urbanMSP

Dang, that plan looks awesome, but unfortunately not all of it will probably be implemented. I know that the last EP Quality of Life survey (from 2020, I think) had many comments relating to the lack of a walkable downtown, so there is a bit of public support for such a thing, but what would be requ...

That video did a pretty good job describing the differences between the "types" of BRT, but hung onto the cost thing a bit more than I would have liked. Also, the people he were interviewing (assuming Metro Transit reps) said some pretty refreshing things, especially the network vs corrido...

In other news, February ridership is on the performance page https://www.metrotransit.org/performance#mtservice Highlights: - Ridership has stayed impressively stable from September/October overall, and has pretty much fully recovered from the usual January dip. - Regular bus, C Line, D Line, and Gr...

Why are there nearly no trees downtown? It feels so sterile...

Just something I noticed last weekend

The only thing I'm really worried about in the North Loop area is how it meanders through with lots of sharp turns reminiscent of the Green Line in downtown St. Paul. I hope it doesn't slow down the trains too much. The planners on BLRT seem to have learned from our previous projects - the route run...

Agreed, Minneapolis section looks great!

It might be possible that the extension will exceed the ridership of the existing Blue Line just on the section south of Crystal alone.

https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation/Publications-And-Resources/Transit/Park-and-ride/2023-Annual-Regional-Park-and-Ride-System-Report.aspx 2023 Regional Park & Ride Report is now out. Some modest increase in usage, but still way, way below 2019 levels. Top 5 by usage is pretty much the same...

I am fed up with Frey caving to business owners complaining about parking removal in favor of transit lanes. If I remember correctly one of the reasons stated for the "part time" thing was because lack of parking would effect BIPOC businesses, which is super shallow in my opinion because m...

Can't highway 280 be used to access 35W from the north? Fully agree with Multimodal on not having any highways within the 494/694 loop. It's controversial, but part of the solution to reducing VMT, since it makes driving harder, which is something our region is not very good at. It sounds dumb, but ...

Anyone else get sad when they see a bus stop with a "this stop currently not served by any buses" sticker? I saw some in Excelsior, and a lot in Minnetonka, Hopkins, and SLP this past weekend. From my brief research, there are still 88 suspended routes.

Just curious - were there any connecting bus studies for the Hopkins/St. Louis park sections of the line? Or is it too early for this kind of thing to begin planning?

I just ran through the 2024 edition of the BRT Standard and ended up scoring it 79, but I may have been a bit generous on some parts... Still silver, though. Is it too hyperbolic to say that the Gold Line will end up being one of the best "true" BRT lines in the country? In any case, I am ...

I think it may have been too much at once for some people. Starting with removing parking minimums would be great, and slowly passing other sections of this bill over the course of a couple years would be more palatable for those fearing communist IDS towers in random cornfields.

Realistically, a 323 extension is likely to be the only additional local service in Woodbury. Another change should be to convert 351 to a "non-stop" variant of the Gold Line, using the BRT buses, or eliminate the express entirely. Also, if the Gold Line doesn't get a Gold ITDP ranking, I ...

Yeah, I just looked at the system map and not much has to be changed. The only thing I really see outside of Woodbury is the Sun Ray Transit Center, which really should be relocated a block south. I would really like Metro Transit to consider something other than microtransit in Woodbury. Land use a...

Dang it. That's so disappointing!

Two questions:

1. Will nearby local and express routes be restructured similar to the Orange Line?

2. Is the Woodbury express service (and the 323, I guess) going to be relocated to the Woodlane P&R or will it continue to operate out of the theater parking lot?

https://www.mvta.com/news-items/county-road-42-bus-rapid-transit-brt-study/ MVTA finally giving a go at frequent service on a fixed corridor? We shall see... but still awesome this is being considered in third and fourth ring suburbs! I think the routing is okay, but should terminate in Downtown Sh...

This all brings up a point to Korh's original question on the "1 step forward, 2 steps backward thing": is it better to have more frequent, but narrower highways, or less frequent, but larger highways?

This is getting into fantasy land for me, but my dream would be for 394 to be removed instead, it would open up so many opportunities for development downtown and near the (as of now) useless SWLRT stations, but this would be a hard sell for a lot of people (I would want the ABC ramps removed as par...