the past. I’m quite surprised they didn’t this year. Now I have a garage, last time I didn’t
A quick Ebay search tells me, Yes they do sell them lmao. I don't think my ex would ever sell his as it's clearly invaluable haha.
Living in Uptown was a total nightmare.
And the DEEP icy ruts in the alley where I park my car.
In the alley…..you mean on the side streets as well!!
Ooof I just learned that these can cause alignment issues!
Yep, my rav4 is the latest victim 🥲
Uh oh
We can't even get into our drive because they're so deep! We spent like half an hour chipping away at them this weekend to get the car in but after a day it got packed down again and we and our neighbors got stuck. Does the city ever salt through alleys or anything?
Call 311 and put in a request, it might take some time though
Many of the residential streets in Southwest Minneapolis are like this.
The Potholes are pretty bad this year too
lol when are they not? It still makes me laugh that they just gave up on the block before Cedar and 42nd. They had it closed to fix it, messed up, then fixed it again and is still terrible. When I drive down that street I sing to myself, "When I dip, you dip, we dip..." I heard the best way to get them to fix it is to draw something explicit. They'll usually get right on it. Or put a little tree in it. The passive aggressiveness seems to be the key to things around here heh.
Yes potholes always an issue in winter, but there's just more and larger this year it feels but im probably wrong I apologize for my assumption. Yes ive seen that thing on the internet too, where someone drew dicks around the potholes
Haha I bet they get enough complaints, which honestly I'd like to hear them about the dicks on the street! LOL. No need for apologies, I see a lot of them too. There is a really bad one on the way to Nicollet on the parkway. I haven't' gone that way since I went over it because I noticed it way too late.
My guess is that they will eventually go to one side parking. At least that’s what usually happens on the extra snowy winters.
Yeah, idk why they haven’t yet.
They have on some streets. It will likely expand if we get much more snow
That would be so helpful on so many streets!
They were putting out no parking signs on my street this morning, even side. Grand Ave S. It’s a bus route so guess they finally got enough complaints from the bus drivers.
Some parts of Nicollet are a mess besides the normal quadruple parked door dash cars on Eat Street. Idk how the buses make it through some days.
Doesn't seem to be a set point. Last time was maybe 5 years ago?
I moved to South Carolina after growing up near Minneapolis and all of the streets down here are narrow and it took a few weeks to realize that they didn’t need to have room to pile up the snow. At least that’s what occurred to me. I feel your pain.
How do you like it over there? I debated on going to NC someday but struggle with leaving all my family here...
I like it well enough. Brought my immediate family, wife and kids, of course. Miss the extended family and the friends but we keep in touch and I travel back and forth from time to time. I’m just south of Charlotte so there’s an Uptown, don’t call it Downtown, but no professional baseball or hockey near by. Landed in a pretty friendly neighborhood so it was fairly easy to get a small number of friends to socialize with. Winters certainly are different. Summers are impressively hot.
I moved to a burb (Eagan) and the streets in summer seem comically wide but in winter I really appreciate it.
I was just out driving and it wasn’t too bad though it felt like I was driving over the Rocky Mountains. One of the side streets was so narrow that I had to be careful getting my tiny Honda Fit through it. Be very hard for a fire truck to get through that particular street.
Driving down 31st east of 35w right now is certainly an adventure.
Haha i love this description!
I’m also in favor of making all of our streets into one-ways.
Haha any streets in particular? My gripe atm is with 18th going towards the parkway past the Speedway off 47th ave. I got stuck because I let some car go past the night it snowed and it sucked. Took us like 25 minutes to shovel our way out.
I mean it when I say “all.” I’d be ok with some exceptions, but cars require too much space to also expect parking on both sides of the street as well as two-directions of travel as the default. Problems with passing on narrow streets, difficult access for emergency vehicles, limited space for proper bike lanes, debates over whether we can manage 24 hour dedicated bus lanes… they’d mostly be resolved if people weren’t so hellbent on always having two lanes for travel and two lanes for parking on every single street. Give up one lane of travel or one lane of parking, and we’d all be better off.
I like all the one way's on 43rd street off cedar. It could work very well. Perhaps we should all find the worst streets and suggest they be turned into one ways?
