A late summer bus and LRT strike?

Put a transit strike on your short-term list of worries. Metro Transit workers resoundingly rejected a new contract and could walk out by mid-August, WCCO's Liz Collin reports. It wasn't close; 95 percent said no. The current contract expires July 31, but there's a 10-day cooling-off period, Collin notes. The strike could coincide with the State Fair and GOP convention; 2004's walkout lasted 45 days. More details on the issues, please.

My comment posted on http://anti-strib.com

Biking didn't fit my work schedule well. I live less than a half mile from the light rail station so when I go downtown I tend to take a bike. It's 3.5 miles to downtown Minneapolis and I can do it low traffic on a bike until the Metrodome. I tend to use the a bike for short trips like to the video stroe or the neighborhood Riverview Theater. Mostly exercise and parking, the distances are short so I don't save a lot of gas. Trip consolidation actually saves more gas than bicycling. Bicycling is mostly for exercise but with the time it takes I don't drive as much and that saves gas.
Off subject but here is an interesting display on natural gas used for generating electricity by state. In the US this has doubled in the last decade so now more natural gas is used for electricity than for residential and smaller business use. Natural gas is expected to increase by more than half this winter so expect heating gas heating costs to increase by at least half. Fortunately Minnesota doesn't yet use much natural gas for electricity. Here is the link. http://www.americaspower.org/The-Facts







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There were large numbers of people taking the LRT to Downtown fireworks

I noticed this while bicycling this evening. The Twins had an evening game at the Metrodome. The St. Anthony Falls fireworks should have been very visable from the Metrodome or it was a few blocks to the River. I'd guess that the light rail would have been exceptionally busy after the fireworks ended.







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