Running on Laurel Avenue is a really smart move that makes a lot of sense as their isn't a lot on 55 in that area. Great idea!
For the 55 BRT I would probably extend it out to Hy-Vee.
My main problem with these BRT routes is. Legibility and the length of time to get between stops. I think these would be great designs as local routes. But for any rapid transit being able to cover a distance in a consistent time is important. With all of these stops even with dedicated lanes and signal preemption it's still going to take a long time to get along this route. Not even close to being competitive with driving. (I know that very little transit will be competitive with driving but it's still a difference from it being 2x driving to 3x driving.) Not to mention all of the turns. And the lack of legibility for someone to know where it's going and where to catch it. The orange line will give that, the gold line will give that. Even for all of its many many MANY problems the red line will do that too.
As a whole tho. I respect the ideas you had with these routes. I jus differ in philosophy as far as priority's in the implementation of a BRT system in general
It's a tough balancing act with these BRT routes between legibility and speed vs accessibility. My preference is more accessibility, but also having dedicated bus lanes and bus priority signals so some speed is kept as well as better reliability.
A comparison and contrast to the Met Council's Highway 55 BRT study from 2015 vs my proposal:
-my proposal has four more stations outside of downtown than theirs
-my proposal goes as far west as Vicksburg Lane while theirs goes to Pinto Drive in Medina (though I'm very certain they would ultimately decide not to have it go all the way out there)
-outside of downtown, their proposal has eight inline stations and three offline stations
-my proposal has six online stations and nine offline stations
-their estimated end-to-end travel time is 48 minutes off-peak and 52 minutes peak (around twice as long as driving)
-I can't say for certain how long the travel time of my Highway 55 BRT would be but I'm guessing it would also be twice as long as driving
Also compare/contrast the Met Council's I-394 BRT vs my proposal:
-theirs has seven stations outside downtown
-my proposal has 13 stations (Line 2) and 18 stations (Line 3) outside downtown
-four of their stations are offline, two are hybrid (inline/offline), and one is inline
-two of my stations are online and the rest are offline
-their estimated end-to-end travel time is 45 minutes off-peak and 58 minutes peak (pretty much the same as Route 645 between Minneapolis and Wayzata P&R and 2-3 times as long as driving)
-my routes would likely take slightly longer than theirs
For anyone interested here's the Highway 55 BRT study:
https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation ... endum.aspx
And here's the highway BRT study that includes their proposal for I-394:
https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation ... Final.aspx