77th/76th Street Corridor - Richfield / Edina

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby Mdcastle » January 21st, 2015, 12:13 am

I-494 typically becomes a traffic apocalypse around Cedar, so I can see traffic heading a few exits farther to get off early at 24th and go under Cedar. Building the underpass is a lot more likely than fixing I-494 properly.

If they call it Lindberg everyone is going to think they spelled it wrong.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby sdho » January 21st, 2015, 9:15 am

I-494 typically becomes a traffic apocalypse around Cedar, so I can see traffic heading a few exits farther to get off early at 24th and go under Cedar. Building the underpass is a lot more likely than fixing I-494 properly.
Probably true -- it would make it a more useful reliever, although I'm not sure why Richfield would want to dedicate millions of its MSA funding to try to get more impatient commuters going through a street that divides ~3000 residents from schools, parks, and churches. I know one goal is to get more traffic to corridor businesses, but I'm not sure drivers desperate to escape crowded 494 are going to be in the mood to drop in at a local business.

Then again, you could just as easily get off at 24th today and use American as a reliever. But I'm not sure many do. The entire section east of Nicollet or so always seems pretty empty.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby mattaudio » January 21st, 2015, 10:54 am

So true... why did these cities desire to bring commuter overflow onto their local street/stroad grid to begin with?

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby sdho » January 21st, 2015, 11:51 am

The naming poll is now live on the Richfield Connect site: http://richfieldconnect.mindmixer.com/t ... 7th-street. Note that you need to sign in first, before you can even see the poll. Log in at http://richfieldconnect.mindmixer.com (you can log in with Facebook).

The current leader is Lindberg Blvd.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby David Greene » January 21st, 2015, 1:38 pm

I-494 typically becomes a traffic apocalypse around Cedar
It does?

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby RailBaronYarr » January 21st, 2015, 1:54 pm

I-494 typically becomes a traffic apocalypse around Cedar
It does?
It's not all that often that I use that stretch, but when I do (typically EB) it does get bad and then break up almost immediately after Cedar (this experience is usually on weekends between 10 am - 4 pm).

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby David Greene » January 21st, 2015, 1:56 pm

I-494 typically becomes a traffic apocalypse around Cedar
It does?
It's not all that often that I use that stretch, but when I do (typically EB) it does get bad and then break up almost immediately after Cedar (this experience is usually on weekends between 10 am - 4 pm).
Strange. To me, the 35-W interchange is much worse.

And neither one can be called an "apocalypse." We just don't have that bad of traffic here.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby seanrichardryan » January 21st, 2015, 2:41 pm

Perhaps he's thinking of the perpetually bad 62 & Cedar interchange.
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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby twincitizen » January 21st, 2015, 2:57 pm

Dear god, let's hope "Other" comes out with a huge win here. I think people will be reluctant to choose that option, even if they favor the current naming scheme, as voting for "other" potentially opens the door to something even worse.

As a man forever in love with my own ideas:
My idea is International Boulevard. It compliments Bloomington's "American Boulevard" and also references the international airport without sounding tacky like "Skyway". I suppose it also references Richfield's growing "international" population. Richfield has the highest percentage of Hispanic/Latino residents in the metro (though obviously Mpls & St. Paul have higher total numbers).

Personally, I hate the ideas to name it after a person. Also, I feel like Edina would probably reject all of those.

International meets all of the requirements it seems they're going for:
references the airport
references American Boulevard
is compatible with westward extension through Edina

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby fehler » January 21st, 2015, 4:44 pm

With how they renamed the MSP terminals, I suggest naming this road "Boulevard 1".

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby sdho » January 21st, 2015, 5:17 pm

Dear god, let's hope "Other" comes out with a huge win here. I think people will be reluctant to choose that option, even if they favor the current naming scheme, as voting for "other" potentially opens the door to something even worse.

As a man forever in love with my own ideas:
My idea is International Boulevard. It compliments Bloomington's "American Boulevard" and also references the international airport without sounding tacky like "Skyway". I suppose it also references Richfield's growing "international" population. Richfield has the highest percentage of Hispanic/Latino residents in the metro (though obviously Mpls & St. Paul have higher total numbers).

Personally, I hate the ideas to name it after a person. Also, I feel like Edina would probably reject all of those.

International meets all of the requirements it seems they're going for:
references the airport
references American Boulevard
is compatible with westward extension through Edina
This is true -- it is weird they don't even offer the option to remain 77th Street. One other option -- to alleviate the confusion -- would be to just rename the whole street "77th Street", including the 76th Street portion. The only loose end with that is that there is a short (3 short blocks) 77th St in west Richfield that they'd have to rename 77th 1/2 or something. In addition to being an established name, 77th has a nice ring to it (much more-so than 79th, which most of American Blvd ran on).

One thing I do have to disagree with you on, twincitizen is Edina acceptance of Lindberg Blvd. Apparently Edina council and/or Transportation Commission have been approached and gave indications they were OK with that name. Some of the more Richfield-centric names like Emily Day... I'm not sure.

