What other signs in Minnesota need to be fixed?
Posted at 5:00 AM on April 6, 2010
by Eric Ringham
(31 Comments)
Filed under: Transportation
Signs that direct travelers to the respective terminals of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport are being changed to make them less confusing. Today's Question: What other signs in Minnesota need to be fixed?
Comments (31)
Comments texted to MPR at 677-677
That George Bush "Miss Me Yet?" sign up north probably needs to be painted over. Just sayin'. -Dave, Edina
Why didn't the city of Bloomington make signs on most of the intersections between Portland to hwy77 and between 66st? -Abdinasir Mohamed
I'd like to see the name plate outside of the Office of the Governor replaced as soon as possible. -anonymous
"Split highway" style roads, such as Stinton Blvd in Minneapolis, have confusing dual "One Way" signs pointing in opposite directions. -anonymous
Waste of our tax money. Those airport signs did not need to be changed. -anonymous
OK, in all honestly: More signs in downtown Minneapolis telling you how to GET OUT. I live in fear of taking a wrong turn, getting down the wrong street, and never being able to find 35W.
I'm with stu klipper on the "locally named" issue with town and village roads; plus it's nice to learn a new word every day--I'm going to try to fit "abcedarian" into conversation later tonight!
HANG UP AND DRIVE signs would be nice. A law would be better. Yesterday while biking on an eight foot shoulder I was almost cut down by BMW SUV going 60 mph which careened of the roadway no further than 40 yards in front of me. I'm still thanking God for another day on the planet.
ONE WAY signs on Hennepin and First Avenues would be nice. Maybe they saved them?
The planners who restored two-way traffic, added bike lanes, and created floating parking lanes on two of downtown Minneapolis' most congested streets should admit this experiment is an utter failure.
In this strange new scheme, bikers are less safe than ever, motorists don't know where to park, and traffic has slowed to a crawl even in light traffic.
Has no one been to a big city before, where street traffic moves in one direction, bike lanes are separated by barriers, and cars park at the curb?
Call me old-fangled, but when I'm ranging around the rural roads of Outback Minnesota, and see street signs sporting legends like 379th St. miles from any towns, I go a little kookazoid!
I say bring back the long-standing and time-honored locally named names and be done with it.
Still 'n all, let's be grateful this isn't Wisconsin where all the county roads seem to have been given their desigantions by a manaical abcedarian.
There oughta be a law:
Road signs must appear above any lanes that become "EXIT ONLY" -- i.e. 94 going east from downtown Mpls, far right lane becomes an "EXIT ONLY TO FRANKLIN AVENUE" -- zoinks! How many times you been endangered by others swerving out of a lane when they realize it's become "EXIT ONLY"?
As a summer vacationer in Minnesota, the changes in the airport signs will be most helpful. After a long drive from Park Rapids to MSP, the signs have not been logical so this will be a big help.
-Mark in Tampa
Change the signs to Minneapolis and St Paul to City 1 and City 2. The whole "Twin Cities" thing is just two confusing.
The signage at the new Guthrie theater is terrible.
Now that Bicycling Magazine has named Minneapolis the most bike-friendly city in the country, more "Share the Road" signs around the Twin Cities would be nice. They remind motorists that bicycles have the same right to the roads as cars do, and reminds cyclists that using the roads requires responsible, predictable adherence to the rules of the road. Start with a couple on the hill down to the Lake Street Bridge from Marshall Avenue, where the shoulder disappears and bicyclists have to demonstrate a little moxie to keep their place!
Perhaps MNDot's next project will be to change all signs reading "Minnesota" to "State #32"
This is an easy one: 35W and 35E. Until you've lived here for a while, no one from out of town can understand how you can be going South on a highway labeled 35E(ast). I'm sure far more travelers miss their fights/meetings/appointments due to this than the airport terminal signs. Would it really have killed the engineers to just number one of them 34 and one 35?! Or perhaps highway 1 and highway 2 since apparently adults aren't smart enough to remember names.
Speed limit signs from 55 to 60 mph, especially in NW Minnesota where there are long distances between towns and very few people driving.
In St Cloud, roads sometimes change their names 8 times in the course of 6 miles.
