Here’s Roadguy’s column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve already read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below. Thanks.

3 ROADS, 2 CITIES, 2 COUNTIES, ZERO STOPLIGHTS

Alert reader Nanette has a question about an intersection that she’d like to see improved:

How does one ask for a traffic light to be installed? Every workday, I go through the intersection of Century Avenue and Valley Creek/Lower Afton Road in Maplewood/Woodbury. …

It’s currently a four-way stop but is incredibly dangerous. … It also gets quite crowded and backed up during afternoon drive time. Do you know how to find out if there are any plans for a traffic light at that intersection? And if not, how would I ask for one?

Roadguy was a little daunted by this question, because the intersection involves three roads, two cities and two counties. Where to begin?

Fortunately, he began with Chuck Ahl, Maplewood’s city engineer, who knew the answer: A traffic signal is already on the way. Design work has begun, and construction is expected to begin next year and finish up in 2009.

And if Nanette had wanted to request a stoplight, where should she have gone?

Ahl says City Hall is your best place to start, even if county roads are involved. “In my experience, the request for a signal needs to start at the local level in order for the state or county to begin their review process,” he said.

BUS BENCHES BUT NO BUS?

Alert reader Jeff says there’s a former bus route near his house, and he wonders about the benches: Why are the benches still in place, creating advertising blight? (I rarely ever see folks sitting on them for any reason.)

The benches are part of a deal between the bench company and the city of Minneapolis. Metro Transit says it keeps both parties informed about route changes but isn’t directly involved.

The bench contract expires in 2009, and the city is looking to upgrade all of its “street furniture,” which includes such things as benches, bus shelters and trash cans. The public’s views will be sought, so Jeff should keep his eye out for an open house at which to offer his thoughts.

SNOW: DO IT YOURSELF?

Last week’s column mentioned that people serving community-service sentences sometimes shovel snow out of bus stops. Mike Kennedy, snow removal guru for Minneapolis, wrote to Roadguy to point out that while the shovelers aren’t paid, the city does have some costs, such as supervision.

Meanwhile, alert reader Dolly, a cheerful citizen of New Prague, phoned in this bus-stop suggestion:

Why don’t they just put a shovel there and say “help yourself,” and people can just shovel as they come to the bus stop? Make the shovel a beautiful, bright color that nobody should steal because everybody would know that it’s stolen.

No matter what the shovels looked like, Roadguy imagines that they would have to be chained up or they’d disappear. But given that no one is responsible for clearing out many bus stops, Dolly’s plan might be better than none.

Here’s Roadguy’s column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve already read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below. Thanks.

SHOVELING YOUR WAY OUT OF TROUBLE

Who should shovel out Twin Cities bus stops? After reading last week’s column, alert reader Jeff from Brooklyn Park had an idea:

How about getting those offenders that are sentenced to community service [to do] the shoveling at the bus stops? It would get the snow shoveled and wouldn’t cost “us” anything.

By sheer coincidence, Roadguy received an e-mail two days later from another Jeff from Brooklyn Park:

I just finished a couple days of community service for Hennepin County. The days were spent cleaning snow around the bus stop signs. We would clean about three feet on either side of the sign.

When passengers would exit the bus, we could see that they were pleased with what we were doing. Just a little something to pass on to your readers about their tax dollars at work.

(Roadguy called both Jeffs and learned that Jeff No. 2 was working off a transportation-related penalty: He’d gotten a DUI.)

Mike Kennedy, who is not named Jeff, is in charge of snow removal for Minneapolis, and he says that community-service crews do snow removal work at bus stops and intersections around town.

But who shovels in, say, certain suburbs? Alert reader Peter wants to know:

It took a whole week from when the snow started falling for Columbia Heights personnel (presumably) to clear snow from the [bus] stop for people going downtown.

Peter has put his foot right in the middle of the slushy mishmash of Twin Cities shoveling. Bus stops are not part of Columbia Heights’ snow-removal plan, said public works director Lauren McClanahan, though the city will clear some of them if it’s finished with other priorities.

Metro Transit, meanwhile, clears many shelters but doesn’t do stops, while some shelters are shoveled out by private companies that sell advertising on them. Private firms also handle ad-covered benches, which have a phone number you can call about snow or other problems.

