tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-159826072024-03-13T12:20:46.647-05:00Just Up The HillAdam's blog is now roaming the dirt roads of Vermont, chronicling transportation and travels one hill at a time...Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-25475705429467992062015-10-18T06:46:00.001-05:002015-10-18T06:46:49.312-05:001st snow of the year
We just got our first snow of the year yesterday and last night. And it wasn't light. Wound up with 1.3". Here's a pic:
Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-72062770529248601852015-05-13T10:05:00.002-05:002015-05-13T10:05:44.455-05:00Average jobs+population density per acre for Hennepin County, MN.
Looking at figuring out a way to adjust for the larger census block sizes in some areas, as well as factoring out the lakes and wetlands.
Also turned it into a Streets.MN post.
Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-73172624873210837412015-05-06T19:28:00.000-05:002015-05-06T19:28:07.073-05:0050th anniversary of the 1965 Twin Cities tornado outbreak
50 years ago today, the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota was hit by a series of severe thunderstorms which spawned 6 tornadoes...4 of them rated a violent F4. Some parts of Fridley...along and west of University and south of Mississippi St, got hit by not one but TWO of the F4 tornadoes that evening, about an hour apart. Depending on which dataset you use, there were 13 or 14 fatalities from Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-11581376960239910622014-08-15T08:14:00.002-05:002014-08-15T08:14:30.803-05:00Recent Streets.MN endeavors
I've been busy lately on Streets.MN, with two articles in the past two weeks:
Refining an Idea: 26th/28th Streets is where I took a look at a neighborhood proposal for calming and adding bicycle facilities along 26th St and 28th St in south Minneapolis. I included *A LOT* of cross-sections created via Streetmix to illustrate various configurations. In short, converting both streetsFroggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-44671226238167417242014-07-30T10:16:00.000-05:002014-07-30T10:16:21.473-05:00What a 350ft buffer around the Hoover Building looks like.
The FBI and the General Services Administration (GSA) are searching for a site to house a new consolidated FBI headquarters, to replace the much-maligned Hoover Building location on Pennsylvania Ave NW in downtown DC. Though it was recently announced that no sites in DC remain in consideration, there are a few who wonder why they don't just reuse the existing Hoover Building site.
One of Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-6285208759141486312014-07-17T07:43:00.000-05:002014-07-17T07:43:01.630-05:00Yellow Line "severing"
Greater Greater Washington ran a post a few days ago about the possibility of a second Rosslyn metro station for the Blue Line, as a potential precursor for a separate Blue Line across the Potomac into DC. This led to a whole bunch of other ideas to improve Blue Line service (which has really been hit hard by the almost-open Silver Line) that would theoretically cost less. Among theFroggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-15429671732933553462014-03-31T10:50:00.001-05:002014-03-31T10:50:54.571-05:00Automatic bike counters
This is what Arlington County, VA is doing for automated bicycle counters...similar to vehicle detectors that DOTs use for counting cars, except these are used for counting bicyclists and (in some cases) pedestrians. A list of locations and equipment models is shown halfway down the webpage.
They're also about to unveil a real-time counter display that will display count information for Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-86619263465482716382013-11-22T17:44:00.005-06:002013-11-22T17:45:11.510-06:00Bicycling as school curriculum
One Minneapolis elementary school has done it:
http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/minnesota-elementary-school-adds-bikes-to-the-curriculum
Wish we had this back when I was in grade school. I took it upon my self to start biking to school once I hit junior high.
Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-54072059071967838702013-11-21T18:33:00.000-06:002013-11-21T18:33:38.049-06:00A letter to Alexandria
There's been much in the news lately about a proposal to add bike lanes to a portion of King St west of Old Town, from Russell Rd up to Janney's Ln. This segment of King St is pretty narrow and is on a fairly long incline. The existing road has 2 lanes plus a parking lane...the original proposal was to take the parking lane, restripe the road, and add bike lanes on each side of the Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-82137383501824262972013-10-08T13:59:00.001-05:002013-10-08T13:59:10.294-05:00Catching up on Tales from the Sea
When I made my last post over a year ago, I didn't realize I'd take so long to get back to blogging. Call it preoccupation. Call it getting burned out from being at sea. Call it life. But since I'm about to return home from a SECOND deployment, I figured it was about time to get back into the groove so I can bore you all with cool and snazzy transportation tidbits and Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-38264727197164005282012-09-10T03:41:00.000-05:002012-09-10T03:42:09.723-05:00Tales from the SeychellesLand Ho! Land Ho!
Feels great to step foot on solid ground after spending 6 weeks straight at sea. Even if it's wet and raining part of the time here. It's what happens when one is in the tropics.
Pulled into port on Sunday, though. This place is dead on Sunday. Emptier than an out-of-service WMATA train. And only a few places open...most of which are along the beach at the hotels or Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-58308259162596238052012-07-28T04:57:00.001-05:002012-07-28T04:57:48.623-05:00More Tales From The SandThe ship is coming to collect me today, so this may be it until the next port visit. It's been a fascinating, if hot and dusty, time here in Djibouti. Plenty of stuff on base to occupy one's time if they know where to look.
That said, it's still hot. It hit 112F yesterday. That's the temp, not the heat index. The heat index was much higher. Even though it's the desert, we're close to the Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-48099890999622448112012-07-27T07:34:00.001-05:002012-07-27T07:43:55.704-05:00A Sad State of BollardsA couple months ago, cyclists along the Mount Vernon Trail in Alexandria noticed something disturbing beginning to happen. VDOT was starting to install bollards along the trail in the vicinity of the Wilson Bridge. First reported by Rootchopper (a regular bike commuter along the trail), these bollards have also been discussed on WashCycle and WABA.
