So can you tell me how Mr. Engwicht will solve this problem without more
concrete?
Mark Anderson
Bancroft Neighborhood
(Hey, Mark -- is this our first direct dialogue on the Minneapolis Issues List? It seems funny, after having spoken in person while neighbors and while MG & I were doing childcare in the Bancroft neighborhood.)
Well, I don't think Mr. Engwicht will solve our traffic congestion problem. I do think his website presents some unique and positive suggestions, which I outlined in my previous e-mail. Walking and biking are positive things we can do. Of course, we need to invest in creating walkable, bikable neighborhoods which include local grocery stores, hardware stores, and other businesses and services integrated into neighborhoods. Many neighborhoods in Minneapolis do have significant mixed-use elements and include some essential businesses and services, but many have lost these. Some investment in "smart development" will be needed over a few years.
As to the freeway and arterial highway situation, I think you and I are coming at it from opposite experiences, Mark. As I recall, you commute some distance everyday by car, while (for the past two years or so) I have used an HPV to work at many clients' homes and businesses within two or three miles of my home.
I have begun to change to a more "sustainable" lifestyle in an intentional way. I see the urban transportation issue as a public health issue and as an environmental issue. The pollution cars make is not good for us or our kids or for the lakes and streams and so forth, and all the creatures who live around here. The litany of woes caused by auto generated pollution is long. I won't repeat it in detail here and now, but I can dig into it if it will help the conversation. So, I think we need to move away from petroleum-based transportation to less pollutive things.
There is a significant health implication (apart from the very significant pollution issues) involved in urban transportation and transportation infrastructure as well.
Again, I will be brief, but there are two categories here. The first is individual health impacts (again, just those not related to pollution). By encouraging "passive" transportation over "active" transportation, we have become a culture of veal calves. We are obese, our muscles and bones are weakened, and we suffer from what doctors call an epidemic of serious, easily preventable diseases such as diabetes, depression, and cancers. Doctors now see exercise as playing a major role in individual health, and see urban design as playing a major role in preventing diabetes, many cancers, depression, and other diseases. The immune system is strengthened through exercise.
Doctors at the World Health Organization and at the CDC have noted that urban design stops people from getting adequate exercise. People who work long hours and commute by car are frequently unable to get enough exercise to be healthy. Children are bussed or driven to school, where they receive less physical education than ever. Check out the WHO and CDC websites for more info, and tell me what you think. Also check out websites related to urban sprawl, car-free urban design, and "smart growth" -- a google search using any of these phrases should give enough options for some helpful web-surfing.
The second (non-pollution-related) negative health impact is actually more social. I noticed that when I was doing daycare and built the "alleycart" -- a homebuilt pushcart to take small children to the Parks and back, that we had wonderful interactions in the neighborhood. People we would have passed by anonymously in a car were now truly our neighbors. We talked, they listened to the kids laugh, cry, sing, and call out as we passed by.
Even now as I ride a cargo trike through south Minneapolis, I stop to say hello to elderly people who smile and wave, to children, and even to other middle-aged folks like myself. As more people engage in active transportation within neighborhoods, we build community and human connection, which is also very important to human health.
Now, to shift gears: the problem of moving people and material through the city and metro area is huge. We can all agree, I think, that traffic congestion is bad.
I suggest several strategies to do away with most traffic congestion:
1. "Smart Growth" -- aggressively create multi-use urban neighborhoods where people can live, work, and shop for the most part within walking distance of home.
2. Create intentional "active" transportation options metro-wide -- more bike and pedestrian friendly trails and roads connected by...
3. Comprehensive public transportation options....we have a very limited bus system in the Metro, built on 50 or 60 year-old models of transportation. We need a greater variety of options: more routes, and smaller (bio-diesel?) busses running more frequently on many routes. Add light rail connected to walkable bikable neighborhoods and electric station-cars and HPVs of various sorts and we can eliminate the need for many, many car trips.
4. Congestion Tax: we need to explore this disincentive for driving in congestion. You can access information on it at the BBC -- apparently it has worked well in Singapore(?), and London is setting up a program. Think of it as behavioral modification with the benefit of raising revenue to fund the transformation to a more active, healthier urban environment for us and our kids.
Finally, I think we need to address the issue of "global thinking and local action" with regard to urban transportation -- but I'll save that for another post!
I hope this helps, Mark. I am interested in discussion, not argument. If anyone has a chance to fit reading this topic into their busy lives, great!
--Gary Hoover
King Field
