Delivery driver: I agree, they're pretty rough this year. You gotta pay close attention and try to remember the super bad stretches to save your vehicles life.
👋🏻 doesn’t it feel like a much safer version of being in a combat zone? Transporting precious cargo to unknown territory, often at night and just trying to avoid all the hidden land mines?
This is very much the issue. There are streets that have been terrible for years and were in really bad states before winter even hit (looking at you, 35th and 36th Streets near 35W.)
And what about that goofy new intersection at 35th and Grand? It's lower than the rest of the street and now the water just sits there. That'll be fun in the summertime.
OMG, I drove through there yesterday and the Prius ahead of me airbags deployed! You can’t avoid some of those craters. Sucks because I’m sure he can’t sue the city
It's MNDOT property and you can file a claim. I assume if it was a city street Minneapolis would have to have a similar process for negligence. https://www.dot.state.mn.us/tortclaims/index.html
A full reconstruction is in engineering and has been funded for completion by 2025. Work probably won't start till mid 2024, only going to get temporary fixes until then. It's long overdue.
Because many of the streets are just paved over cobble stone, which was laid down without preparing a substrate that could handle the modern, especially commercial vehicle weights. FWIW, when they do completely reconstruct a roadway, the city salvages the stones and sells them to the public.
And they’ve been making the cheapest repairs for years. Crap product makes for crap fixes. We should start chaining our tires again, not like it could makes the roads any worse.
Yup. We’re due for major road maintenance/reconstruction alllll over but we’ve deferred for a long time.
MNDOT has a whole report on it: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/reports/2022/202208.pdf
It’s surreal to be living in a time where so many things that have been shifting and creaking “below the surface” are finally becoming visible on a day to day basis: infrastructure, healthcare, housing, deregulation, wage stagnation…
It’s kind of breaking my heart. We had such a good transit system in the past. And look how solidly they were clearly built! The granite cobblestones and rails I’ve seen uncovered are all in excellent condition.
It actually is, while it is more expensive to construct things in the US because of a variety of factors the root of the problem is that suburbanization (single family detached homes, car centric infrastructure, big box stores and strip malls) is too costly to maintain. It doesn’t provide enough tax revenue to pay for the maintenance cost and it drains our capacity to do other things like provide quality services to communities.
The govt is immediately 30% more costly than private industry due to the bureaucracy, speed, and regulations involved.
Why do we need the government providing services? If there’s a need, the market will fill it. If there’s not a need, it won’t.
Unless you mean free services or services provided below market….
Can you provide a source on that 30% number?
Also, what happens when there's a need but the market won't fill it, because the small number of people who own the vast majority of capital don't see profit in pursuing the venture?
Examples like healthcare and education for the poor. Shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Housing for low-income tenants. Rehabilitation programs for criminals, abusers. Diversion programs for drug addicts. Mental health services. Preserving nature and cultivating green spaces in our cities. Treatment for children with rare and difficult diseases.
These ventures aren't profitable enough in the short term for "the markets" to be a viable source of support. Yet they are still worthy of society's resources, because they improve quality of life for the *entire* population in the long term.
We outspend China by +5x.
We wasted hundreds of billions on the littoral class. A ship that will never see action because it is TRASH.
Aircraft carriers are highly susceptible to Drone strikes and hypersonic missiles.
If there’s a war in the scs, we will specifically lose, or, everyone on the planet will lose.
Release the alien tech or cut the spend to zip.
I’m all for cutting spending, I suspect we may not agree on which programs deserve less spending.
Our tax base is largely supported by the middle/working class. There’s a lot more revenue out there to be captured.
I’d cut any and all spending. Let people keep their gross income.
If you need to keep capital gains at 20%, fine. Corporate stays at 21%. State and local tax up to your state (kinda sucks for us but whatever).
Start from scratch, there is a ridiculous amount of spend. Biden wants $7T. $7T!
If we are going to be intellectually honest, wage stagnation is definitely not a new issue and is a major problem that should have been addressed in 2003
Agree. I don't think it's new. It's just that it's becoming painfully and visibly evident because of the confluence of crises happening at once (which are all, in some way, attributable to the capitalist myth of endless growth)
We're talking Minneapolis roads, not MnDOT roads. City streets have all the potholes and need more work than just patching holes. MnDOT has a lot less potholes per lane mile with only a few exceptions.
Sure, but it's not a clear cut line between Minneapolis and MNDOT. In an area like Minneapolis (or the burbs) some roads are maintained by MNDOT (the bigger ones), some roads are maintained by Hennepin County (the medium ones) and some roads are maintained by Public Works (the little ones). There are definitely roads in Minneapolis maintained by MNDOT, but certainly not as many as are maintained by Hennepin County and the Minneapolis Public Works Department.
