urbanMSP

This is a good exercise and shows the significant gaps we have in the east metro. What should fill those gaps? Does the potential ridership exist to build an LRT or even a BRT? I don't know. Unfortuantely, the counties are late to the game.

Gosh now I feel old for graduating in 2008.

Heh. Try 1996

David, I don't think it is politicians who skew the results, rather engineers themselves. As Strong Towns would call it, the "cult of engineering" where there's a prescribed solution to meet certain standards. Thanks for cclarifying. Certainly the politicians do set up the rules which abs...

I think trolley buses are mostly still in service in cities with major hills, like San Francisco and Seattle. I just read a really cool book called "The Milwaukee Transport Era" which was all about the rise and fall of trolley buses in Milwaukee (my hometown). I was going to cite Seattle....

I think one reason it is difficult to meet people in MN is because so many folks who are from here, stay here. This. One of the jokes between me and other Minnesota friends at an out-of-state university had was that no one from states other than Minnesota wanted to go live back home while everyone ...

Why is moving current express bus riders to rail seen as a benefit, while moving urban local bus riders to rail is not? Who said that? As far as I am aware, both routes are viable. But believe it or not, North Minneapolis is not a homogenous community and opinion on the alignment is split 50/50. I'...

BRT has rarely been built in a way that actually resembles the service quality of LRT, and to do so would require nearly the expense of LRT anyways (dedicated ROW, etc). So not really sure why BRT should even be looked at here. Very well said. Most "studies" are just ways of justifying th...

Rather I think that the inclusion of several batshit alternatives while simultaneously failing to include a tunnel alternative (despite the fact that the Twin Cities have experience with cost-effective urban transit tunneling) We do? What, the Selby streetcar tunnel? Tunneling is a non-starter. If ...

Stop spacing is going to be 1/2-3/4 mile, which is about as local as you can get for a rail service. Many people using the 21 will move over to a greenway line. It won't replace the local buses on Lake St, but it will certainly reduce demand for them. That's true. I was referring to bus riders with...

How come trolley buses are not a mode choice in the Twin Cities? For example, Metro Transit's planned aBRT system could be converted to electrified trolleybuses in the future. At that point the streetcar vs. aBRT argument has basically been reduced to an argument about whether the tires should be m...

The project also will recommend the best method of delivering transit service in the Midtown Corridor: light rail , streetcar or bus rapid transit. And I hope it stays that way! A bus would be really inappropriate in the Greenway. I can't imagine riding a bike in a trench next to buses. It really d...

Minnesotans and a lot of Northern (and Nordic) people have very reserved groups of people I hear this a lot and it's just B.S. Minnesota and the Twin Cities is much more ethnically German than Nordic. And then there are the Irish, Italians, Polish, etc. I don't think the Twin Cities have ever been ...

I'll also note that schoool populations (especially at universities) tend to be much more open to different kinds of people and ideas. The general population is *very* different from what you'll find at the U.

I've never quite understood the idea that Minnesota is hard to move to. I moved every couple years until turning 18, and moving in general is a bitch. I moved to Minnesota twice, once in eighth grade (leaving after tenth) and then back for college, when no one I knew from my earlier stay was going ...

However, this tolerance does not quite yet translate into accepting (of differences). Nail. Hammer. Hit. I'm really sick of hearing about "tolerance." I can "tolerate" you, but that doesn't mean I accept you for who you are. We don't need more tolerance. We need more integration...

I thought I heard there isn't enough room for LRT, or even consistently double tracked streetcars, in the trench. I thought there was a limit to the streetcar frequencies possible because they can only pass in certain places. Is this true? MGC did a single-track streetcar study and claimed it's fea...

Of course, one issue with using LRVs -- especially if they were to use the Hiawatha service facility or others -- is that the "streetcar" tracks would have to connect with the light-rail tracks at some point.

Pretty easy to do at the Kenilworth junction, no?

It's all true except the natives tend to be insular when it comes to outsiders. Not just outsiders. I was away for a decade and had trouble re-integrating when I came back. It's _really_ hard to meet people here because everyone has their high-school cliques, etc. Although the region is relatively ...

While we're on the subject, I don't see the point in using a streetcar vehicle in the Greenway. For the sake of operation/maintenance/parts efficiencies, why not just run single car LRT vehicles? There is a lot to be said, from a fiscal standpoint, for not introducing yet another vehicle type. That...

they should study rerouting the 21 to the trench. Doubt the politics will work with that idea though.

And I hope it stays that way! A bus would be really inappropriate in the Greenway. I can't imagine riding a bike in a trench next to buses. It really does not sound pleasant.