urbanMSP

It's half of a good stadium design: the south and west sides are pretty good and I like the creativity of its architectural expression. But the north and east sides are pretty poor, in my opinion, not offering much chance to embrace the area. Given that we live at 45 degrees north there's not much s...

Yes, I thought we'd made it clear earlier in the thread, if you ever drive through Chicago you should get an I-pass. I got mine eight years ago and it's always ready to go when we show up in Chicago. The $10 one-time fee is easily worth it. EDIT: sorry, I was forgetting that this is a *new* thread -...

We go to Duluth for two main reasons: camping at Jay Cooke, in which case we have to drive, and going to downtown and Canal Park, in which case our car stays parked the whole time we're there. Duluth is a very walkable city and a great place to spend time, even in the winter - but driving up there c...

Even if I never drive a car, I benefit from the existence of a well maintained transportation system. Just like even if I never call the police, I benefit from the existence of the police department. If I never collect welfare, I still benefit from the presence of a societal safety net. Etc. Public...

Yes but they're well marked shitty roads!

I meant extended into Union Depot, not ending in the street out in front of it. Frankly, I would be surprised if this ever happened - it's expensive, it adds time to the route, and there's no reason to assume it would either (a) add ridership; or (b) make things easier for current ridership. Since ...

Yes, this is great news. Hopefully this line gets funded before the politics of transit get pushed down again by a future split legislature. Remember this isn't four lines on fifth downtown - it's two lines. The blue and the green will run symmetrically on each of their two segments, and symmetrical...

I suppose "Minnesota United" might simply be McGuire's clever way of alluding to his UnitedHealth money...

MN United FC is an NASL team, not MLS. I'm guessing soccer now is at the same point basketball and football (nfl, afl) were 40-50 years ago, and soon all these leagues will merge together. Or it'll be like baseball where you've got the major leagues and then second tier farm leagues. Regarding leag...

Somewhere near 280 and University could be good... near the U lots of large industrial plots near the LRT Now that's the first really good idea I've heard. Downtown is too expensive for a sport with tepid support, but the 'burbs are too far from where support is likely to be the strongest - the imm...

Northstar was far and away the most promising corridor in the preliminary modeling of commuter rail. Like with light rail, there weren't any local numbers until the first one was built. Unlike light rail, the first line did nothing to make those initial numbers look promising. Whereas the Twin Citie...

If Megabus used one of the parking lots next to Union Depot, then Megabus passengers could use the Depot's bathrooms and other facilities while also making it easier for Megabus's customers to get to/from the stop. Am I missing something on why this isn't the obvious place for them? Megabus, as a b...

Loosely related/hilarious:

http://gawker.com/5950925/forcing-your- ... ble-advice

That blog is all kinds of awesome.

At the peak of usage before the three-car upgrade, the AM and PM peak headways were almost all 7.5 minutes; since the station upgrade completed they started running a couple three-car trainsets and adjusted the schedule to provide fewer short headways, and I guess they've adjusted it further (though...

Also, the Smarts are terrible cars to drive - I love driving, I love small cars and I *REALLY* wanted to love the Smart, but its horrible single-clutch automated transmission is disastrous - people who want an automatic aren't going to be happy with the way it jerks you around, and people who want a...

I'm one of those idiots who will almost always stand - one reason I dramatically prefer rail over bus is the fact that on a bus you basically have to sit down if you can, whereas on a train you can stand. It's irrational, probably, but if I'm allowed to stand, I will, even if the train is empty.

So, looking for something old in my account at work I stumbled across this image from 2007 about how they envisioned the Cedar station. The reality looks decent, but this would have been better, IMO:

Yes, I've written big segments of that article. [EDIT: I actually haven't written much of the Hiawatha article; it's the articles on Central and the MT Rolling Stock that I contributed a significant amount to.] I'm glad to see this set of changes coming; I am a little sad to see them dropping rush-h...

Isn't there smaller loading gauge for streetcars vs. LRVs? Yes, but the track gauge is the same for both anyway, and so if the tracks are built to handle LRV weights then they're in business. I don't assume that on this corridor they would place the tracks close enough together to violate LRV width...

I know it's unrealistic but I rather hope they build the foundation (ballast, etc.) to LRT spec instead of just ULRT. I don't believe the additional support necessary would be much of an issue on this corridor, except on the bridges - which is why Matt's comment made me think of this. Everything els...