Downtown Cloquet befriends walkers

Downtown Cloquet has seen some significant improvements to its roads, sidewalks and traffic signals over the past couple of years.

The roads have been repaved, sidewalks were updated, and bike lanes were installed.

Major efforts have been made to increase the “walkability” of downtown, to encourage people to walk around downtown safely and efficiently.

The new traffic signals along Cloquet Avenue are modernized with audio tone push buttons and an electronic voice that tells you when to walk and when to stay put. The “walk” signals have been timed to make it easier and safer for pedestrians, including those using wheelchairs, walkers and canes.

The signals at 10th Street make crossing Cloquet Avenue easier for pedestrians in the center of downtown. The “walk” signal is dependent on the pedestrian pushing the “walk” button.

The cameras you see jutting from the top of the traffic signals don’t record — they are for monitoring and for emergency vehicles, which have strobe lights that activate the traffic signals in their favor, increasing safety.

According to Cloquet’s assistant city engineer John Anderson, these new safety features are part of the overall Cloquet Avenue restructuring process, paid for by the city’s sales tax and Minnesota Department of Transportation grants intended to improve local traffic.

It sometimes seems the new signals make us wait when no one is coming, and the bike lanes haven’t seen much traffic since they were installed last fall. But sometimes modernization takes some getting used to, and we hope the improvements are embraced by the downtown community as a positive development.