urbanMSP

You're not wrong, but I think the concept of "opting out" makes it a little hard to integrate them into a "branding umbrella of Metro Transit". Those are suburban groups that specifically don't -- or at least, a few decades back, didn't -- want to be "familiar with the brand...

I dunno, back when CCLRT was being planned I didn't want them to build the infill stations because it would slow down the line, but I was wrong - accessibility and mobility isn't the same as speed, and when the two come in conflict with each other, accessibility and mobility is the more important of...

I drive by here almost every day and have been watching this one go up. What do we know about it? Their website makes all sorts of absurd claims - "just a block from the UST campus", "on a BRT line", "all the fun that Saint Paul has to offer" among others. Looks like it...

I apologize if you're suggesting dedicated transit taxes *beyond* the dedicated transit taxes we already have, but our existing guaranteed transit funding is very new - 2008 being the creation of the CTIB. We basically already experienced the benefit and drawback of regional transit funding with the...

Frankly, the old AA documents and the rationale for the old LPA aren't just irrelevant, they're records of why they made the wrong choice at that time. They ruled out as too expensive and slow options that might have been buildable and would have served more people, in the name of a supposedly cheap...

The tunnels may seem kind of ridiculous given that we haven't built them where they're more appropriate - downtown Mpls, under the Snelling intersection, etc. But transit reliability is generally better in a tunnel, and this is already funded and rolling forward so I can't imagine any logic in revis...

If we're spending half a billion dollars, let's tack a few stops onto the eastern end of the Green Line and offer better quality service to the first-ring spots (and maybe 3M) where the ridership potential is obvious. Or alternatively, let's build 10 aBRT lines--give, say, 3 of 'em to the Eastside ...

Can anyone shed light on why so few condominiums are being built? Just speculation, but recall that condos were the big boom and bust of the 2000s, and a lot of developers got burned when the bottom fell out of that market in 2007-2008. In 2009-2010 there was a glut of unsold condos on the market. ...

Oof. Do I know this friend? I had a friend of mine say they heard someone was tearing down the "Sears" in downtown Minneapolis. And I was just like, Daytons? They're definitely not doing that. Refused to believe me. Is your friend a suburbanite? My guess is they're thinking of the Lake St...

Back in 2003 I asked a Met Council person why they hadn't considered elevating the (Hiawatha) line through downtown to remove grade conflict and the dude laughed dismissively, saying it would interfere with the skyways. That seemed like an unsatisfactory response to me, but Metro Council has clearly...

Weren't the interstate highways originally built so we could drive tanks and missile launchers on them if the Soviet Union attacked? Yes, the Eisenhower administration intended to have ring highways (beltways) around the cities, and interstates connecting those beltways; they didn't anticipate pier...

Yeah, I think the freeways inside the 494/694 loop should never have been built, but since they were, it's not even vaguely feasible in the current reality to remove them. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm saying it's not going to happen until a lot of other cultural, political, and economic facto...

You'd have a tough time getting approval for multistory residential over a freeway. Commercial development is much more likely.

Most people do but during normal 5 pm rush hour every single time I have taken it one person will always try to turn left even thought its clearly posted its not allowed. It makes the traffic seem much worse then it really is. This is where Minnesota Nice is a pain in the butt. In most urban settin...

We could physically do it but how do we sell this to normies. Normies? Did this site become some strange fanfic world or something? Most of the people on here tilt urbanist, which also means they tilt liberal, but they're normal people with jobs and families, etc. For years I've been interested in ...

I assumed the closure was for construction. Any evidence that it's not reopening after the rebuild?

One approach that was successfully deployed by some cities during the Bush era, and that I think was originally the plan in St Louis but ran aground for other reasons, is to build the non-"effective" parts entirely with local funds *first*, and then apply for a New Starts grant for the who...

Don't hold your breath for a deep-bore tunnel - all the metrics used for "cost effectiveness" would point away from that, and there isn't enough broad-based buy-in for the notion that a specific social good is worth making "ineffective" investments for it to actually happen. It's...

Holy cow, they made St-Denis two lanes? Are people complaining about car congestion? Given Montreal's urbanism I think it's a good move, but it's surprising since that's one of the few arterials that actually runs all the way from Vieux Montreal way up north, and it has so many businesses. Haven't b...

So this is by no means a fantasy map, but it belongs here because it's all about how one conceptualizes transit networks. Paris, the densest city in the western world, also has one of the world's busiest metro systems. With an extensive new "suburban" (Paris' suburbs are denser than almost...