urbanMSP

Honestly though we could have had aBRT in 2017, it will be a massive waste of we choose a bus.

This is fine as a retrospective analysis, but to use this as an argument that we must move forward with rail is the definition of the sunk-cost fallacy.

I don't think the removal of the WB 62 to SB 5 is actually all that impactful in practice, but I imagine it will cause quite a bit of uproar for perceived loss of convenience. It really only affects people heading to the airport, and it's pretty straightforward to just switch over to 494 for that tr...

I imagine the current work is simply to clear the site. Any actual new construction would have to go through all the usual approval processes I assume, which we'd have visibility to.

This might be totally ridiculous, but is the Basset Creek Station area at all amenable to a stadium-centric development? It might be too narrow and probably lacking in parking potential, but would have good transit and okay freeway access.

Yep, I spoiled my wife on the fact that the Minneapolis woman would make it to the final round because I recognized Gold Medal Park in the background of one of the promos, and thus knew that she would get a hometown visit.

Wonder if some lesser parks like Valleyfair may be sold to reduce debt. Otherwise we might eventually have Six Flags Valleyfair. You obviously have a much better understanding of the industry than me, but when you say "may be sold", do you mean sold to another operator, or the land sold /...

For anyone who attended - any new information presented?

I'd argue that the freeway capacity is only "badly needed" because of the vast amounts of poorly-planned, car-centric sprawl that extends for miles up towards Bethel / St Francis. As a counterexample, Highway 3 in Dakota County fills the same road hierarchy "niche" that Highway 6...

'Future of transportation': Celebration marks the start of $195M rebuild of Hwy. 65 in Blaine I think this quote may be a bit of an exaggeration for what will effectively be a freeway with sidewalks and a bike trail. "This is a big deal," said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis. "...

Catenary wire is strung from the Southwest Station terminus at least as far as the Valley View Road overpass, heading towards the Golden Triangle station. I'm sure there's still systems work and testing to do, but in Eden Prairie the guideway appears to be essentially complete.

Interesting idea - presumably you are suggesting burying Stagecoach road under the RR grade? I think that's the only way all of it could fit under the 169 clearance.

Officials recommend complete rebuild of bridge linking Duluth to Wisconsin

Funny, they only seem to put the price tag ($1.8bn) in the headline when the article is about transit projects.

That's a fair point - I was more arguing from the perspective of quality of service / rationing of scarce resources. The externalities of each clearly point in opposite directions. My point was that in the absence of pricing mechanisms, public goods (be it highway lanes, parking spaces, or transit c...

Fun fact - just south of this site, Dell Road is still a gravel/dirt road as it travels down the river bluff. It makes for a harrowing drive if you accidentally end up on it in the winter.

It is interesting to me how many of these arguments can be directly translated from the "is fare-free transit a good idea?" debate to the "are toll-free highways a good idea?" debate. I imagine that most of our knee-jerk reactions (including myself) would put us on a different si...

The political problem with fare-free seems to be: it incurs additional *direct* operational costs to accommodate increased demand, while all of its offsetting benefits are largely intangible or are recognized in other travel modes (e.g., reduced car traffic, reduced need for expensive car infrastruc...

I'm sure a shallow tunnel under 10th will do the trick!

"This street is too narrow for light rail!" "We want to keep our neighborhood walkable!" Somehow keeping the apparently "too-narrow" street open to unhindered vehicle traffic is more pedestrian-friendly than running like 10-12 LRT trains per hour on a transit mall? Yeah...

I spent a summer in Boulder working at NIST during which I was essentially car-free. Back then (15+ years ago) there was no real great transit option to get to Denver that I was aware of, so glad to see that there is one now. If you're a cyclist, Boulder has some great bike infrastructure in additio...

I'll take the over on 2030 but the under on 2032. No tunnels on this one, and without the Kenilworth tunnel SWLRT would be nearly complete by now.