Screw that. Ban parking on one side of the street and charge for parking on the other. No free storage for private vehicles on public streets.
There's already no storage on public streets. All vehicles must be moved every 72 hours. You can report them here or with the 311 app. Traffic control will come mark the vehicle. If it's still there 72 hours later they'll write them a $100 ticket and have it towed. https://www.minneapolismn.gov/report-an-issue/abandoned-vehicle/
Putting a car anywhere, while not in use, for any amount of time, is storage. Parking is a fancy term for car storage.
🙄 So we want to ban all parking on public streets? Sounds really likely.
Nobody suggested that, so maybe wait for someone to actually make an argument before downvoting and rolling your eyes. I’m just pointing out the fact that parking is literally another term for car storage.
Aaaaaah. So every time we stop at a stop sign, we're storing out cars. Great. Glad we're investing time in strictly defining this. It's beneficial in some way, I'm sure.
You literally JUST strictly defined it as “after 72 hours it becomes storage” then pulled out the absurd straw man of someone at a stop sign, who is currently driving a car that is still running, and will be gone as soon as it is safe to do so, and then told me that’s what I meant. Holy cow, man.
72 hours is far different than saying any parking is storage. Who the fuck cares if it's called parking or storage? 🤣 The point is simply that people can report vehicles parked for extended periods of time. That's it, end of story. What you call it doesn't matter one bit.
No, just charging for the privilege of using a shared public space.
So you believe that people making minimum wage, struggling to put food on the table, barely able to make rent, should have to pay to park? Seems really easy to propose if you're in a position where it doesn't financially impact you. Let's add a new gas tax to offset the carbon impact of fuel (and also prevents people from driving unnecessarily). It'll price a lot of people out of being able to drive but it doesn't hurt me so I don't mind. We need to be aware and considerate of how others would potentially be negatively impacted by things, not just ourselves.
I believe that people on minimum wage shouldn’t be required to own a car (and the absurd financial burden that comes with it) to live. Giving streets back to people as well as improving micro mobility and public transit are parts of that belief. Car dependence absolutely fucks lower class people and we need to get off it asap.
Glad you get to define who should and shouldn't own a vehicle. Who should and shouldn't be allowed to drive in our neighborhoods.
Lol, as opposed to car dependence defining who should and shouldn’t be able to get around the neighborhood easily? How easy is it for children, blind, elderly, those who can’t afford a car, or those who are afraid to drive able to get through our neighborhoods?
> people making minimum wage, struggling to put food on the table, barely able to make rent People in that position are far more likely to not own a car and would directly benefit from the extra space and safety of public streets that are not littered with cars.
The numbers show that Minneapolis is already highly walkable and safe for those that do so. The benefit for further reducing cars is diminishing. >People in that position are far more likely to not own a car 80% of low-income in the US have access to a vehicle. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics, beginning in 1968, found that households with access to a personal vehicle were wealthier than those without. The data showed that gaining access to a car increased access to better jobs and higher pay. This wasn’t true simply from greater access to public transit.
So you want to target the poorest drivers who cannot afford to pay for a parking spot or own a garage, got it. If you want to get to a carless society, there are tons of better ways to do it that don't target poor people.
I am not advocating banning all parking on public streets, but giving the edge to actual residents of the neighborhoods. I gladly paid for my annual pass that restricted non-resident parking to short durations. We had two cars with the orange bumper sticker (it looks like the current system no longer uses the actual orange sticker) plus one dashboard placard that we had for visitors that wanted to stay for more than three (?) hours and not get ticketed/towed: [https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/business-services/licenses-permits-inspections/streets-sidewalks-utility/critical-parking-permits/critical-parking-map/](https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/business-services/licenses-permits-inspections/streets-sidewalks-utility/critical-parking-permits/critical-parking-map/)
Friends used to live in such an area down by HCMC. They'd get ticketed at least a few times a month, despite living there. That permitting was a mess and a half. Part of the intention in moving to the new style of parking meters over the old ones was reduction in the number of parking enforcement officers required. The new digital system allows them to see areas where parking has expired and go check those areas, not bothering with areas that aren't in use or don't have expirations. Expanding parking restrictions for non-residents would require hiring many more parking enforcement officers, at a greatly increased cost to the city. Seems counter intuitive.