PS, written from my new iPad, yes!
I have been downtown in Mpls is the past a couple of times to turn in government or other documents and have a name of a building and street address but end up walking for about 1 hr briskly due to meter trying to find a THE BUILDING I am looking for. I have been embarrased for the state I have lived in for 35 years and call home. If it had been freezing I would have been really unhappy. Almost no buildings have a name or address that is clear. Some have a big number but sit kiddy corner and so not let you now what street the address is for, Good luck to a visitor to get to a meeting on time. There are absolutely no street level maps to give you any direction so all you can do is keep going into these building hoping that there will be breathing person at a security desk preferably on the first floor and not the second. other cities especially Euro can do it.
Signs at intersections on the bike trail.
The bike routes have almost no signs to assist you from one route to another. The streets have no signs directing you to the bike routes. Where the Green Way intersects with streets at 4-way stops, the signs don't read "4-way," so everyone pauses longer than necessary, followed by impatient waving and clumsy starts.
In the interest of informing our visitors of information they might need to know for their protection while in Minnesota, instead of the Minnesota car plate boasting:
"Land of 10,000 Lakes"
it should read:
"Land of 10,000 drunk drivers".
Of course we know the actual number of both is much higher for the former and embarrassingly higher for the latter.
THE CROSSTOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There NEEDS to be signs on the crosstown that say "Crosstown" really. All the signs say Highway 62, but NOBODY calls it "62" everyone calls it "the crosstown." traffic reports, construction reports, driving directions. How many countless souls have gotten lost looking for a road labeled "the crosstown" only to end up lost. Not everyone lives in that part of the metro, people are from out of town, people move to the metro. It is a sick and twisted joke to call a major highway a name that can not be found on a sign. PUT UP LOTS OF SIGNS THAT SAY "THE CROSSTOWN!"
A few signs need to be changed:
* First, the 494/694 beltway needs some control cities. When coming along 94 from the northwest, would it kill MnDOT to put "Bloomington" on the exit sign for 494? Or other suburbs?
*MnDOT also likes to secretly duplex routes and not tell anybody (see U.S. 52 along almost all of 94, or U.S. 12 along 394). Usually this isn't a big deal, but now that MN 55 doesn't run through downtown streets anymore, it would be nice if MnDOT signed that 55 ran along 94 for a bit.
Common sense, Responsibility, and Brazen fortitude.
Upcoming sign of the times.
DTOM
Change for the sake of change is not a good idea in any economy. However, there is a lot to be said for re-visiting the naming conventions used.
The signs at the boarder that say "Welcome" should make it clear that this is an aspirational goal, not a promise to newcomers (especially as regards dark-skinned immigrants who have trouble with English).
Highway signage in general has the same problem the airport signs had - there is often no directional help on MN highways until after you've made your decision. In most cities, at interchanges you get clues to help you pick which direction you want to go, but in the Twin Cities they are rare. For example, on I-94 in Woodbury there are multiple gigantic signs that say "Madison" after you're already halfway to Wisconsin. In downtown St. Paul, where you have to choose which lanes you need to be in, there is no signage to say "Madison" or "Rochester" or "Duluth" or "Des Moines". Just like the airport where the signs listed the airlines at each terminal after you'd already gotten there. Not helpful.
The sign on Gov. Pawlenty's door needs to change - the sooner the better.
Stop signs need to be redesigned, since the existing ones are apparently invisible to cyclists.
Not exactly a "sign" that needs to change but I have long found it confusing that the (now) Three Rivers Parks has different names for the nature centers from the name of the parks they are in. Too many names to try to remember.
Hwy 55 East/West signs between 94 and 62 in Minneapolis should be labeled Hiawatha Ave South/North. I live along 55 and I can't tell you how many times I've gone North/West from Franklin Ave instead of South/East!
On westbound I394 there's a sign over the right lane, "General Mills Boulevard Exit Only" but it isn't only for General Mills. Blvd. That lane is also the exit lane for northbound Hwy 169. If you don't know that, you move left only to have to move right again to exit onto 169.
First of all, the signs didn't need to be fixed. A big waste of money, but then, what is money?
We can't afford to change signs right now.
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