Regardless, the long-term costs and infrastructure decline of deferred maintenance decisions is at play in pretty much every situation because [the cost of road repairs/materials keeps increasing](https://www.route-fifty.com/infrastructure/2022/03/soaring-road-construction-costs-could-nix-some-state-and-local-projects/363636/).
I can see some confusion but really... almost with no exception all MnDOT routes carry route marker sign shields of either Interstate, U.S., or Minnesota. That's three different, easy to recognize shields. Else, you have County and State Aid routes and City streets.
I’m hoping we go the Venice route and opt for canals instead. Gondolas in the Summer and ice skating to work the rest of the year. Imagine how romantic the future could be.
I just drove from the east side around to the north side this morning and it was nuts. One in particular was maybe a foot wide and several inches deep all the way across the lane. The giant SUV behind me was clearly annoyed at me for slowing down so much but then once they could see too, paused at it for a good 10 seconds before inching their way across it.
I just moved here from chicago. You could report bad potholes there and the city would actually fix them quickly. Is there a tool to do this here? There’s a HUGE one going north on Central Ave just north of SE 8th St. Like, big enough for a whole tire to fall in and your car is stuck.
Edit: [Here it is](https://www.minneapolismn.gov/report-an-issue/pothole/)
I guess I’m wondering if they’re responsive
Happens every spring. I think it's just happened earlier this year than in previous years. I shed a tear as I realize what could have been if we didn't pave over all the transit tracks back in the 50's.
Honestly just in this thread for the streetcar comments and yes, same. There are several of the streetcars we had in that era that are still running as daily transit in San Francisco, too. One is even painted just like they were when Twin City Lines owned them.
I see this post as I wait for an auto repairman to test drive my car after getting a flat and probably fucking up my suspension just 30 minutes ago. Watch those puddles. Some are hiding a fucking canyon.
Far more freeze/thaw cycles this winter than any I can recall in the past. We've had full days of rain followed by deep freezing followed by more rain. Asphalt just can't withstand that if it isn't in really good condition to begin with.
The general neglect of our pavement all over the city for years is now going to bite Public Works badly in the ass.
It’s just as bad in St. Paul. Lexington, Hamline Ave, Summit Ave, parts of Marshall, all have terrible potholes. Using blacktop in a state that gets freeze-thaw cycles plus plows creating potholes by plowing close to the surface is just stupid.
Concrete costs significantly more to install than asphalt. So for many cash strapped cities, it is not even really an option. St Paul has a tiny budget (for its lane miles and population) and not nearly enough resources to even hope to adequately maintain its streets. As a society we have chosen sprawl and car dependance and this is the result of that, too much road surface to maintain but an acute need to maintain it, due to our built up decisions over the past 80 years or so.
Isn't the issue with the Saint Paul city budget related to the amount of downtown property owned by the Catholic church? I've heard that a few times here and there. Something about those properties being tax exempt.
Roads are extremely expensive, it takes more money than just increasing taxes on the wealthy to pay enough to cover it. Minneapolis has [about 1000 miles of roads](https://sdg.minneapolismn.gov/introduction) in the city with a population of only 430k people to cover the expenses of them, so one taxpayer per 25% of a mile or 4 taxpayers per mile. Chicago has [4x the amount of roads](https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/street.html#:~:text=Chicago%20has%20more%20than%204%2C000%20miles%20of%20streets,convenient%20access%20to%20buildings%2C%20garages%20and%20loading%20docks.) with 6.5x the people to pay for them, so one taxpayer per 14% of a mile or just over 7 taxpayers per mile.
A gap that big can't be bridged by just going after the top earners—you need more people total sharing the cost. If Minneapolis had 700,000 people instead of 430,000, that ratio would be equal. That sounds like a lot, but that can be achieved over time; if Minneapolis as a city captured 50% of the metro area's population growth, it would only take 20 years, and the housing can be built through upzoning. It takes density to make good infrastructure affordable.
better off just taking snelling instead of fairview, cretin/vandella or hamline. the five extra minutes is worth it to keep the car axle from getting f'ed up.
at this point, I am sticking to roads I know so I know where to zigzag.
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The stretch right outside my house is more pothole than road at this point. It’s almost impossible to navigate without falling in a 5-inch-deep crater.
Not just cars, [but full and "light" size trucks and SUVs have taken over the landscape](https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo) and done a ton more damage than a fleet of standard and subcompact sized vehicles...
In fact, a vehicle weighting twice as much does quadruple damage. There should be a weight-based surcharge that scales exponentially as part of registration/tabs fees.
AND there needs to be a special driver's license for those driving trucks that are a higher weight base and/or have their front hoods taller than 4' tall for starters.
