Purple Line BRT (Rush Line Corridor)

Roads - Rails - Sidewalks - Bikeways
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Tiller
Foshay Tower
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby Tiller » December 21st, 2018, 3:02 pm

Are you a "resident, employee, visitor, business owner, or landowner"?

Maplewood is soliciting input for what will likely become the station area plan for the Maplewood Mall & St John's stations.

https://twitter.com/MaplewoodMN/status/ ... 87397?s=19

mamundsen
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mamundsen » December 21st, 2018, 5:07 pm

Thanks. I took the survey.

Vagueperson
Union Depot
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby Vagueperson » December 22nd, 2018, 12:29 pm

I heard recently that the planners have given up on a certain WBL downtown stop. Any real news on this?

mamundsen
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mamundsen » December 22nd, 2018, 7:55 pm

There was a lot of debate about the parking ramp they planned for the US Bank site in downtown WBL. I have a feeling it will either be A) that site with no ramp B) a different site. But I’ve hears nothing official.

mamundsen
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mamundsen » January 9th, 2019, 2:41 pm

Open House tomorrow night for Downtown WBL Station planning.
Open house in White Bear Lake

Thursday, January 10 | 4:30 - 7:30 p.m.

In January, Rush Line BRT Project staff will be seeking input on several downtown White Bear Lake station location options in response to public feedback in recent months. Join staff for an open house at White Bear Lake City Hall on Thursday, January 10 to learn more about the Rush Line BRT Project and provide input on the downtown station location options under evaluation. Stop in any time to talk with project staff and enjoy some light refreshments.

Additionally, an online survey will be released in early January to collect input about the station location options in downtown White Bear Lake. The survey will allow community members to provide input whether or not they are able to attend the open house.
Online Survey link:

https://srfconsulting.maps.arcgis.com/a ... 2c2e5c00c9

As a WBL resident, I completed this survey and ranked the top two as 2nd Street and Clark Avenue and 4th Street and Division Avenue. If the planned 2nd & Clark is not politically feasible, I think 4th & Division with option 1 (the short route back to 61 via 5th and Bloom) is a good plan. This is still close to the core of downtown WBL and there are destinations like Cup and Cone and redevelopment opportunities on the west side of 61.

Vagueperson
Union Depot
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby Vagueperson » February 22nd, 2019, 4:13 pm

Interesting wording regarding the survey results:
An accompanying online survey received 365 responses throughout January – most respondents reported that they live and/or work in downtown White Bear Lake [...] Although many respondents expressed ideas for a location other than those presented, the station located at 7th Street & Washington Avenue (“Option A”) was the most popular proposed site among survey respondents. While the survey received a robust response, the results are reflective of a self-selected group rather than a statistically valid random sample.

mamundsen
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mamundsen » February 22nd, 2019, 5:00 pm

That option is terrible! Easily 5-6th place in my rankings. My ranks were 1) the original USBank site 2) 4th and Division.

The funny thing is that many people were complaining about the original proposed site because of the ramp... what they don’t realize is that if the station is not close to downtown WBL, we’ll likely still get a ramp. It’s been discussed at multiple meetings that a structured parking would lead to developing other parking lots.

mamundsen
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mamundsen » February 27th, 2019, 9:27 am

Last night the WBL City Council voted to recommend the 7th Street and Washington Avenue site as the locally preferred stop for "Downtown WBL". Discussed that it gives the option to extend the downtown to the northwest and has close proximity to the new Lakeshore Players Theatre and White Bear Center for the Arts and North Campus.

This moves on to the PAC meeting on Thursday 2/28.

mattaudio
Stone Arch Bridge
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mattaudio » February 27th, 2019, 10:10 am

That's literally the worst choice.

DanPatchToget
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby DanPatchToget » February 27th, 2019, 10:53 am

Yeah, a little bit of a walk to the actual downtown and you have to cross the highway.

Why are they not going with the original decided location?

mamundsen
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mamundsen » February 27th, 2019, 11:58 am

Yeah, a little bit of a walk to the actual downtown and you have to cross the highway.

Why are they not going with the original decided location?
The White Bear Lake meeting is posted online if you'd like to see the full discussion.

Options C, E, and F were deemed to have operational difficulties by city staff and technical analysis team. They were removed from consideration.

The below concerns were discussed:
A: distance from downtown core businesses, impact to the neighboring business
B: congestion on 4th and the impacts it could have for operations
D: loss of ~30 parking spaces

The discussion was only between A and D. I was disappointed that B was not chosen/discussed more thoroughly.

