Tale of a Traffic Engineer Walking to Work after a Snow Storm

Winter officially arrived in my area of Minnesota this week.  It snowed Sunday night and Monday morning.  We got about 3 inches in St. Louis Park where I live and work.  About a foot of snow dropped fifty miles to our north.

Jane and I took the kids to Washington DC last March for an educational vacation.  We stayed in Old Town Alexandria and walked 3/4 of a mile every day back and forth to the LRT station.  Not a big deal.

I looked up my walking route from home to work and it turned out to also be 3/4 of a mile.  I walked to work the first day back from DC to give a walking commute a try.  Since then, I’ve walked to work every day (ok – I did drive twice).  I love it.  I sold our second vehicle in June to fully commit (Jane still needs a car).  I even walk home for lunch most days.

I use Uber to go to meetings when I don’t hitch a ride with one of my co-workers.  I also have a work van I can drive if it’s not being used in the field.  Mostly, I don’t go to meetings.

Back to my tale of the snow….

Here’s a photo of what the road looked like versus what the sidewalk looked like on my way to work Tuesday morning.   This is Wooddale Avenue, a busy collector that leads down to the high school.  Yes, that is a sidewalk on the left.  Can you tell from this photo which mode of transportation is the priority?

I’ve slipped twice this week walking to work.  Thankfully I didn’t completely fall.  I also saw a teenager on a bike slip and fall on a sidewalk along 36th Street near our office (4 lane collector, 16,000 +vehicles per day, wide sidewalks, no on street bike lanes – yes I’ve mentioned it should be converted to a three lane section).

And below are two photos of what Wooddale Avenue looked like this morning, three days after the snow fall.

We are spending a tremendous amount of time and money building ADA compliant pedestrian ramps in Minnesota.  Look at the last photo – how ADA compliant is that sidewalk (I can’t imagine being in a wheelchair or blind on that sidewalk).

Here are the Goals for the Pedestrian and Bicycle System from the St. Louis Park Vision Document:

• Improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety.
• Establish a citywide grid-system of sidewalks every ¼-mile.
• Establish a citywide grid-system of bicycle facilities every ½-mile.
• Close gaps in neighborhoods’ existing sidewalk networks.
• Improve citizens’ transportation and recreation choices.
• Provide an accessible, convenient, inviting and easily understood system.

I don’t think we’re living up to those goals.  I realize snow removal takes money, but a city in snow country can’t be multi-modal if it doesn’t take snow removal seriously.  This will be a very important issue in St. Louis Park in about three years when a LRT station opens up 300 feet from where these photos were taken.

For now, I bought a good pair of boots and I hope I don’t have a walking crash on my commute to work.