Transportation : Featured Stories

Baseball season is upon us. Why not turn game day into an opportunity to explore neighborhoods around CHS Field in St. Paul's Lowertown and Target Field in Minneapolis' North Loop, which are bookended by Green Line light-rail stops?

Strike up a conversation at an art opening, microbrewery, maker event, co-working space, tech-entrepreneur gathering, placemaking conference or food truck, and chances are that person is a coastal transplant living the life they’ve always wanted.  

Looking to sample the region’s freshest produce without braving traffic? In celebration of the Green Line’s first full farmers market season, here are seven MSP markets within walking distance of a major transit line (in many cases, the Green Line itself).

Tami Traeger, Nice Ride MN's director of outreach and sponsor relationships, explains how a car-free calling led her to align her lifestyle with her values and smaller-footprint living.

Downtown East could soon become the national face of MSP; quite a step up for a neighborhood that barely existed a decade ago.

Janis LaDouceur relocated to The North in the late 1980s and began a two-decade process of disengaging from car culture.Today, LaDouceur and her husband, Sean Burns, live an almost totally car-free lifestyle.

Ken and Roberta Avidor have been car-free since 2010. Union Depot is their jumping-off point for bike, bus and train trips around the Twin Cities—and beyond. They're also making a name for themselves in the Twin Cities’ urban-sketching movement.

A transit user and cyclist explains why he traded the conveniences of car ownership for an “experience-based lifestyle.”

With momentum on multiple fronts, a number of women-led initiatives are expanding the future of cycling to create a healthier, safer, more opportunity-rich Twin Cities for female cyclists.  

Architects, developers and city officials hope that two new apartment towers, which are changing the skyline of downtown Minneapolis, will transform street life and commerce with an influx of new residents and new businesses.  

The Twin Cities is a leader in bicycle use and a major innovator in bicycle design and technology. The seven inventions profiled here have, or will have, an impact on the local and global cycling industry. And the pace of innovation shows no sign of slowing down.    

We recently sat down with Shawn Combs Walding, MnDOT’s Transit Advantages Coordinator for the Twin Cities Metro District to discuss alternative transportation in the Twin Cities, what local entities can do to promote transit use, and how easy it really is to be car-free. 

The message of this year's Rail~Volution conference in the Twin Cities was clear: To attract and retain top talent in the coming decades, cities must meet Millennials' preferences for effective transit options.

Two years ago, Lars Christiansen and Nancy Fischer sold their car and plunged into the Twin Cities’ rich network of public and alternative modes of transportation, which led to a healthier lifestyle and innovating the Friendly Streets Initiative.  

NEA, ArtPlace and others have poured millions of dollars toward creative placemaking projects in the Twin Cities in recent years. What are the street-level results of those investments?