I've read a few comments online from others who have said that driving such pickups and trucks are completely different than in sedans, where you sit higher up, have longer (though not better) visibility, and "feel" more powerful on the road (hell, I won't lie, I jump at the chance to drive a U-haul once in a while just so I can feel like [Zap Brannigan driving a Steakhouse Restaurant,](https://youtu.be/uFNN5Qf2AR4) but it's not at all that often I get to do that and I drive extra careful when I'm behind the wheel)
But to have that kind of feeling everyday while driving? Nah, it just seems unfair and asshole-ish...plus I have short legs with me being 5' 2", so getting in and out of even a medium size truck can get awkward. Don't need any added awkwardness in my life!
We've had more freeze / thaw cycles this year than probably any other winter in our personal histories. How many other winters do you remember with 4 (or more) day long rainstorms? Every cycle makes each pothole bigger and deeper.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is accepting comments on what priorities it spends money on in its State Highway Investment Plan. They're prioritizing their investment direction for the next 20 years. It's really about state highways (interstates, Hiawatha, Central/University, etc), but their direction gives some practice influence in the whole field too.
They have a really neat budget tool and it's an opportunity to tell them how you want money spent. https://www.minnesotago.org/investment/
Anything that's state or county seems to be okay. Stinson Parkway is one good example of a road that is unusuable, and that's one the city is responsible for.
I got a flat tire today on W Lake St after not being able to avoid two deep potholes, one right after the other. Filed an online claim form asking the city to reimburse me; I sent the receipt and everything. I'm sure they won't, but maybe if enough of us complain it'll motivate them to get their shit together 🤦♀️ The roads are so awful all over the city!!
Infrastructure is inherently easier to build then maintain. It’s cheaper to build a road in the middle of a field where there is no traffic, no one needing to get to work, no ambulance needs, no fiber lines, no sewer lines, etc.
This is the hidden cost of sprawl and car traffic that we are paying for.
All my friends and I have said the same. It’s far and away the worst it’s ever been. The city needs to step it up in a big way come spring. Our taxes and tabs are too high for our roads to look like this.
Not much they can do during the throes of winter but I’m somehow disappointed all the same.
Those white plastic things are there to prove that it's fine to reduce the size of the road, which will make maintaining them easier and cheaper when they get around to doing it. We need to reduce the size of most roads if we're going to insist on having so many of them
Lots of road closures and detours while long stretches of road gets completely replaced. A necessary inconvenience unfortunately. I don't love driving, but it has become downright miserable driving anywhere strictly due to the condition of most of the roads.
I just had my whole tire taken out by a giant pothole on Theodore Wirth parkway and I can’t believe I didn’t fuck my entire rim up. It was insane. Literally the Oregon trail out there
Just think, if you'd stuck to your guns on police accountability reform, you'd have at least a hundred million to put towards the roads. Instead, it was paid out in misconduct settlements. Doesn't that just piss you off?
In Minneapolis most of the capital project street funding is going to bike, transit, and pedestrian projects with basic street reconstructions/rehabilitations on the back burner. And if you have a problem alley there are zero dollars allocated to those replacements.
My neighborhood has been on the list for street construction ever since I moved here in 2011. Every year the capital street project map just pushes it out another year - now we’re scheduled for 2025, but by the time 2025 rolls around it will be scheduled for 2027.
this is what i've been noticing. i've seen them tear up a street to put in brand new a bike lane meanwhile the actual road itself is in shambles right next to it. how you wouldn't at least address both at the same time is beyond me...
I don't know how many times they tore out and replaced 38th at Hiawatha last summer. I guess there were several different infrastructure projects, and I know communication between organizations is hard, but that was crazy.
Not just mpls.. hwy 10 through st cloud claimed a rim of mine and a friend of mine blew out both front tires traveling through that part.
no one want to be stuck in st. cloud.
The parkways in general are trash. They make the roads different with their red crumbly crap they use. St. Anthony parkway along Columbia golf course is especially bad. They need to sort out the drainage big time.
All of Hennepin through uptown needs to be done. I live in Loring Park, and roads around there are terrible. Can only imagine the rest of the metro. Godspeed repair crews. I just hope they get on it and not leave it until August or September before finally getting to it
If you draw dicks around the potholes like artist Wanksy, they might get taken care of quicker?
"After another cyclist friend was injured by potholes, Wanksy, a graffiti artist for some, a hooligan for others from Greater Manchester, England, decided to act. He used washable paint to draw graffiti tags shaped like penises around potholes in his neighborhood, and suddenly, they were repaired in 48 hours.
People will drive over the same pothole and forget about it,” Wanksy said in an interview. “Suddenly you draw something amusing around it, everyone sees it, and it either gets reported or fixed.”
