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Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: November 26th, 2013, 8:59 am
by Tom H.
I was the guy gaping awkwardly on the west pedestrian bridge by Coffman, if you were looking, LRV Op Dude. I thought about waving but then I remembered that I'm a grown-up.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: November 26th, 2013, 9:38 am
by Wedgeguy
To the best of my knowledge they have been working on how noise levels by the NPR building will affect things there. A bit further along is testing for EMT or possible magnetic transmission problems to some of the University's research buildings. They are now starting to test for run timing along parts of the system.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: November 26th, 2013, 1:03 pm
by MNdible
I thought about waving but then I remembered that I'm a grown-up.
BOO! You're never to old to wave at trains.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: November 26th, 2013, 2:39 pm
by Tom H.
I think I already got my quota in as a child, though. I was lucky(?) enough to have an active freight line running through my backyard.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: November 26th, 2013, 10:09 pm
by LRV Op Dude

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: November 27th, 2013, 1:56 pm
by UptownSport
This seems un intuitive to me, just to ride a bicycle every new student or commuter needs to figure out what WTF a 'bike-box' is and what it's for.

They should've kept the tunnel option; much environmental impact- It gives everyone something to hate all along the line.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: November 27th, 2013, 2:11 pm
by twincitizen
I won't say his name, but that definitely looks like my old boss' boss at Metro Transit playing the cyclist in that video. He's probably in line to be General Manager some day if the boomer retirements line up the right way. Personally, I think he'd be great.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 3rd, 2013, 11:28 am
by Tom H.
Construction fences came down all along the Washington Ave Transit Mall this morning. The only ones remaining are there to keep people out of the 'amentiy zones' in the median. Bike lanes along the Mall are open, and I even saw a biker using one this morning.

ETA: Amenity zones are open too! But everybody seemed too shy to try them out. Everybody except me, that is.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 3rd, 2013, 1:37 pm
by FISHMANPET
Metro Transit people are stepping onto buses stopping on campus to tell people about the route change. I'm far more excited for Monday than I should be, and not just because it will cut my walk from bus to my office in half or a third.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 3rd, 2013, 2:00 pm
by Silophant
Construction fences came down all along the Washington Ave Transit Mall this morning. The only ones remaining are there to keep people out of the 'amentiy zones' in the median. Bike lanes along the Mall are open, and I even saw a biker using one this morning.

ETA: Amenity zones are open too! But everybody seemed too shy to try them out. Everybody except me, that is.
The amenity zone between Church and Union was open yesterday. I walked down it, all by myself at about noon. Faster than the crowded sidewalks.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 3rd, 2013, 4:28 pm
by FISHMANPET
So I needed to get a haircut and some stuff at Walgreen's so I chose the amenity area. A suspicion I had a while ago was confirmed, that it's not very good for through travel.

I went from Keller, which is west of the East Bank station, to Walnut St, which is east of the station. If I make the trip completely in the amenity zone, I have to go through a paid fare zone at the East Bank Station. or I could cross a bunch of signaled crosswalks to detour around the platform. The sidewalks to the south of the East Bank station are plenty wide, but the sidewalk between Espresso Royale and the Walgreen's are too narrow, but it's pretty inconvenient to cross a bunch of streets to use the middle amenity area for travel.

Also there are just too many damn signals. I'm sure trains will be going really slowly through this area anyway, so the parts that don't interact with private auto traffic should just be shared space where everybody keeps their wits about them. And make West Bank-East Bank-Stadium stations a free shuttle like the airport so that you can walk through the platforms without getting hassled. In practice nobody's going to get hassled by transit cops for passing through, only if they're loitering, but I'd rather not base my travel on the assumption that I'll be fine walking through as a young white male.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 5th, 2013, 2:38 pm
by lordmoke
I kind of figured that this would happen, but this Daily article is nevertheless hilarious:
http://mndaily.com/news/campus/2013/12/ ... y-students

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 5th, 2013, 2:58 pm
by orangevening
I kind of figured that this would happen, but this Daily article is nevertheless hilarious:
http://mndaily.com/news/campus/2013/12/ ... y-students
I read too. As a old veteran of the "U" I laughed at the headline. Someone wrote a opinion piece in the Daily on how a transit pass should be mandatory in the student fees which made a lot of sense to me. It would solve the east bank/west bank problem anyway.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 5th, 2013, 3:21 pm
by Suburban Outcast
Proves to show that many people don't know to how to read a map (which is pretty sad). Won't reverting back to the old bus network configuration be easier for most on-campus residents anyways? (as the Superblock will be closer to the Campus Connector and not just the East Bank Connector now)

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 5th, 2013, 3:28 pm
by twincitizen
Here's the editorial on making the U-pass mandatory (instead of a fare-free zone on campus), written by a fellow UrbanMSP'er with an assist from yours truly.

http://www.mndaily.com/opinion/columns/ ... lternative

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 6th, 2013, 8:19 am
by NickP
Thanks Twincitizen. I liked the piece. I think its a great idea. I recall friends saying they couldnt afford the U pass, and my response was usually, if you do not live in close proximity to the U, how can you not. I find $97 for unlimited rides on the majority of the Twin Cities Transit network to be an amazing deal.
The only thing I didn't enjoy about the article was the comment at the bottom. lol.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 6th, 2013, 9:23 am
by mattaudio
But, liberty!

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 6th, 2013, 9:47 am
by FISHMANPET
Honestly, I buy the argument that there should be a fare free zone, and I agree that having everybody buy a Upass would help fund it. But I'm not sure I agree with the argument that students will be confused.

On the other hand, if I had a penny for every time I saw someone asked if the 2 goes downtown (it doesn't), or saw someone confused about the free campus connector vs paid Metro Transit or just generally not having any idea what's going on with regards to the transit they're riding, I'd be a rich man, so maybe it is confusing.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 6th, 2013, 9:49 am
by talindsay
Are they suggesting a mandatory U-Pass in lieu of a fare-free zone, or in addition?

I think a mandatory U Pass is a better idea than a fare-free zone, BUT - if this is done, staff need to be given a deal more comparable to the students' deal. I used to have a University staff Metropass - after the bridge collapse it was $40/month so it was worth the cost even if I wasn't using it daily. But now it's ~$70/month for staff, which means that if you aren't using it daily it's not worth it. And what we know about car ownership is also true about transit ridership - when the fixed, ongoing costs are already paid regardless of usage it encourages usage, whereas when the full costs are borne on a per-ride basis it discourages usage.

So while maybe staff shouldn't get the ridiculously cheap U-Pass rate, in the absence of a fare-free zone staff need to be given a much better deal than we're currently given. I hope they mandate all students to have a U-Pass at the super-low per-semester rate, and then incentivize transit to staff by giving us a rate somewhere in the $40/month range. Otherwise, I want the fare-free zone since we currently use the University buses free of charge to do our actual work on campus and it would be a loss of service to cancel those buses without accommodating us on the light rail.

Re: Green Line (Central Corridor LRT)

Posted: December 6th, 2013, 9:52 am
by mattaudio
How about a free fare zone in exchange for giving the Campus Connector a MT route number and including the bus as part of the free fare zone even for non-students?