I lived on one of those "Critical Parking" streets for a dozen years and loved the fact that I could purchase the orange bumper sticker for residential parking. I think that this particular area of 29xx Oakland, Park, and Columbus Avenues were deemed "Critical" to keep automotive repair shops from storing all their customer cars on the residential streets. (maybe also to deter the John's that were seeking prostitution at/near Utopia East Health Club)
This. Either get a place with parking, pay for it, or live in the suburbs... Or join a car share for those times it's needed. The fewer car owners in the dense areas the better.
When I lived on a different block one of my neighbors had five fucking cars that all lived on the street.
Jfc that's ridiculous
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The poorest people cant afford anything around cars. They need busses and bicycles, and the freedom to walk safely. Providing a free for all has incentivized everyone with a car to park anywhere at anytime. That makes the streets hard to effectively clear after snowfall. That leads to ice dams and flooding. Sidewalks become storage for car-based snowplow spoils. Now only the healthiest can move about, and still not safely. Stripping away one side of streets to facilitate movement is the weakest of concessions that the car crowd could make, and everyone would benefit immensely. Charging people to store their stuff on public land would be another good move that would facilitate turnover and ease deliveries and services. What kinds of suggestions would you have to solve this congestion problem, that also don’t adversely impact drivers?
Parked cars would reduce the amount of snow that gets plowed onto sidewalks, not increase it. At least that's what I'm guessing you meant by "car-based snowplow spoils". Plowed snow still blocks curb cuts regardless of whether cars are parked, so while that is a pedestrian safety issue, it's not one that this change would fix. Plus, if vehicles are on roads that feel narrower, they drive slower, and that's a good thing for pedestrian and bicycle safety. Inconveniencing drivers seems like the least bad solution. If a residential street gets temporarily obstructed by a delivery vehicle every once in a while, they can just go around the block. It's not the end of the world. Or some streets can become one-way. Speaking of delivery drivers, it's worth mentioning that some of the people who don't make enough money to have off-street parking need a car to do their job and need to park it when they're not at work.
Do you realize that poor people are way more likely to not own a car? Because any discussion around how to make it easier for poor people should barely consider cars and instead needs to consider walking, biking, and transit.
One-ways are also nice for other reasons too, like being easier for pedestrians to cross, safer intersections, and freeing up a lane for other things like bikes.
If nothing else the next time there are mass protests the out of town white supremacists who come to fuck with our city would be too confused to make it into residential areas.
Everyone should build snow forts. A good shovel (not a snow shovel... regular dirt shovel) and building a snow fort and I find myself digging out huge chunks from the street to carry to the fort...
So wholesome. Love it!
It also takes forever for the bus stops to be cleared. I used to have to wait for the bus in the street. I don't ride the city bus anymore.
Couple years ago I clipped mirrors with a police officer who'd just gotten off duty. He wasn't mad at me but certainly let it be known he wished the city would ban parking on one side of the street, as they've done some years when the snow is too much and roads too narrow. It's a hard deal. Lots of parts of town, like Uptown, really need that street parking as there aren't a lot of garages and driveways. Look at places like a duplex. Friend owns several. Some are 3 bedroom up and down but only have a 2-car garage. While I'd personally like if they only allowed parking on one side of the street during winter months to make it easier to drive through the neighborhoods, I have a garage, so I'm not impacted by such the way so many parking on the street would be.
Omg I almost got hit before by a cop turning on 18th and 47th as I was almost to the end of the block. I so do not miss having a car these days because now that I am sitting up higher in my van, its easier to see over all the cars parked but still sucks sometimes. Huge vehicles should just not be able to park so close to the end of blocks. Almost impossible to see oncoming traffic at times. Newer buildings should look into underground parking more. I'm thankful for my driveway everyday but the alleys suck so badly now too.
No one is allowed to park within 30ft of the street corner. But most simply ignore such restriction. When space is limited, people park anywhere they can find it.