I like your idea for International Boulevard. Now figure out something in that spirit that sounds smoother!

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby sdho » January 21st, 2015, 5:19 pm

It's not all that often that I use that stretch, but when I do (typically EB) it does get bad and then break up almost immediately after Cedar (this experience is usually on weekends between 10 am - 4 pm).
The worst traffic on 494 I've ever experienced on a regular basis is EB 494 from Normandale to 35W during PM rush hour (especially right at France). Other than minor slow-downs through the 35W interchange, I've never experienced much congestion, even driving it during rush hour.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby blobs » January 21st, 2015, 5:59 pm

It's not all that often that I use that stretch, but when I do (typically EB) it does get bad and then break up almost immediately after Cedar (this experience is usually on weekends between 10 am - 4 pm).
The worst traffic on 494 I've ever experienced on a regular basis is EB 494 from Normandale to 35W during PM rush hour (especially right at France). Other than minor slow-downs through the 35W interchange, I've never experienced much congestion, even driving it during rush hour.
This. Traffic between HWY100 and 35W always bottlenecks on 494.

Maybe the reason why is there are 4 lanes going from 35W to HWY100 westbound, but only 3 lanes going the other way.
Also, 62 has two lanes going westbound, but goes down to 1 lane eastbound east of 35W.
So you lose 2 eastbound lanes effectively east of 35W since 62 is only a mile north of 494.

Also a lot of people use American and 84th/82nd as relievers.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby Grudzinski » February 9th, 2015, 1:14 pm

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby twincitizen » February 9th, 2015, 3:52 pm

...since 62 is only a mile north of 494.
Two miles actually (78 - 62 = 16 blocks, or two miles). Far enough apart that they aren't serving the same set of origin-destination pairs, though there is certainly a high level of overlap of longer-distance commuters who could easily choose either one.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby sdho » February 9th, 2015, 9:23 pm

Two miles actually (78 - 62 = 16 blocks, or two miles). Far enough apart that they aren't serving the same set of origin-destination pairs, though there is certainly a high level of overlap of longer-distance commuters who could easily choose either one.
Not just that, though; there are at least two major destinations (especially, auto-oriented ones) between the two -- like Southdale District and the airport. I live between the two, and one of my major regular suburban car-driving experiences is going to a gym at St. Louis Park near West End. Just the way the accesses work, I take 494 there (going an extra mile south then north again), but Crosstown back. I think people quite often "flip a coin" for airport access... or check traffic levels on Google Maps.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby min-chi-cbus » February 9th, 2015, 10:10 pm

Two miles actually (78 - 62 = 16 blocks, or two miles). Far enough apart that they aren't serving the same set of origin-destination pairs, though there is certainly a high level of overlap of longer-distance commuters who could easily choose either one.
Not just that, though; there are at least two major destinations (especially, auto-oriented ones) between the two -- like Southdale District and the airport. I live between the two, and one of my major regular suburban car-driving experiences is going to a gym at St. Louis Park near West End. Just the way the accesses work, I take 494 there (going an extra mile south then north again), but Crosstown back. I think people quite often "flip a coin" for airport access... or check traffic levels on Google Maps.
Very true, having also lived between the two.

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby mister.shoes » February 9th, 2015, 10:45 pm

...though there is certainly a high level of overlap of longer-distance commuters who could easily choose either one.
Confirmed with anecdata: I live in S MPLS and work at 494/100. I take 35W/494 to work and 100/62 home. It has nothing to do with only driving clockwise...
...or check traffic levels on Google Maps.
...and entirely to do with commute-time traffic patterns.
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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby sdho » March 20th, 2015, 1:27 pm

Audi has proposed a dealership on 77th and 14th Ave S. It would occupy about 3 acres. It's three existing commercial sites (including car rental and Second Wind exercise equipment), which would be combined. However, it borders apartments on either side east and west, and single-family homes (behind the 77th St wall) on the north.

Just less than half of the site would be covered by building initially, with the rest being surface parking and a small quasi-public plaza. Within five years, the developer plans to build a ramp that would replace most of the surface parking. The planned use for this site in the 494 plan (comp plan supplement) was high-density mixed-use. Approving the site would mean comp plan amendments to allow "regional commercial" (which this is).

Rendering, looking west from ~15th Ave and 77th:

Image

The view from 77th St sidewalk:

Image

And the site plan:

Image

More details can be found in the Richfield Planning Commission packet (toward the end): http://ci.richfield.mn.us/modules/showd ... entid=6504

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Re: 77th/76th Corridor - Richfield / Edina

Postby sdho » March 20th, 2015, 1:32 pm

As a vain curiosity, I wonder if they'll actually sign the building as "Audi Richfield". The current Golden Valley dealership is labeled "Audi Minneapolis" (despite being twice as far from the city of Mpls borders). Richfield is not a name with a huge amount of regional recognition, as far as I know.


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