DanPatchToget
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby DanPatchToget » May 28th, 2019, 2:37 pm

https://www.presspubs.com/white_bear/ne ... 01a2a.html

They managed to pick the most illogical spot for the Downtown White Bear Lake Station, and while I rarely defend preserving parking, looking at Google Maps this is a pretty tight spot. While it’ll be a short walk to the actual downtown it would make more sense to have the station IN downtown and have another stop further north with a park & ride so downtown doesn’t get clogged with park & riders in the morning and evening.

mattaudio
Stone Arch Bridge
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mattaudio » May 28th, 2019, 3:05 pm

We do bad transit.

nmin
Block E
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby nmin » May 28th, 2019, 6:45 pm

We do bad transit.
Only because local policy-makers overrule the staff that actually know how to do this right. Every time someone argues for more elected officials (e.g. elected Met Council), just remember that this is what we get when people who are afraid of facing a vocal minority of angry voters make decisions.

mamundsen
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mamundsen » May 28th, 2019, 9:58 pm

I was amazed at the local outcry about the original station location. Would have been pretty good in my opinion. #ImAWBLResident ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In related news... I think they did a ride along today. I saw a new artic (c line?) on White Bear Ave near maplewood mall this afternoon. People in it looked like a bunch of “suits”.

Multimodal
US Bank Plaza
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Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby Multimodal » June 10th, 2019, 7:53 am

We do bad transit.
Only because local policy-makers overrule the staff that actually know how to do this right. Every time someone argues for more elected officials (e.g. elected Met Council), just remember that this is what we get when people who are afraid of facing a vocal minority of angry voters make decisions.
This is really the crux of it, isn’t it? I keep thinking about that tweet about “37 aggrieved residents” making all the decisions for local politicians.

Vagueperson
Union Depot
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Location: Payne-Phalen, St. Paul

Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby Vagueperson » October 7th, 2019, 6:16 am

On the Rush Line trip to Richmond, VA, a big question came up from a Metro Transit staff person about whether or not an articulated bus can get three doors close enough to the platform to make level boarding functional. It seems that only one of the doors (front or middle) actually needs to be within the minimum gap (~7cm?), but the rear door would likely have a significantly larger gap.

It appeared every driver approached the platform very slowly and carefully, which added a few seconds of travel time. The maintenance supervisor also spoke of a higher incidence of body damage, though this is partly due to poor station design.

I was told level boarding with articulated buses is functioning fine in another North American city, even one that has snow, but I've forgotten what city that is.

Is near-level boarding better than level boarding in practice?

mamundsen
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1195
Joined: November 15th, 2012, 10:01 am

Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby mamundsen » October 7th, 2019, 7:50 am

On the Rush Line trip to Richmond, VA, a big question came up from a Metro Transit staff person about whether or not an articulated bus can get three doors close enough to the platform to make level boarding functional. It seems that only one of the doors (front or middle) actually needs to be within the minimum gap (~7cm?), but the rear door would likely have a significantly larger gap.

It appeared every driver approached the platform very slowly and carefully, which added a few seconds of travel time. The maintenance supervisor also spoke of a higher incidence of body damage, though this is partly due to poor station design.

I was told level boarding with articulated buses is functioning fine in another North American city, even one that has snow, but I've forgotten what city that is.

Is near-level boarding better than level boarding in practice?
How is the C line working? They use articulated buses with level entry, right?

intercomnut
Rice Park
Posts: 404
Joined: April 23rd, 2015, 1:04 pm

Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby intercomnut » October 7th, 2019, 9:08 am

On the Rush Line trip to Richmond, VA, a big question came up from a Metro Transit staff person about whether or not an articulated bus can get three doors close enough to the platform to make level boarding functional. It seems that only one of the doors (front or middle) actually needs to be within the minimum gap (~7cm?), but the rear door would likely have a significantly larger gap.

It appeared every driver approached the platform very slowly and carefully, which added a few seconds of travel time. The maintenance supervisor also spoke of a higher incidence of body damage, though this is partly due to poor station design.

I was told level boarding with articulated buses is functioning fine in another North American city, even one that has snow, but I've forgotten what city that is.

Is near-level boarding better than level boarding in practice?
How is the C line working? They use articulated buses with level entry, right?
No, all ABRT lines are near-level. They didn’t want to slow down the buses with level boarding.

NickP
Target Field
Posts: 508
Joined: June 4th, 2012, 5:00 pm

Re: Rush Line Corridor BRT

Postby NickP » October 7th, 2019, 2:00 pm

Potentially silly, and definitely able-privileged, question, but what is the differentiation (in inches/centimeters) between classifying something as near-level and level?


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