urbanMSP

Agreed on stop spacing. Any time I look to take a local bus route, even if it is pretty direct in the routing, it's usually slower than biking. So I ride my bike instead. It may be a privileged thing to say, but I don't see why we need a bus stop every block on local routes. Even if spaced to every ...

Meeting happened yesterday afternoon, seems like the planning commission denied every variance that was asked for. Minnehaha shopping center is a big disappointment IMO. Suburban land use just a block away from the Lake Street Station. Lots of space in the Target parking lot to build like you said a...

Thanks for the writeup! Definitely seems like improving the slow speed spots would do a lot for increasing the average speed of the route without costing an arm and a leg. I could see that they were working on building station improvements for the Columbus and La Crosse stops. Once they finish all o...

That's such a bold variance request to push for a 1 story bank in a 6 story minimum transit 20 parcel. I can't imagine they would allow that.

Currently riding on the Empire Builder and am wondering what kind of investment would it take to increase the speed of the line between MSP and Chicago to to 90 or 110mph similar to the Lincoln service in Illinois? That kind of upgrade could be worthwhile in terms of improving speed and reducing tra...

I think the reason for the two way bikeway between 10th and Oak is due to it being a path that will see a lot of bidirectional use by college students. At the 15% stage, there is still plenty of opportunity for change there. They're having quite a few community engagement events in the next couple o...

Looks like MNDOT is pushing back their redesign of University and 4th between I35W and Central Ave from 2025 to 2027. A silver lining is that they've expanded the scope of the project to include the 2 bridges crossing I94, which will help connect the project to Hennepin county's reconstruction of Un...

Excited to see how the frequency increases will affect monthly LRT ridership. I do wonder if 15 or 12 minute frequencies are included in the ridership modelling of the Blue and Green line extensions and if that'll change afterwards.

I'm confused as to how that's a problem. People would be even more averse to the idea of restoring the street grid to the way it was 60 years ago. At least the boulevard will be able to a decent part of the traffic capacity that I94 handles. I94 sees about 150k vehicles daily. The boulevard could pr...

If they implement the diagnonal pedestrian/bike promenade across the site, I can see it being a really pleasant place. Something like a slightly narrowed european street with lots of amenities could be something really special. Important to not have it turn into another Nicollet Mall. Still a little...

Unfortunately, I do think that MNDOT is leaning towards highway lane reduction and capping with Reconnect Rondo rather than the Twin Cities Boulevard. They seem to continually call attention to Reconnect Rondo which is disappointing IMO as the boulevard would be a more affordable and return more rig...

Fantastic news! One of the most pollution burdened communities in the state in East Phillips. Hopefully the foundry is on its way out too after the emission violations from them. I always hate to bike by there on the Greenway wondering what harmful vapors I'm breathing in. Would be quite the positiv...

MNDOT shared a survey with information about University Ave NE improvements scheduled for 2027. Current mockups look pretty transformative for pedestrian access in Northeast and will really compliment the changes made this year and next year to Hennepin and 1st and University and 4th. Take the surve...

Borealis service officially begins on May 21st! Looks like it'll be the same arrival and departure time on both ends (11:50am to 7:14pm).

https://assets.senate.mn/committees/2023-2024/1007_Committee_on_Finance/Fin_20240429_SF5284-Summary.pdf Currently the state senate transportation bill includes language that will strip the met council of any authority in designing and constructing LRT and BRT projects as well as prohibiting the expe...

I've heard that the facing of the tactile strips towards the crosswalk helps guide those who are blind better than one that faces directly into the middle of the intersection. I'm not sure if that's the reasoning behind the change though. In terms of decision making, public works has a lot of leeway...

Park and Portland are also getting repaved this summer between Washington Ave and E 17th St. Going to go from 3 lanes -> 2 narrowed lanes with added buffer space between traffic and bike lanes. Not sure if that'll be curb protected or just paint bike lanes though.

I don't think anyone really thinks that. Highways are very useful for moving people and goods outside of cities. However there are world class cities all over the planet without freeways running through their urban centers. Paris and Vancouver are both able to be vibrant, walkable/bikeable places wi...

Ah, disappointing.

Where do you see that it was approved? I saw a couple weeks ago that the variance request for the drop off frontage was denied by the planning commission. Did it get through on appeal?