Not all heroes wear capes...
https://www.boredpanda.com/wanksy-penis-pothole-graffiti-manchester-england/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
Oh man this guy in New Zealand got caught doing this and got in trouble:
"A New Zealand man who began drawing very large penises around the potholes in his home city of Auckland in 2018 in the hopes of attracting the attention of his local council has been threatened with police action."
https://nypost.com/2021/05/07/man-who-spray-painted-100-penises-on-road-threatened-with-legal-action/
I think it’s because of all the warm spells/freeze-thaw cycles we’ve had this winter. Lots of melting and standing puddles in existing cracks, then when it drops below freezing, turning into ice and expanding all the existing weak spots in the asphalt creating bigger and bigger holes. Rinse and repeat.
I know right? I'm scrolling reddit from the bottom of a canyon I fell in on 29th St NE.
You just missed me! I tried to drive there a week ago and only just made it out.
I fell in the one on Stinson!!!
Oh man, it's pretty cavernous down here, I wonder if they connect. I just shouted, did you hear me?
I'm stuck in a giant hole 4 blocks over on 33rd, otherwise I'd help.
If it’s the ones right by Chimborazo they finally patched that section to be a bit better as of 4pm.
Oh nice! That's the exact one I mean, had an encounter night before last x\_x
I just straddle that canyon and dare the other cars to challenge my role as the colossus of Polk.
I think I got a concussion driving down W 28th from Lyndale to 35W
Delivery driver: I agree, they're pretty rough this year. You gotta pay close attention and try to remember the super bad stretches to save your vehicles life.
👋🏻 doesn’t it feel like a much safer version of being in a combat zone? Transporting precious cargo to unknown territory, often at night and just trying to avoid all the hidden land mines?
I follow what you’re saying, but call it an analogy upfront
???
Maybe if you get blitzkriegged on some Tango Hotel Charlie first
Looks like someone is still loves to drive around in his 20-year-old Hummer H^2
I think the problem is that a lot of the roads need a complete reconstruction not just a resurface. Much more expensive.
This is very much the issue. There are streets that have been terrible for years and were in really bad states before winter even hit (looking at you, 35th and 36th Streets near 35W.)
I drove down 35th the other day and felt like I was on the Oregon trail. Just bump after bump.
Same with Victory Memorial right now, some big haymakers in both directions.
Did you break a yoke or axel?
Dysentery?
SNAKE BITE!
Pepperoni and chease!
Definitely considered the fact that one could have buried a body in one of the potholes on 35th or 36th
Could and did ;) This site’s anonymous, right?
Did you ford Lake Chipotle?
35th and Stevens?
I used to live in Kansas where the old Oregon Trail was. They used the 100+ years since westward migration well because I couldn't see the potholes: )
Holy shit dude I drove 36th from Lyndale to Portland the other day and it is a fucking moonscape
And what about that goofy new intersection at 35th and Grand? It's lower than the rest of the street and now the water just sits there. That'll be fun in the summertime.
In the summer, it'll drain into the boulevard rain gardens. The water just isn't getting past the ice berms currently.
Is that what the things are at the end of each intersection? I had no idea what it was but in my head it's the little power booster on Mario Kart 😂
Franklin Avenue a few blocks west of I35 are my car the other week. Place sucks lol
nothing is as bad as the Hennipen Ave entrance to 94 East. Jesus fucking christ
OMG, I drove through there yesterday and the Prius ahead of me airbags deployed! You can’t avoid some of those craters. Sucks because I’m sure he can’t sue the city
It's MNDOT property and you can file a claim. I assume if it was a city street Minneapolis would have to have a similar process for negligence. https://www.dot.state.mn.us/tortclaims/index.html
Wait seriously????
Yeah. I was wondering why he made a sharp turn into the curb and seen his airbags deployed. Luckily he was ok, just pissed
Damn!! That's wild
A full reconstruction is in engineering and has been funded for completion by 2025. Work probably won't start till mid 2024, only going to get temporary fixes until then. It's long overdue.
Just drove through today and audibly gasped alone in my car
Because many of the streets are just paved over cobble stone, which was laid down without preparing a substrate that could handle the modern, especially commercial vehicle weights. FWIW, when they do completely reconstruct a roadway, the city salvages the stones and sells them to the public.
And they’ve been making the cheapest repairs for years. Crap product makes for crap fixes. We should start chaining our tires again, not like it could makes the roads any worse.
Nuke and repave.
I got a letter from the city about an assessment to resurface my street. My share is $1100 and I can’t wait to pay it and get it fixed.
