Valpo buses can now be tracked on cellphone

The city's Board of Public Works and Safety on Thursday approved a contract with Double Maps that provides the program for anyone to track the location of all the city's buses — both the V-Line intra-city buses and the Dash — at any time on a computer or a cellphone.

City Planning Director Tyler Kent said the program was created by students at Indiana University for the Bloomington, Ind., bus system and is now being marketed nationwide. The program operates from Droid tablets mounted on each bus connected to a geographic information system.

Kent said the Droids have been used for the past month on a trial basis to see how it works. The contract calls for the Dash and the V-Line each to get five Droids. The Dash cost is $6,000 while the V-Line system is only $3,600 a year for up to five years.

The Droids are mounted next to the driver, and the city plans to add two additional programs to the system. One will count the passengers, and the second will announce the intersections along the routes. The latter will help visually impaired riders know where they are and relieve the drivers of having the do it.

The drivers try to count passengers, but Kent said that can sometimes be difficult when several are getting on and off at a stop. Kent said much of the federal funding for the bus services is based on ridership, and the new system will keep a more accurate count.

To date, 5,616 miles of U.S. Bicycle Routes have been designated in 10 states: Alaska, Kentucky, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia. Presently, more than 40 states are working to create U.S. Bicycle Routes.

The newly approved middle segment passes through the Twin Cities Metro area and the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area — a 72-mile-long park managed by the National Park Service. Much of the route is on bike paths with scenic views. This segment of the route offers opportunities to connect with restaurants, museums, parks and festivals along the IC card.

The northern segment of USBR 45 was designated in October 2012 and begins in Itasca State Park, where the river begins as a small stream. The route then travels through the north woods and past numerous lakes to Bemidji, Cass Lake, Grand Rapids, Brainerd, Little Falls and St. Cloud. At Cass Lake, bicyclists have an off-road option to travel 100 miles on the Heartland State Trail and Paul Bunyan State Trail.

The southern segment was designated in May 2012 and extends from Hastings to the Iowa border. This section is on roads and multi-use paths that closely follow the Mississippi River through steep limestone bluffs, hardwood forests, and more than a dozen river towns.

Second, there is little doubt that overall road design and transportation projects have clearly favored 4+ wheeled vehicles—at the expense of everyone else—for generations. The balance I mentioned above requires the city to make improvements for anyone travelling our street network without the privilege of an automobile. If I were to prioritize any mode, it would be through investments in walking or biking that would fully render them viable alternatives to motor vehicle use.

We not only need to make sure that pedestrians have enough time to cross the street, we need to guarantee that crosswalks are clearly marked and the pavement itself is free from monstrous potholes that would force the elderly, wheelchair users, or stroller pushers to widen their path (I witnessed this issue just yesterday, while watching a wheelchair negotiate the southern crossing at Hiawatha and 38th). Adding more bike lanes requires the city (and Hennepin County) to be more mindful of vehicular traffic turns at intersections—bicyclists shouldn’t get right hooked by a turning car.

The city also needs to make a concerted effort to slow motorized vehicles down. This isn’t just a matter of decreasing speed limits, but putting traffic calming measures in place: narrowing lanes, adding curb extensions and pedestrian refuges in the middle of the street (wherever possible), and converting one-way streets into two-ways. These measures are minimum recommendations.

This balance is also achieved in another way: education. There should be an increased push to teach all network users on how to make the system work for everyone. I believe in stronger education initiatives that can help drivers understand what a painted sharrow means, and help bicyclists get the idea that it is simply wrong to bike the wrong way down a one-way street.

Third, despite the fact that we are making valiant strides at diversifying our modes, we can’t completely avoid investments in our road infrastructure. As residents, as workers, and sometimes as travellers, some people still need to use a vehicle. The hope, of course, is to make these trips more infrequent, but no matter how this city rebalances our network, it cannot afford to neglect the roadways that we obviously still need. The trick, however, will be maintaining and strengthening our roadways without negatively impacting our other modes of travel.

That being said, no matter the project—from the Lime Building near Lyn-Lake, to Creekside Commons near Diamond Lake, to the multiple proposals for Howe School, the Simpson Housing plan for 42nd and Hiawatha back in 2005, or the recently constructed Oaks Station Place—there are inevitably concerns about all housing projects. Some residents argue that their quality of life will be diminished by the new addition of a market-rate apartment building. Other residents argue that their quality of life will be diminished by the new addition of affordable housing.

The job of a City Council member is to not only listen to community concerns and explore how they could be accommodated (whether that deals with set backs or parking or noise), but there also remains a duty to be willing to argue over what is in the best interest of the overall community. Considering the historically low vacancy rate in this city, as well as the need to broaden our tax base, Minneapolis needs housing: market-rate, mixed-income, and affordable. I would staunchly defend well-designed, neighborhood-oriented proposals that would make living in this city more affordable, expand our tax base, and rehabilitate underused properties.

Yet this question did not specify housing developments, just developments. If there is one controversial project I would have handled differently the choice is simple: the Vikings stadium.

By now, most arguments against the City Council’s 7-6 vote are well-known: it was wrong to invest in a billion dollar stadium to relieve us of a relatively insignificant, low-interest Target Center debt, it was wrong to lock up our downtown sales taxes for decades, it was wrong to merely think of this stadium as $150 million city contribution (when the numbers are significantly higher than that), it was wrong to base a decision off of a city attorney’s oral (not written) opinion, and most importantly, it was wrong to violate our City Charter.