urbanMSP

But it seems as though the Eden Prairie Town Center Station will have no access to the north (Costco direction)? Really unfortunate if that remains the case, a situation that calls for some political pressure.

I last posted my MSP transit map two years ago , but I've been working on it again a bit recently and wanted to share some of the progress. The main design changes are that the METRO lines were doubled in thickness (while not sounding like much, I had to redraw almost all of the downtown areas to ma...

... but I'm glad that this will show that transit projects can be built on time and under budget.

They can, if it's a road project!

Probably belongs in the fantasy category but wouldn't it work to having Midtown Rail Line enter a tunnel right after Cedar travel under Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery the Hi Lake Shopping Center have an underground stop below the Blue Line then day light and stop on east side of Minnehaha? You wo...

Another contestant enters the arena!

Metro Transit already runs microtransit service in select areas at a steep subsidy. There's no aspect of the rideshare/TNC model that public ownership solves to make it profitable. If the state wants to run a transportation company that doesn't run efficient fixed routes and doesn't rule out exploit...

I'm pretty skeptical that the city level is the correct place for regulation of rideshare companies. But I have no sympathy for the companies themselves. From the start, they've abused information asymmetries with their "employees" to subsidize their anti-competitive pricing. The entire mo...

I think people really underestimate how many people it takes to turn a greenfield into an actual market for goods and services. The good news, I guess is that there is absolutely enough space in this area to keep adding more homes, offices, and whatever else to activate it. The bad news is that even...

It's gonna grow by a lot next year as well. Between the Block One, O2, North Loop Green, Duffey 2.0, Strutwear, Northstar Center, and other projects, there are nearly 2,000 units of housing currently under construction which should all mostly be complete in the coming months. There is nothing coming...

Yeah, I ride public transit more than most people (although I don't rely regularly on the light rail), and it's been basically non-existent that I've seen crime in the literal sense of someone doing something that they could plausibly be prosecuted for. When people talk about crime on transit, they'...

It is a great idea to move the transit layover here from Gateway Ramp, but I suspect it won't happen because neither Metro Transit nor the City have asked for that. We don't know what they have or haven't asked for, or whether they have even considered it. Would Metro Transit turn down a brand-new ...

New renderings and a new brand name (Washington Yards) for this project: https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2024/02/01/sherman-downtown-minneapolis-development-office.html The current plan seems to be three buildings; one half-block office building facing Washington, one tall market rate ho...

Between Target Field Station and the Lowry/North Memorial Station, there should be a maximum of four stops. Really, I had hoped there would be three. But four has got to be the absolute limit. Moving the proposed Lyndale Station to the east (Could it sit on the highway bridge? I imagine there are st...

Metro Transit's November weekday ridership numbers are out, and they're even better than October. Ridership on most services fell surprisingly little in real numbers between those two months, less than is typical, and so November 2023 achieved 59.5% of November 2019 ridership, the best recovery perc...

Snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The commission flirted with some awful ideas but picked a great one. I've seen people conflating "simple" with "safe." But the chosen design is actually fairly bold, defaulting to a tricolor would've screamed 'FLAG!' and given more colors...

Metro Transit just posted the October weekday ridership numbers, and it's a pretty good report. September is typically the biggest month for ridership by a good margin, but in 2023, it looks like October was much closer than is typical. While the C and D Lines fell slightly from their October record...

Tearing down that ugly ass ramp and turning it into a park/stairs/entrance/etc. might not be the #1 on the list of single biggest land use upgrades in DT but is sure isn't far off the top of that list. Room for both a residential tower and a grand staircase connecting the two levels, similar to wha...

From CM Michael Rainville's latest email newsletter: The United States Postal Service is holding a public meeting regarding the future use of their facility at 100 S 1st St. The hearing will take place at 2pm on Wednesday, November 1st at the Shoreview Community Center (4580 Victoria St N). I do not...

Obviously a road's design speed is more important than its posted speed. That said, I do think there are regional difference in driving speed that likely make a difference in crash outcomes. I always think about my experience driving in Georgia where the average speed of highway traffic seemed to be...

Some updates on this:

These sixteen buildings are nearing completion.

I've attached some photos in a tweet here.

Here is a hype video for the project.