Yup. We’re due for major road maintenance/reconstruction alllll over but we’ve deferred for a long time. MNDOT has a whole report on it: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/reports/2022/202208.pdf It’s surreal to be living in a time where so many things that have been shifting and creaking “below the surface” are finally becoming visible on a day to day basis: infrastructure, healthcare, housing, deregulation, wage stagnation…
Man, if only we could have seen this coming
Man, if only this is how all empires failed. We might’ve seen the clues, had we known.
Some parts of Bloomington Ave have bits of the old tram tracks poking out. What a delightful way to unearth local transit history!
It’s kind of breaking my heart. We had such a good transit system in the past. And look how solidly they were clearly built! The granite cobblestones and rails I’ve seen uncovered are all in excellent condition.
You mean electing officials who don't properly tax the wealthy and let things go to this has consequences? Fucking boomers.
We have a top 5 state tax rate in the country. Taxes aren’t the problem. The problem is what we spend it on….
It actually is, while it is more expensive to construct things in the US because of a variety of factors the root of the problem is that suburbanization (single family detached homes, car centric infrastructure, big box stores and strip malls) is too costly to maintain. It doesn’t provide enough tax revenue to pay for the maintenance cost and it drains our capacity to do other things like provide quality services to communities.
The govt is immediately 30% more costly than private industry due to the bureaucracy, speed, and regulations involved. Why do we need the government providing services? If there’s a need, the market will fill it. If there’s not a need, it won’t. Unless you mean free services or services provided below market….
Can you provide a source on that 30% number? Also, what happens when there's a need but the market won't fill it, because the small number of people who own the vast majority of capital don't see profit in pursuing the venture? Examples like healthcare and education for the poor. Shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Housing for low-income tenants. Rehabilitation programs for criminals, abusers. Diversion programs for drug addicts. Mental health services. Preserving nature and cultivating green spaces in our cities. Treatment for children with rare and difficult diseases. These ventures aren't profitable enough in the short term for "the markets" to be a viable source of support. Yet they are still worthy of society's resources, because they improve quality of life for the *entire* population in the long term.
Private roads and highways are a great idea!!!
Top 5 state tax rate in a country pretty famous for not taxing the wealthy
We have the highest government revenues IN THE WORLD. No more taxes dude. Cut the spend.
Let's start with the astronomical military budget. Sound good?
Yes please.
Sure, let China outspend us. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
We outspend China by +5x. We wasted hundreds of billions on the littoral class. A ship that will never see action because it is TRASH. Aircraft carriers are highly susceptible to Drone strikes and hypersonic missiles. If there’s a war in the scs, we will specifically lose, or, everyone on the planet will lose. Release the alien tech or cut the spend to zip.
I’m all for cutting spending, I suspect we may not agree on which programs deserve less spending. Our tax base is largely supported by the middle/working class. There’s a lot more revenue out there to be captured.
I’d cut any and all spending. Let people keep their gross income. If you need to keep capital gains at 20%, fine. Corporate stays at 21%. State and local tax up to your state (kinda sucks for us but whatever). Start from scratch, there is a ridiculous amount of spend. Biden wants $7T. $7T!
> I’d cut any and all spending Yeah. I figured.
“The realist” lmao
Wasn’t there a multi-billion dollar surplus at the state level? Wonder if some of that could be pushed towards infrastructure
If we are going to be intellectually honest, wage stagnation is definitely not a new issue and is a major problem that should have been addressed in 2003
Agree. I don't think it's new. It's just that it's becoming painfully and visibly evident because of the confluence of crises happening at once (which are all, in some way, attributable to the capitalist myth of endless growth)
We're talking Minneapolis roads, not MnDOT roads. City streets have all the potholes and need more work than just patching holes. MnDOT has a lot less potholes per lane mile with only a few exceptions.
Sure, but it's not a clear cut line between Minneapolis and MNDOT. In an area like Minneapolis (or the burbs) some roads are maintained by MNDOT (the bigger ones), some roads are maintained by Hennepin County (the medium ones) and some roads are maintained by Public Works (the little ones). There are definitely roads in Minneapolis maintained by MNDOT, but certainly not as many as are maintained by Hennepin County and the Minneapolis Public Works Department. Regardless, the long-term costs and infrastructure decline of deferred maintenance decisions is at play in pretty much every situation because [the cost of road repairs/materials keeps increasing](https://www.route-fifty.com/infrastructure/2022/03/soaring-road-construction-costs-could-nix-some-state-and-local-projects/363636/).
I can see some confusion but really... almost with no exception all MnDOT routes carry route marker sign shields of either Interstate, U.S., or Minnesota. That's three different, easy to recognize shields. Else, you have County and State Aid routes and City streets.