And bike racks? Yes, in our snowy metropolis, someone asked about unshoveled bike racks at the 38th Street light-rail station. Bob Gibbons of Metro Transit says that during the first snowstorms, there was some confusion involving a contractor, and that from now on the bicycle rack areas will be shoveled.

THE LAST WORD ON PLATES

Roadguy is more than ready to stop talking about license plates, but some alert readers aren’t quite there yet.

A few vehicle owners with the letters F and S in their plates wrote in because they were mystified to read that those letters aren’t used in randomly assigned plates. To clarify: The letters weren’t taken out of rotation until late 2005.

And for those of you eager to get your new flat digitally produced plates (or obtain a final set of embossed ones), the state folks say the transition will happen early next year. Digital plates will first be available by mail, then appear at the 173 deputy registrar offices in spring or summer as shipments are made.

A couple of alert readers (TruckerBiker and Stephen Gross) alerted Roadguy to this blurb in the most recent New York Times magazine. It tells of how UPS has figured out a way to eliminate many left turns from drivers’ routes, saving all kinds of time, and it mentions that the company’s mapping software has saved it about 3 million gallons of fuel.

Roadguy knows that there are a few painfully long left-turn signals he’s avoided, though he didn’t really do so to save gas. If there’s a Left Turn of Doom you avoid, or if you employ creative strategies to keep your car moving, let us know below.

If meteorologists are to be believed, the snow will start tomorrow and whiten our highways, sidewalks and bike paths for many, many hours. Roadguy wants to know whether you’ll be partaking in any transportation over the weekend, and if so, what your survival strategy will be. And if you venture out and have a good story, please do come back here and share it.

Also, for something a little different, Roadguy wants your best guess as to the snowfall total. Guesses (in tenths of an inch) will be accepted in the comments section until noon Saturday; we’ll use the airport’s total at noon Sunday as our official number, and Roadguy will try to come up with some sort of prize (he said, glancing around his desk for something easy to mail).

Contest caveats:

• One guess per alert reader, and one alert reader per amount. The first alert reader to guess 3.2 inches, for example, gets to keep it. (We might run out of reasonable amounts, but hey, early bird gets the worm.)
• Be sure to use a real e-mail address when posting. (It’s not made public — I just need to be able to contact you.)
• No entries from anyone who’s met Roadguy in person — it’s the only way I can keep my mom and dad from participating.

Also, a reminder to keep alert for snow emergencies — it’s always good to know when the parking regulations kick in. The city of Minneapolis home page is here, St. Paul’s is here.

Good luck out there.

Roadguy didn’t have much time to think about blogging today because he was writing this story about the perhaps-not-temporary lanes that have been added to I-94 just east of downtown Minneapolis.

The story makes mention of lane control signals, which reminded Roadguy of a question he received the other day from semi-alert reader Ben:

I went to Brainerd this holiday weekend. Can you tell me what the red and green arrows are on 94 by Albertville? I’ve always wondered what the lights and the additional lanes are for. Thanks.

Ben really wants this question answered — he tried to ask it three different times on posts about unrelated topics, gave Roadguy an e-mail address that didn’t work, then got snippy when Roadguy didn’t respond within two days.

But Roadguy tries not to hold grudges, and he’s pretty sure that Ben is referring to this:

It’s the Minnesota Road Research Station run by MnDOT. The lane signals can be used to direct vehicles over whatever pavement they want to have traffic on; there’s a bunch more information on the website.

The research facility doesn’t seem to generate as much affection as the new lanes on I-94, but if you have thoughts about either stretch of expanded pavement, please do share them below.

The free electronics recycling event that was causing traffic jams near the Mall of America is over, a day and a half early; news story here.

Around noon, Roadguy got this e-mail from alert reader John:

I happened to drive past the Mall of America about 11 a.m. The traffic trying to get in to the free recycling was backed up all the way along 24th Ave. to I-494, then east on I-494 over 1/2 mile, and west on I-494 about 1/4 mile.

In addition, Killebrew was backed up west past the mall, then down the entrance ramp onto Cedar. It looks like a lot of people had the same idea at the same time, and are trying to save some money in the process.

Roadguy probably has some electronic items that need to be disposed of, but after reading John’s e-mail and watching James Lileks’ latest video for buzz.mn, he had already decided he probably wouldn’t bother with this event. Turned out to be a wise choice.