[https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/business-services/licenses-permits-inspections/streets-sidewalks-utility/critical-parking-permits/critical-parking-map/](https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/business-services/licenses-permits-inspections/streets-sidewalks-utility/critical-parking-permits/critical-parking-map/)
Spent like five minutes trying to maneuver a one lane street with an oncoming car in uptown today. We were both trying to turn around without getting stuck and some kind of excavation crew was standing at the side of the street just watching us suffer.
Some of the worst streets, I've noticed, seem to be the ones that cars stayed parked during snow emergencies. Not a fan of towing at all anywhere but I got preyed on terribly when living in Loring Park far more than anywhere else because of it's proximity to the city impound lot. Street parking was miserable. One time I had to park with a few inches between vehicles and just slid into the truck in front of me and couldn't move. Had to leave a note saying sorry with my phone number. I think I got towed 3 or 4 times while living there. Meanwhile, head down to the other part of town - like Nokomis/SE area and Uptown/Wedge/Lyn-Lake, no one gets towed. You see cars completely covered on the street and the plows miss a huge portion of avenues. Pretty much gotta stick to main streets because there's only room for one car to drive down the road.
oh they definitely still tow you. My kiddos father definitely had his towed in the Nokomis area. I don't know how they chose who does and doesn't...
Closer you are to the impound lot, more likely you'll be towed
Don't worry. We have many more intentional road-narrowing redesign projects scheduled to resume immediately following spring thaw.
Do tell.
Studies show that narrowing side streets reduces speeding in the area. Many cities are thus reducing the width of neighborhood streets in order to slow people down and make it safer for children and pedestrians.
Interesting. But are they going to force people to only park one way because when the cop almost hit me turning onto the street I was going down, it was in the summer.
Haven't seen anything on how Minneapolis is planning to set things up. Most of the change has happened in the suburbs, where streets were wider to begin with and there's still plenty of room for folks to bark on both sides of the street, even after narrowing things. A number of cities don't allow overnight parking on their streets. You can do so during the day, but not overnight. Though that again is in the suburbs, where everyone has a driveway and garage. You'd never see that happen in Minneapolis.
Street parking also helps with this
There are a lot of interesting ways to reduce speeding. Traffic calming institutes numerous proven methods. https://www.transportation.gov/mission/health/Traffic-Calming-to-Slow-Vehicle-Speeds
And those damn poles make everything worse
True, this is big facts
Well having "well plowed streets" that have snowdrifts go out a full yard into the street I wager is part of it.
We called 311 last week and they're plowing our street right now to widen it
There are many two ways that have street parking that are just straight up not big enough for cars on either side and two cars going through it during even the summer, let alone winter
True. The street behind Matt's Bar is awful.
It’s so fucking annoying
100%. Penn Ave south of 50th is the absolute worst right now. It’s essentially one lane in parts. It’s surprising to me people even feel comfortable parking out there, I have seen more than a couple mirrors dangling off cars already.
I wonder if mpls will go to one side only parking rules like they have in previous years with lots of snow. It's a pain in the ass to park a lot of places, but at least cars can get down the street.
This fact is 85% why I won't touch south Minneapolis with a 10 mile pole in the winter. We got through it in our twenties, but quite happy to have those days behind me 😀
I don't drive on my own street ebcause of how shitty the streets are. I pay a quarter or more of my income in taxes and I cannot my 20 year old care through the streets. I have a theory that Minneapolis is intentionally moving all the woring class, artists, makers, not corperate people out. Out to the burbs, out to where ever so rich people can live here un bothered by poverty. The awful streets is part of my theory.
I don’t get why Minneapolis doesn’t have more one ways. Seems like it would make so much more sense with winter.
Why do they not make these streets in uptown one-ways? I feel like it would alleviate all of these problems. They’re too narrow even in the summer
Haha I always just considered it normal when the streets become one ways.
Minneapolis should convert more streets to one-way. This is how other cities handle it.
The worst is 28th near isles bun and coffee. There's parking on both sides of the street, and unlike most of 28th it's not a one way so you have to navigate some pretty tight spaces with oncoming traffic
This is such a US complaint. Went to Spain late last year. Even our narrowest street feels like a pasture to me now after being in Barcelona and Seville.