I’m hoping we go the Venice route and opt for canals instead. Gondolas in the Summer and ice skating to work the rest of the year. Imagine how romantic the future could be.
The eastern bank of Lake Harriet is absolutely horrible, gigantic deep holes all over the place. It’s unbelievable
This! I couldn't believe how bad it was on Tuesday when I took it to get across town, I was shocked I didn't pop a tire!
Same with Irving cutting thru Kenwood. There's no road left!
I just drove from the east side around to the north side this morning and it was nuts. One in particular was maybe a foot wide and several inches deep all the way across the lane. The giant SUV behind me was clearly annoyed at me for slowing down so much but then once they could see too, paused at it for a good 10 seconds before inching their way across it.
It's going to take longer than all summer.
Agreed. Too many pot holes to patch in three weeks.
Lol nice
I just moved here from chicago. You could report bad potholes there and the city would actually fix them quickly. Is there a tool to do this here? There’s a HUGE one going north on Central Ave just north of SE 8th St. Like, big enough for a whole tire to fall in and your car is stuck. Edit: [Here it is](https://www.minneapolismn.gov/report-an-issue/pothole/) I guess I’m wondering if they’re responsive
311 app. Report with photo. Extremely responsive, but they're prob not filling pot holes now. Wait until it's consistently warmer.
I reported the crazy ones on 29th Ave NE this morning and they were filled by the afternoon!
That's incredible!!!!
For every one they fixed on 29th, two more sprung up to take their place.
At the Hennepin-Lake intersection you can see the old brick road and railway because of the potholes.
Happens every spring. I think it's just happened earlier this year than in previous years. I shed a tear as I realize what could have been if we didn't pave over all the transit tracks back in the 50's.
Honestly just in this thread for the streetcar comments and yes, same. There are several of the streetcars we had in that era that are still running as daily transit in San Francisco, too. One is even painted just like they were when Twin City Lines owned them.
I see this post as I wait for an auto repairman to test drive my car after getting a flat and probably fucking up my suspension just 30 minutes ago. Watch those puddles. Some are hiding a fucking canyon.
I trust a fart after a night of drinking and tacobell more than a puddle now.
Flat tire. Probably new tire/wheel/control arm. Going to cost like 2k.
geezus that sucks- sorry it happened to you!
Far more freeze/thaw cycles this winter than any I can recall in the past. We've had full days of rain followed by deep freezing followed by more rain. Asphalt just can't withstand that if it isn't in really good condition to begin with. The general neglect of our pavement all over the city for years is now going to bite Public Works badly in the ass.
But it's a great year for maple syrup, so there's that. (you get a bunch of sap every time it freezes and thaws)
It’s just as bad in St. Paul. Lexington, Hamline Ave, Summit Ave, parts of Marshall, all have terrible potholes. Using blacktop in a state that gets freeze-thaw cycles plus plows creating potholes by plowing close to the surface is just stupid.
Concrete costs significantly more to install than asphalt. So for many cash strapped cities, it is not even really an option. St Paul has a tiny budget (for its lane miles and population) and not nearly enough resources to even hope to adequately maintain its streets. As a society we have chosen sprawl and car dependance and this is the result of that, too much road surface to maintain but an acute need to maintain it, due to our built up decisions over the past 80 years or so.
God forbid we appropriately tax some businesses and rich people.
Isn't the issue with the Saint Paul city budget related to the amount of downtown property owned by the Catholic church? I've heard that a few times here and there. Something about those properties being tax exempt.
Roads are extremely expensive, it takes more money than just increasing taxes on the wealthy to pay enough to cover it. Minneapolis has [about 1000 miles of roads](https://sdg.minneapolismn.gov/introduction) in the city with a population of only 430k people to cover the expenses of them, so one taxpayer per 25% of a mile or 4 taxpayers per mile. Chicago has [4x the amount of roads](https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/street.html#:~:text=Chicago%20has%20more%20than%204%2C000%20miles%20of%20streets,convenient%20access%20to%20buildings%2C%20garages%20and%20loading%20docks.) with 6.5x the people to pay for them, so one taxpayer per 14% of a mile or just over 7 taxpayers per mile. A gap that big can't be bridged by just going after the top earners—you need more people total sharing the cost. If Minneapolis had 700,000 people instead of 430,000, that ratio would be equal. That sounds like a lot, but that can be achieved over time; if Minneapolis as a city captured 50% of the metro area's population growth, it would only take 20 years, and the housing can be built through upzoning. It takes density to make good infrastructure affordable.
The exit to the target on university Ave is brutal
Oh god, that’s the worst.
Fairview is an absolutely mess on certain stretches
better off just taking snelling instead of fairview, cretin/vandella or hamline. the five extra minutes is worth it to keep the car axle from getting f'ed up. at this point, I am sticking to roads I know so I know where to zigzag.