And it's a mess. Besides being hard concreteFroggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-11170452596232144072012-07-26T12:26:00.000-05:002012-07-26T12:26:01.144-05:00Tales From The SandIn the grand tradition of Tales From The Sharrows, it is my honor to bring you this unofficial subsidiary post. Perhaps it's the heat getting to me, or something about all this dust and sand, but here it is.
Nominally, this is a US Navy "Expeditionary Base", but there are so many other people from all the services, plus lots of contractors, that you really can't call it just a Navy base. Yeah,Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-31138436298274500432012-07-26T07:50:00.000-05:002012-07-26T07:50:25.024-05:00A thought on bus shoulder lanes...Last week, BeyondDC had a short piece on the potential for expanded bus shoulder use in the DC area. The area's Transportation Planning Board is asking for a working group to study the concept.
I'm sure BDC is aware of this, so I'm surprised he didn't mention it, but the Twin Cities metro area has a very extensive system of bus-allowed shoulders, where buses can use the shoulder during times ofFroggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-48400706802953080092012-06-17T17:53:00.001-05:002012-06-17T17:53:21.177-05:00An Eastern Shore rideSince I'm about to get underway for awhile, I took advantage of the very awesome (albeit windy) weather yesterday to head up to the Eastern Shore for some biking. I'd noticed on my transfer down that there's a new bike trail near the southern tip of the shore. Indeed, last year the US Fish and Wildlife Service built a 2.5 mile bike/hike trail from their Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-66856661169695125692012-06-13T10:12:00.000-05:002012-06-13T10:12:41.797-05:00#BikeNorfolk BeginsI've just finished my first week back in Norfolk. I was able to get out on the bike 5 out of the 7 days (technically 6 if you include spending Saturday in DC), and thus officially begin what I'm calling #BikeNorfolk. I'll be using that hashtag on Twitter to record my bike travels in the city. Hopefully others will pick up on it.
I will admit, after a 7 year hiatus, I was impressed with the Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-3339557833018228762012-06-07T05:02:00.000-05:002012-06-07T05:02:39.492-05:00A new name, a new placeMy long-awaited move to Norfolk has finally come and gone. I packed up what was left of my stuff in the car last week and bid adieu to Huntington and the DC area.
Bye-bye Beltway.
And so "Just Down The Parkway" has become "Just Down The Bay", where I'll continue to chronicle transportation and my bicycling adventures from Norfolk.
Speaking of Norfolk, I found a place where The Tide LRT is Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-52051372182296763932012-05-25T11:30:00.002-05:002012-05-25T11:55:23.101-05:00Froggie's #FridayCoffeeClub FinaleAs most of you may know, I'm transferring from DC this upcoming week. Wasn't expecting to get a 4-day weekend at first, but my CO granted us today off. So I took advantage of it to hit up my last #FridayCoffeeClub. And yes, this was really my last #FridayCoffeeClub.
For those who don't know, #FridayCoffeeClub is an informal gathering of many of the bike DC crowd at M.E. Swing (a coffee Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-24347448080612349832012-05-03T09:48:00.001-05:002012-05-03T09:54:44.989-05:00Old Town Bike ParkingDear Alexandria,
Since you took out the parking meters in Old Town several months ago for the new multispace meters, there are a lot fewer places to lock one's bike up to along King Street. Can you fix this?
Sincerely,Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-30603348133189382202012-03-26T12:49:00.005-05:002012-03-26T13:04:28.122-05:00Bike commuting while I still canIt's been a busy month. Between college classes, my temporary duty at the Pentagon, and my impending transfer to Norfolk, I haven't had much time for blogging.But one thing I have been able to do is bike commute, especially over the last two weeks. 7 out of 10 commutes during those two weeks were bike commutes. I was also able to get a few bike commutes in during the previous weeks. And my Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-11105084520511794392012-02-27T20:35:00.002-06:002012-02-27T21:04:54.263-06:00No bike commute this weekBut what I didn't mention before is I snuck one in last week on Wednesday (bike commute #3). At least a partial one...it involved biking to Braddock Rd Metro on the way in and to Crystal City Metro on the way home. So I guess you could say it was a multi-modal commute.This week is the one that'll lack a bike commute. In part because I have to stage the car in Suitland tomorrow for a medical Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-24717076608354580222012-02-18T13:50:00.003-06:002012-02-18T14:02:47.004-06:00Bike Commute #2Yesterday was nice enough (sans fog in the morning), plus it was a short day for us (4 hour shifts instead of the usual 8), so I tried bike commute #2. Route wasn't much different than before, except that I used Crystal Dr to 12th St to Old Jeff Davis Hwy to Boundary Channel Dr.Given my experience yesterday, it's looking like 40-45 minutes will be the standard for the bike commute time. I'm Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-82688492701947687992012-02-15T08:36:00.003-06:002012-02-15T08:49:29.092-06:00Bike Commute Follow-upWind makes a difference. A big difference. While they were light on my bike commute into the Pentagon yesterday morning, they increased noticeably by afternoon. Based on observations from National Airport, they were gusting above 20 by the time I left to head home. And it had an effect...it took me over 45 minutes to get home, fighting that headwind the entire way home.Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15982607.post-5641404937384986302012-02-14T09:44:00.004-06:002012-02-14T12:43:07.690-06:00Froggie's First Bike CommuteLast week, I had a bit of a change in workplace...I'm now working at the Pentagon on a temporary duty assignment (Navy calls it TAD, Army/Air Force calls it TDY). By far the biggest change that's occurred with the office shift is the commute. Instead of my old Suitland commute where my choices were a 25min drive or a 1h10m Metrorail ride, I have many more options for commuting to the Pentagon.Froggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12843594625467349428noreply@blogger.com9