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Articles by Monte Castleman
Bloomington’s New Municipal Buildings
As a 1960s inner ring suburb, Bloomington has had to deal with plenty of aging infrastructure dating back to the days of rapid development. The city hall and police department moved to a beautiful new building in 2003, and Public Works was heavily renovated around the same time. But quite a few issues remained: The “community center”, Creekside, in a small decommissioned elementary school, was restricted to seniors only instead of welcoming all of Bloomington.
New Signs on Our Highways
Although Minnesota uses its own Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, it’s substantially similar to the federal manual (known as MUTCD). Why? The state can’t get too creative without interference from the Federal Highway Administration (FWHA). Plus, Minnesota has recently been changing our signs to make them even closer to the national standards. An example of this is how to communicate to drivers where there’s a major multi-lane exit and one lane splits. One way was “diagrammatic” signs.
Answering the Call: Pedestrian Button Questions
Recently Streets.mn published an article, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg? Views on Pedestrian Call Buttons,” which posed several questions related to the functionality of these buttons, most notably, “do they actually do anything?” As a collector of traffic signal equipment that has built my own home setup with real retired traffic signal equipment and author on a previous comprehensive series on traffic signals, I want to weigh in on that.
Bloomington’s Bicycle Infrastructure Revisited, Part Two
This is the second entry in a three-part series on Bloomington’s bicycle infrastructure. In part one, we looked at the background and historical context of Bloomington’s bicycle infrastructure. The series continues with a look at how this context affected the results of particular projects. Images are by the author unless otherwise noted.
Highway News Roundup, Fall 2021
E-ZPass Electronic Toll Interoperability is Now Here As I’ve written about several times before, there was a 2012 federal mandate to have electronic toll collection be interoperable nationwide by 2016. In practical terms this would mean you’d be able to use your same toll transponder to pay tolls nationwide. That deadline came and went without the country achieving full interoperability. Nevertheless, slow but steady progress has been made.
Some Alternative Options in Detached Housing, Part 1
There’s many advantages to living in a detached house – they generally offer more space, more separation and privacy from neighbors, and a discrete place to drive up to, look at, and call your own. But there’s definitely drawbacks to the primary ways of acquiring a detached home (owning a house and land or renting one in an established area): maintenance, difficulty in relocating, and coming up with a down payment.
The Tower Lights of the Freeways
By Monte Castleman on August 19, 2019 in Freeways, Street Furniture, Streets The Moonlight Towers While traveling along the freeways you may have noticed that some lights are mounted on huge towers rather than short poles. The idea of lighting a large area with high-mounted lights dates from the dawn of the electrical era, with carbon arc lights. Here’s one from San Jose. And here is one from Minneapolis, in Bridge Square in 1883.
A History of Highway 100 Part Two: The Parks of Lilac Way
By Monte Castleman on July 17, 2019 in Highways, History Previously I covered an overview of Highway 100, Lilac Way, including an overview of the roadside parks, Here’s a detailed look at all the parks, from north to south. Map of the parks of lilac way Lions Park Located in the northeast corner of what is now Bottineau Blvd, this wasn’t part of the original Lilac Way landscaping.
A History of Highway 100 Part One: Overview
By Monte Castleman on June 12, 2019 in Highways, History Previously I covered the history of Minnesota’s trunk highway system. At it’s inception in 1920 the system contained what still is the core of the system. But the new governor, Floyd. B. Olson, championed a massive increase in size and scope of the state government, including a proposal to vastly increase the mileage of the system.
Along Old Highway 61 to Duluth, a Phototour: Part Three
By Monte Castleman on January 15, 2019 in Streets, Transportation This is Part Three of a photour along Old Highway 61 from St. Paul to Duluth. Part One covered St. Paul to White Bear Lake, and Part Two left off just before Hinckley. Now it’s time to enter the town and beyond.