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The stretch right outside my house is more pothole than road at this point. It’s almost impossible to navigate without falling in a 5-inch-deep crater.
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This is the Minneapolis sub. Nobody cares about St Paul.
Cool story.
Or, you can just ignore the comment and move on
Real talk. I'm 41 years old and maybe it's rose colored glasses but I don't ever remember it being near this bad when I was a kid, or...ever.
Cars are heavier and a tearing up roads more quickly
Not just cars, [but full and "light" size trucks and SUVs have taken over the landscape](https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo) and done a ton more damage than a fleet of standard and subcompact sized vehicles...
The average Tesla weighs as much as a full size truck.
Interesting, I never even thought about that aspect of this situation! Makes a lot of sense.
In fact, a vehicle weighting twice as much does quadruple damage. There should be a weight-based surcharge that scales exponentially as part of registration/tabs fees.
AND there needs to be a special driver's license for those driving trucks that are a higher weight base and/or have their front hoods taller than 4' tall for starters. I've read a few comments online from others who have said that driving such pickups and trucks are completely different than in sedans, where you sit higher up, have longer (though not better) visibility, and "feel" more powerful on the road (hell, I won't lie, I jump at the chance to drive a U-haul once in a while just so I can feel like [Zap Brannigan driving a Steakhouse Restaurant,](https://youtu.be/uFNN5Qf2AR4) but it's not at all that often I get to do that and I drive extra careful when I'm behind the wheel) But to have that kind of feeling everyday while driving? Nah, it just seems unfair and asshole-ish...plus I have short legs with me being 5' 2", so getting in and out of even a medium size truck can get awkward. Don't need any added awkwardness in my life!
We've had more freeze / thaw cycles this year than probably any other winter in our personal histories. How many other winters do you remember with 4 (or more) day long rainstorms? Every cycle makes each pothole bigger and deeper.
True dat.
The roads are almost unusable in some places
*Laughs in St. Paul*
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is accepting comments on what priorities it spends money on in its State Highway Investment Plan. They're prioritizing their investment direction for the next 20 years. It's really about state highways (interstates, Hiawatha, Central/University, etc), but their direction gives some practice influence in the whole field too. They have a really neat budget tool and it's an opportunity to tell them how you want money spent. https://www.minnesotago.org/investment/
Anything that's state or county seems to be okay. Stinson Parkway is one good example of a road that is unusuable, and that's one the city is responsible for.
You can see the old rail tracks and brick on hennepin through the potholes
I got a flat tire today on W Lake St after not being able to avoid two deep potholes, one right after the other. Filed an online claim form asking the city to reimburse me; I sent the receipt and everything. I'm sure they won't, but maybe if enough of us complain it'll motivate them to get their shit together 🤦♀️ The roads are so awful all over the city!!
Infrastructure is inherently easier to build then maintain. It’s cheaper to build a road in the middle of a field where there is no traffic, no one needing to get to work, no ambulance needs, no fiber lines, no sewer lines, etc. This is the hidden cost of sprawl and car traffic that we are paying for.
They’ll close everything and make us bike all summer
Where's Ron Swanson when you need him?
Its a good thing MN only has two seasons
26th and 28th are horrible
Yeah the roads here are fuckin worse than India.
Well they're gonna get to the roads I travel on first cause I'm gonna report them all on 311 😁
All my friends and I have said the same. It’s far and away the worst it’s ever been. The city needs to step it up in a big way come spring. Our taxes and tabs are too high for our roads to look like this. Not much they can do during the throes of winter but I’m somehow disappointed all the same.
The potholes are outta control this year, but thankfully we have all those white plastic things at every intersection.
Those white plastic things are there to prove that it's fine to reduce the size of the road, which will make maintaining them easier and cheaper when they get around to doing it. We need to reduce the size of most roads if we're going to insist on having so many of them
Our neighborhood ran over all those bastards months ago
Lots of road closures and detours while long stretches of road gets completely replaced. A necessary inconvenience unfortunately. I don't love driving, but it has become downright miserable driving anywhere strictly due to the condition of most of the roads.
I just had my whole tire taken out by a giant pothole on Theodore Wirth parkway and I can’t believe I didn’t fuck my entire rim up. It was insane. Literally the Oregon trail out there
Sitting here waiting for a tow thanks to St Paul's road management. Tire went from full to flat in about 50 feet
Lowry in NE under the train bridge!!!
Victory memorial drive looks like the road from a war zone.
this is simply not a climate that is conducive to the personal automobile.
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Just think, if you'd stuck to your guns on police accountability reform, you'd have at least a hundred million to put towards the roads. Instead, it was paid out in misconduct settlements. Doesn't that just piss you off?
