The State Fair is on the wane, so Roadguy is a little late to the party with this post, but a few transpo-related notes:

I’ve been a longtime fan of the free park-and-ride lots on the U of M’s East Bank, where one can catch a bus (also free) that runs down the funky transitway to the St. Paul campus and the fair. Much has been made in the past about how these lots never fill up, so earlier this week, I was quite surprised to encounter a “LOT FULL” sign. Lacking a backup plan, I hastily phoned a few friends who live near the fairgrounds and parked in a co-worker’s driveway. (Left my key with him, as I parked behind an earlier arrival.) The whole episode reminded me that I need to come up with a new plan for fair transport in the future: The U’s new football stadium will soon replace the park-and-ride site.

At the fair, there was some road-related happiness:

Roadguy desperately needed a new Minnesota highway map, which was free. Also available for the taking in the MnDOT area: Fun retro postcards of Minnesota’s transpo past, state bike maps, a brochure explaining the parking garages behind Target Center (complete with a picture of the fairy godmother of carpooling), and paper conehead hats that are, of course, orange. (Somewhere, someone is probably giving away actual orange cones, considering there isn’t enough money to put them to use.)

The MnDOT exhibit is on Judson Avenue between Empire Commons (the building with the butterheads) and the River Raft Ride of Doom. For a map of the fairgrounds, click here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Good to know. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.