Along Old Highway 61 to Duluth, A Phototour, Part Two
This is Part Two of a phototour of Old Highway 61 to Duluth. Previously we covered St. Paul to White Bear Lake, now we continue north at Forest Lake. Forest Lake Early on the cutoff to where the road from Minneapolis met the road from St. Paul to Duluth moved from White Bear Lake to Forest Lake. Originally just south of the roundabout here, then to the modern equivalent, the junction of I-35E and I-35W with I-35.
Bloomington’s Four-Lane Death Roads Revisited
One of my first articles for streets.mn was on Bloomington’s Four Lane Death Roads, (four lane undivided roads) written in response to Bill Lindeke’s introductory article on Four-Lane Death Roads. Four years later it’s time to revisit the subject with updates and additional background material. Imagine a typical trip down a Death Road. You’re driving down the right lane. Pretty soon there’s a bus stopped or a brave, fearless bicyclist in the lane, so you move into the left lane.
A History of Minnesota’s Highways: Part Three
Previously, Part 1 of this series discussed some early roads in Minnesota’s pioneer era and the privately maintained auto trails in the early motoring era. Part 2 discussed the generation-long ramp-up of state involvement in highway construction, culminating with the inauguration of a system both owned and maintained by the state: the trunk highways. They now existed on paper, and you could follow well-marked signs in the field.
A History of Minnesota’s Highways Part One
This is the first part of a new series on the history of Minnesota’s highway system. This is not intended to be exhaustive or strictly chronological. Rather the idea is to present certain milestones and points where source material is available and that I think readers will find informative or interesting. There’s also a few topics I will only touch briefly as they are tangential to the main flow and are worthy of articles in themselves.
Hospitals Race to the Cornfields
Previously on this site there was a post on the phenomenon on schools relocating from urban neighborhoods to areas with more space on the fringes of town. Schools have their issues, like parking spaces in the case of high schools for students arriving by car, and space for athletic fields, but the fundamental model of students in the classroom hasn’t changed much.
The Great Bicycle Helmet Controversy
A month ago we took a look at the history of bicycle helmets and data on their usage at various locations in Minnesota. But should a bicycle helmet by mandatory, or even worn in the first place? Everyone points to the original study saying they reduce head injuries by 85% or tells anecdotes about how a helmet “saved their life” without any actual evidence (and in fact a helmet is designed to destruct dramatically in a crash, a head not so much).
A History of Bicycle Helmets and a Study of Bicycle Helmet use in Minnesota
Advocacy for wearing bicycle helmets is almost as old as bicycles themselves. In the 1880s bicycle clubs began to advocate for the use of helmets. Eventually racers began to use helmets, first leather pith-type helmets, then leather ring-type “hairnet” helmets, but helmets were unknown in non-race bicycling.
The I-35W Bridge Collapse 10 Years Later
August 1st, 2007 was Minnesota’s day of infamy, when one of the most heavily used bridges in the state collapsed into the Mississippi River. Looking back 10 years and a month later, it’s time to reflect on some of the changes since then. The 1990s were a time of stagnation for MnDOT. After the 1991 opening of I-394, meaningful investment in badly needed capacity expansion came to an end. The gas tax was raised in 1988, but was not indexed to inflation, so the impact continued to erode.
The Stillwater Bridge Story, Part Five
Several years ago, I wrote a four part series about the story of the Stillwater Bridge across the St. Croix River. Part 1 covered the project from 1950s promises to build a high bridge and get traffic well away from downtown up to the point the original iteration of the 1980s proposal was officially sunk in 1998. Part 2 covered the endless bickering and litigation from then up to the time the roadblocks were removed and the new bridge officially was authorized.
In Defense of a Paved Minnesota Valley State Trail
Recently there’s been a lot of controversy about filling in a link in our protected bicycle trail network, the portion of the Minnesota Valley State Trail through the Minnesota River Bottoms in Bloomington. The idea to add a paved trail to the existing dirt mountain bike trail is nothing new, the concept of a trail from Minneapolis to Le Sueur (and later all the way to South Dakota) has existed since 1969. What’s different now is that construction of the controversial segment is imminent.
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