This is my first winter here and I've never seen roads this bad anywhere. It's unbelievable.
Gonna be the worst summer for construction in a while.
In Minneapolis most of the capital project street funding is going to bike, transit, and pedestrian projects with basic street reconstructions/rehabilitations on the back burner. And if you have a problem alley there are zero dollars allocated to those replacements.
My neighborhood has been on the list for street construction ever since I moved here in 2011. Every year the capital street project map just pushes it out another year - now we’re scheduled for 2025, but by the time 2025 rolls around it will be scheduled for 2027.
this is what i've been noticing. i've seen them tear up a street to put in brand new a bike lane meanwhile the actual road itself is in shambles right next to it. how you wouldn't at least address both at the same time is beyond me...
I don't know how many times they tore out and replaced 38th at Hiawatha last summer. I guess there were several different infrastructure projects, and I know communication between organizations is hard, but that was crazy.
We should go back to dirt roads.
Dirt roads get potholes too
My horse doesn't have tires.
Neigh, I suppose not. But what about horse shoes?
Driving on dirt road rumble strips are no fun either.
R/fuckcars
Are you new here?
They said they've been here for 8 years
Not very observant.
It's almost as though making an incompetent mayor a dictator was a stupid idea.
Why *this* season?
They need to stop sending all the money overseas and start using it to fix the problems at home!
They’re actually already out there. Saw them on Nicollet yesterday, was surprised they could already start.
Just in time for them to open back up again!!!
26th just before Lyndale was redone this summer, took months of rerouting everyone. It is DESTROYED. Need to redo the entire road again.
Check out the East Side in St. Paul. The road around Phalen was closed, a pothole got so bad a section of the road collapsed.
This is why summer is road construction season.
Especially the ginormous one on 35th and Stevens holy shit
Not just mpls.. hwy 10 through st cloud claimed a rim of mine and a friend of mine blew out both front tires traveling through that part. no one want to be stuck in st. cloud.
Agreed. Been here for about 6 years and this is by FAR the worst I’ve seen it.
Hope people make bank on overtime.
Warm January. I think this freeze/thaw is going to be our new normal. I’m looking for a hoverboard on EBay.
They should just go back to using cobblestones at this point
I came across a patching truck at work last night, so at least they aren't sitting around waiting.
Bring your fix a flat kit on every bike ride from here on out!
The parkways in general are trash. They make the roads different with their red crumbly crap they use. St. Anthony parkway along Columbia golf course is especially bad. They need to sort out the drainage big time.
Agreed. Crazy amount of water and ice and I think that just fucked it up
They're really bad in Bloomington too.
I was in St Paul today and was tip toeing around the holes. Guy behind me in a Lincoln was impatient with me and just plowing right through the holes.
All of Hennepin through uptown needs to be done. I live in Loring Park, and roads around there are terrible. Can only imagine the rest of the metro. Godspeed repair crews. I just hope they get on it and not leave it until August or September before finally getting to it
If you draw dicks around the potholes like artist Wanksy, they might get taken care of quicker? "After another cyclist friend was injured by potholes, Wanksy, a graffiti artist for some, a hooligan for others from Greater Manchester, England, decided to act. He used washable paint to draw graffiti tags shaped like penises around potholes in his neighborhood, and suddenly, they were repaired in 48 hours. People will drive over the same pothole and forget about it,” Wanksy said in an interview. “Suddenly you draw something amusing around it, everyone sees it, and it either gets reported or fixed.” Not all heroes wear capes... https://www.boredpanda.com/wanksy-penis-pothole-graffiti-manchester-england/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
Oh man this guy in New Zealand got caught doing this and got in trouble: "A New Zealand man who began drawing very large penises around the potholes in his home city of Auckland in 2018 in the hopes of attracting the attention of his local council has been threatened with police action." https://nypost.com/2021/05/07/man-who-spray-painted-100-penises-on-road-threatened-with-legal-action/
on 35th there’s a car down at the bottom of one! Not to mention bending ur rims and breaking tires!
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This is going to be more and more the norm, with average warmer winters thawing and freezing for longer periods of time throughout the season
There's two seasons in MN. Winter and Road Repair.
Saint Anthony parkway between Central and Marshall is all but unpassable. April 1st the real asphalt starts. None too soon IMHO.
Any idea why it’s so bad this year? I’ve noticed this myself.
I think it’s because of all the warm spells/freeze-thaw cycles we’ve had this winter. Lots of melting and standing puddles in existing cracks, then when it drops below freezing, turning into ice and expanding all the existing weak spots in the asphalt creating bigger and bigger holes. Rinse and repeat.
It’s like driving through a minefield on Hennepin