Alert reader Froggie was in town this week, and he e-mailed to inform Roadguy that he’d be hanging out at the Minnesota Department of Transportation library. Never having ventured into the granite-and-marble headquarters building, Roadguy jumped at the opportunity to tag along, so he headed over to St. Paul yesterday afternoon. Here’s a photographic look at his transportation pilgrimage.

First, he encountered this outside MnDOT’s front door:

Nobody loves barricades and fresh concrete more than MnDOT.

Just inside, there’s another nod to construction:

This is a memorial to those who have lost their lives while building Minnesota’s transportation infrastructure. The missing final piece at the top represents their absence.

Several yards away, in the main lobby, there’s more art, this time with an automotive theme:

Called “Car Cube,” this bronze sculpture was created in 2004 by a St. Paul artist named Irve Dell. Behind its safety-glass windows are images of a suspension bridge, a horse-drawn carriage, and a large snail following a semi truck.

Upstairs, near the library, the art was a bit more literal:

Roadguy might try to make that into wallpaper for his laptop (you can, too – a 1280-pixel version is here.)

After finally finding his way into the library, Roadguy introduced himself to Froggie, who had set up camp with his laptop, his camera and his external hard drive. Froggie has amassed more than 30,000 images during his research and his travels, so he needs the extra capacity — if you peruse his enormous website, you’ll understand why he might be transportation secretary someday.

A few friendly librarians asked me if I needed any help, but I let Froggie give me the general lay of the land, and I quickly understood how a transportation fanatic could spend entire days amid the shelves.

There are volumes of things that didn’t happen…

… things that probably should’ve happened …

(This very early rendering for the Hiawatha light-rail line shows it passing below grade at 46th Street. Could planners have been worried that frequent trains would mess up traffic? Nah….)

… and things that we’re still working on:

A little light reading about 35W, anyone?

The library also has piles of videotapes. There are how-to presentations …

… seasonal favorites …

… and …

Roadguy didn’t have time for tai chi, but he did find some magazines that might make good gift ideas. If you’re tired of, say, Entertainment Weekly, there’s always …

Back in the dark ages before GPS, there were paper maps, and MnDOT has plenty of those. This one, for example, gives daily average traffic counts for spots all over Minneapolis …

… while this official state highway map from 1937 …

… tries to lure motorists with the prospect of a little eye candy.

Back at the bookshelves, this volume from the early 1970s captured Roadguy’s attention:

The authors made all sorts of recommendations, including this: “The driver and his passengers should be presented with a sequential and unfolding flow of attractive images.” Perhaps they were thinking of Highway 280, where the industrial landscape cascades delicately from one neighborhood to the next?

Speaking of unfolding images, MnDOT has a vast online library (accessible only on the premises) of videos that were shot along hundreds of miles of state highways. Froggie, who is quite handy with a mouse, took me for a spin:

It was kind of addictive — one can “drive” for hours in complete safety and not burn a drop of gas. Of course, as we discovered, there are some annoyances that even a virtual tour can’t avoid:

Yes, that white car on the right contains a Moron, cluelessly driving along on the shoulder of 35W. This behavior went on for quite some time – just like it does in the real world.

After a couple of hours in the peaceful and pleasant library, the real world was starting to fill me with dread, but the time had come to return to it. I thanked Froggie profusely for sharing a few bits of his vast knowledge.

I also grabbed a few souvenirs: a copy of the 2007 MnDOT research calendar…

… and some trading cards of MnDOT projects:

I also did notice, at one staffer’s desk…

… more of those mini traffic cones. Oh, how they taunt Roadguy. He again managed to behave this time. But perhaps on his next trip to the Temple of Transportation, he’ll bring a bigger bag.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 6:10 am and is filed under Good to know, Scenes and stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.