Transportation

We believe St. Anthony Park has the potential to be an almost car-free environment, given our walkable blocks and healthy business districts. We encourage use of alternatives to driving:

Walking
Biking
Buses and light rail
Car sharing (such as HourCar), including the new Evie electric car-sharing service

In our Drop a Car campaign, we've shown households how to rely more on those alternatives. We co-led how-to workshops through Minneapolis Community Education and with Transition Twin Cities.

With the SAP Community Council, we advocated in 2019 for a progressive redesign of a mile-long stretch of Cleveland Avenue. We envisioned a street with more buses, bikers, and walkers, fewer private cars, and no parking lane (shown here). Designs like this would nudge us to change our behavior. See our column Building the Future in a Street in the Park Bugle.

We joined with SAPCC and the Friendly Streets Initiative on the Raymond Avenue rebuild in 2017 for more bike and pedestrian features, and we continue to work with SAP Elementary on Safe Routes to School on Como and Raymond Avenues.

We support the St. Paul Bike Plan, which will better connect St. Anthony Park to the U of M Transitway and Pierce Butler Route. It will also improve bikeability along Como and Raymond Avenues (part of Grand Rounds) and along Cleveland Avenue through the University campus.

Our "Meet the Bike" groups cycled to the Stone Arch Bridge, Como Lake, and the YOXO toy factory. At "Meet the Bus" events, we showed neighbors how to ride to spots like Hampden Park Co-op and Surly Brewing. And before St. Paul switched to its single-hauler-per-neighborhood system, we helped cut the number of trash haulers in St. Anthony Park. Other projects of interest:

Discussing the impacts of our transportation choices: see "The true costs," below
Creating more outdoor benches or landscape seating to encourage seniors (and everyone) to walk more

The true costs of our long-distance travel choices

Read Michael Russelle's article in the Park Bugle, "The Fare Isn't the Only Cost in Travel," to compare the carbon costs of plane, train, bus, and car travel. We can all shrink our impact by planning how to offset that carbon debt. If we enlist buddies to help us, we spread awareness at the same time. (For source info, see the reference list as a PDF.)

Our projects largely overlap with the SAP Community Council's Transportation Committee. Recently that group worked with neighbors in the Territorial-Raymond area to improve its safety and outdoor enjoyability, adding new sidewalks, benches, crosswalks, and murals. One big benefit: it's now easier to walk or roll from Seal Hi-Rise to Raymond Station. The story started with a sidewalk: download the whole visual overview as a PDF here.

Want to join this committee of public-spirited folks? You'll learn how cities work, and how they can change. The group meets on Zoom the last Tuesday of every month, 7:00–8:30 pm. Email jessica@sapcc.org for the link.

In the neighborhood's Fourth of July parade, we often boost climate-friendly transportation options

Transit routes in the neighborhood

Green Line: Frequent light rail service along University Avenue through South St. Anthony Park, connecting to both downtowns, the U of M, Midway, and more. Stations in Westgate and east of Raymond.

3 bus: Generally 10-minute intervals along Como Avenue, connecting to both downtowns.

87 bus: north-south connector from Rosedale mall to Highland Park Village along Cleveland and Raymond Avenues with a stop at the Green Line.

30 bus: Service from Como Avenue along Highway 280 to and from the Westgate Green Line station, with connections through Northeast (including the Quarry shopping area) and North Minneapolis to Golden Valley.

63 bus: Service from the Westgate and Raymond Green Line stations to businesses along Grand Avenue, ending in downtown St. Paul.

67 bus: Service from the Blue Line station at Franklin Avenue to downtown St. Paul via Minnehaha Avenue (near Hamline University) with a stop at the Raymond Green Line station.