Search found 488 matches
- December 5th, 2017, 4:58 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Northern Lights Express
- Replies: 521
- Views: 552849
Re: Northern Lights Express
That's pretty consistent with my views as well, though I think NLX has more than a snowball's chance. Absent a significant shift in transportation priorities and values, what we'll probably see is lots of folks driving to Duluth from the Range, parking at the train station, and riding the rest of th...
- December 5th, 2017, 3:41 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)
- Replies: 3022
- Views: 828809
Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings
Think like the box office at a theater, then.
IIRC San Francisco's streetcars have these. They're fine. If operators say they're important I'm inclined to believe them and support this.
And I agree with all the comments about how sad it is that something like this is necessary.
IIRC San Francisco's streetcars have these. They're fine. If operators say they're important I'm inclined to believe them and support this.
And I agree with all the comments about how sad it is that something like this is necessary.
- December 5th, 2017, 3:38 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Northern Lights Express
- Replies: 521
- Views: 552849
Re: Northern Lights Express
My note about a carbon tax was not meant to be a statement about whether a train would represent a substantial improvement in CO2 output; truthfully I have no idea how all the emissions shake out. I was just trying to give an example of a hypothetical scenario that could broadly shift demand from au...
- December 5th, 2017, 1:00 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Northern Lights Express
- Replies: 521
- Views: 552849
Re: Northern Lights Express
I think it's probably accurate that NLX is the only rail line in NE MN that makes sense, but I don't think it's a question of congestion. The key factor IMO would not be about the usefulness of, say, a Virginia-Duluth connection on its own, but how much more useful the NLX becomes by adding these co...
- December 4th, 2017, 3:07 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Northern Lights Express
- Replies: 521
- Views: 552849
Re: Northern Lights Express
Yeah, I cited Thunder Bay as a possibility *if* we had HSR to Minneapolis from Duluth, and *if* Duluth became a regional hub. Its relative isolation means a sufficiently fast rail link would probably be leaned on pretty heavily. However, I underestimated the distance--at close to 200 miles it would ...
- December 4th, 2017, 1:37 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Northern Lights Express
- Replies: 521
- Views: 552849
Re: Northern Lights Express
Yes, I was exaggerating a bit, but only a bit. I'm currently living in Montreal and moving here has been an exercise in discovering just how wonky our border actually is, in lots of ways. One of them was discovering that border control of all things has been one of the key hurdles to introducing mor...
- December 4th, 2017, 1:00 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Northern Lights Express
- Replies: 521
- Views: 552849
Re: Northern Lights Express
I always figured the full-build plan, to whatever extent there even is one, was for Duluth to be a secondary rail hub in Northern MN. You could have service to the Range, Bemidji, and (in a crazy unrealistic dream world where we can solve how to operate a train across the unguarded border with our c...
- November 22nd, 2017, 10:15 am
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Red Line (Cedar Avenue BRT)
- Replies: 538
- Views: 254536
Re: Red Line (Cedar Avenue BRT)
Yeah, agreed. I can see the argument that it's just not worth the cost to extend it out there, but without at least some level of direct service to Downtown it probably wasn't worth building in the first place. Like many folks here, I'm hopeful that they'll at least extend the line to use the Orange...
- November 21st, 2017, 12:42 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT
- Replies: 5362
- Views: 1403799
Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)
I know it's a lot of money, but I'm increasingly sour on federal matching funds in general. I know it's a pipe dream, but I'd much rather double the transit sales tax and build things to our own needs. The amount of compliance overhead, the number of stupidly-hobbled projects, the inability to work ...
- November 20th, 2017, 4:42 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Bicycle Infrastructure
- Replies: 1809
- Views: 1126398
Re: Bicycle Infrastructure
When you say automated, are you talking about a system that detects authorized vehicles and retracts on its own? That seems to me to be overkill (not to mention more vulnerable to breakage and abuse). I feel like it's entirely reasonable to ask someone who wants to take the extraordinary step of dr...
- November 20th, 2017, 1:34 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Bicycle Infrastructure
- Replies: 1809
- Views: 1126398
Re: Bicycle Infrastructure
I think it was maybe you that suggested retractable bollards as a solution somewhere else. Automated retractable bollards are very expensive, and I suspect are also not likely to perform particularly well in our environment. I'm not sure what they're actually using at Cedar Lake Trail -- any photos...
- November 20th, 2017, 10:00 am
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT
- Replies: 5362
- Views: 1403799
Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)
Oh so they can't build a concrete tunnel for a train and a underground for a bike trail, then fill it in with dirt so they can build green space on top with a nice nature walk that is street grade? I mean, you could always reverse the historic designation, but that would be an uphill battle. My gue...
- November 18th, 2017, 5:44 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT
- Replies: 5362
- Views: 1403799
Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)
I know zilch about historic railway preservation, but it seems from what's happened with SWLRT that it's less a ban on construction/renovation/redevelopment/conversions/etc, and more an obligation to work through a process of minimizing certain aesthetic disruptions where feasible. Is that about rig...
- November 17th, 2017, 7:39 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Labeling the Transit System
- Replies: 69
- Views: 14472
Re: Labeling the Transit System
The highway BRT study didn't assume dedicated guideway , so by that measure it wouldn't be METRO. Perhaps they'd be regular routes like the 535(?) bus on 35W, using shoulder lanes/transit advantage for the limited distance they're available on any given route. As a side note, but still very much on...
- November 17th, 2017, 3:46 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)
- Replies: 3022
- Views: 828809
Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings
This all just feels like another proxy way to be mad about the stadium. It's basically the same discussion but touching 3x the public infrastructure dollars, and a more tangible public impact. I'm not surprised that it's flaring up again, because the resentment has been simmering all along. I defin...
- November 17th, 2017, 2:53 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Bicycle Infrastructure
- Replies: 1809
- Views: 1126398
Re: Bicycle Infrastructure
I noticed that these are called "LRT Trails", e.g., "Lake Minnetonka LRT Regional Trail." Were these acquired as potential transit right-of-ways or something? Or is that a total coincidence?
- November 17th, 2017, 2:07 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)
- Replies: 3022
- Views: 828809
Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings
I don't think it's a transit hill. It's frustration with public subsidies of for-profit businesses (and especially sports (and especially the NFL)) that has been present for years and is boiling over into transit because hosting the Super Bowl is pervasive and disruptive across the region.
- November 17th, 2017, 1:17 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Dan Patch Intercity Regional Passenger Rail
- Replies: 184
- Views: 177227
Re: Dan Patch Intercity Regional Passenger Rail
I mean, it would probably be a rider in a much larger transit bill, just crossing out the gag order without mandating further study. Heck, they could even just issue a blanket invalidation of any transit study gag orders as a legislative overreach, and sorta sidestep the issue. Either way, I could s...
- November 17th, 2017, 12:06 pm
- Forum: Transportation
- Topic: Dan Patch Intercity Regional Passenger Rail
- Replies: 184
- Views: 177227
Re: Dan Patch Intercity Regional Passenger Rail
If we're being honest, it's probably changing the composition of the state legislature.What would be the first step to getting the gag rule removed?
- November 15th, 2017, 12:20 pm
- Forum: Anything Goes
- Topic: Expo 2023 / 2027
- Replies: 53
- Views: 31597
Re: Expo 2023
Considering people's general reaction to the Super Bowl logistics, perhaps it's best if we don't host a major world event for a few years anyway