Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Roads - Rails - Sidewalks - Bikeways
MNdible
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby MNdible » November 6th, 2019, 9:56 am

Is it really traffic congestion on this stretch of Nicollet that's the issue? In my experience, this bus is slow because it makes lots of stops and has lots of passengers getting on and off.

Silophant
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Silophant » November 6th, 2019, 10:22 am

So, is it intended behavior that cars can use the bus lane to get to parking spots? If so, that's... remarkably dumb.
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Bob Stinson's Ghost » November 6th, 2019, 12:04 pm

Is it really traffic congestion on this stretch of Nicollet that's the issue? In my experience, this bus is slow because it makes lots of stops and has lots of passengers getting on and off.

Yep, a lot of passengers and stops. It's pretty remarkable how many people are getting on and off those buses in a typical run between Lake and Franklin.

PhilmerPhil
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby PhilmerPhil » November 6th, 2019, 11:51 pm

Yeah, I don't think traffic is a huge issue here, and if there's gonna be a pilot of some sort to improve transit on the corridor, why not shut the whole street down to only buses and bikes for a couple weeks just to see what happens?

EOst
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby EOst » November 7th, 2019, 8:31 am

Yeah, I don't think traffic is a huge issue here, and if there's gonna be a pilot of some sort to improve transit on the corridor, why not shut the whole street down to only buses and bikes for a couple weeks just to see what happens?
Right. I'm all for bus lanes where they help, but this is a solution searching for a problem.

Free idea: make the through lanes bus- and parking/business access only (with camera-enforced right turn only at intersections) and turn the center lane into a two-way cycletrack. And extend it all the way up to Grant while we're at it.

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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Silophant » November 15th, 2019, 11:55 am

The Dec. 7th quarterly service changes have been posted to the website. Notable changes I see:
They finally spent some time fine-tuning the signals on 5th St to stop trains less, so the Blue and Green Lines are now scheduled to take seven minutes to get between Target Field and USBank Stadium, down from eight.
Routes 5, 9, 19, 22, 39, and the C Line will return to 8th St downtown with the completion of the rebuild project.
A bunch of rush hour trips were reinstated on various routes, but the 10, 12, 18, 59, and 94 all lost a rush hour trip.
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Tcmetro
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Tcmetro » November 24th, 2019, 12:14 pm

Metro Transit is planning a stop consolidation on Route 63, as well as a replacement of the McKnight service with a new Route 323. The 323 will also extend to Woodbury and operate every 20-30 mins, daily. It looks like the improvements are planned for Summer 2020, which could correspond to the June or August change dates.

https://www.metrotransit.org/better-bus-routes
https://www.metrotransit.org/route-323

lordmoke
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby lordmoke » November 26th, 2019, 12:42 pm

The Hennepin County board apparently just voted to redirect $98M of transit money to "roads and bridges"? How am I just hearing about this even being possible and does anyone have more detailed information on the matter?

EOst
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby EOst » November 26th, 2019, 1:48 pm

The 1/2 cent sales tax authority given to counties under Minn. Stat. 297A.993 can be used for both transit and other transportation projects, as long as those projects are generally specified. My understanding is that Hennepin faces a significant funding gap for their road/bridge projects, and that (in theory) this change would allow the county to redirect property tax revenue currently programmed for road/bridge to other uses.

Bakken2016
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Bakken2016 » December 5th, 2019, 9:39 am

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... seats.html

Mod note: full article text removed

xandrex
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby xandrex » December 5th, 2019, 10:45 am

A synopsis of a locked article is cool. But let's support local journalism by not literally copy-pasting the stuff they've worked on. Especially since this could be summed up as: Metro Transit is moving forward with plastic seats on light rail because they're easier to clean.

Qhaberl
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Qhaberl » December 5th, 2019, 10:48 am

I’ve sat on those plastic seats, personally I find that they hurt your back side. I understand that they’re easier to clean, but I’m not the biggest fan of them.


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Bakken2016
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Bakken2016 » December 5th, 2019, 10:54 am

A synopsis of a locked article is cool. But let's support local journalism by not literally copy-pasting the stuff they've worked on. Especially since this could be summed up as: Metro Transit is moving forward with plastic seats on light rail because they're easier to clean.
My apologies, I will remember that for the future. It won't let me edit it now though :/

Bakken2016
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Bakken2016 » December 5th, 2019, 10:56 am

I’ve sat on those plastic seats, personally I find that they hurt your back side. I understand that they’re easier to clean, but I’m not the biggest fan of them.


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I don’t think the final design will be a carbon copy of the test ones.


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talindsay
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby talindsay » December 6th, 2019, 10:19 am

I don’t think the final design will be a carbon copy of the test ones.
Nope, they'll be a plastic copy - carbon is more expensive :-P

twincitizen
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby twincitizen » December 6th, 2019, 10:40 am

BRT plans provide chance to take new look at Chicago-Lake: https://www.metrotransit.org/brt-plans- ... icago-lake

alexschief
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby alexschief » December 6th, 2019, 3:37 pm

BRT plans provide chance to take new look at Chicago-Lake: https://www.metrotransit.org/brt-plans- ... icago-lake
That's good news, this transit center was really a mistake, and it badly needs to be redesigned. There could still be a transit center element to serve riders and operators, but it needs to be like the Uptown Transit Center, where it straddles the street and allows for buses to easily move through it, instead of forcing a bunch of time consuming left turns.

alexschief
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby alexschief » December 12th, 2019, 12:37 pm

APTA's 2019 Q3 Ridership Report is out. This is my favorite quarterly report every year, since it is Metro Transit's highest ridership quarter.

After the bad weather-inflicted start to the year, Metro Transit's numbers has mostly followed existing trends. Bus ridership has been down a bit, while LRT ridership (led by the Green Line) has continued to increase. The third quarter seems to have followed the same course.

METRO Light Rail logged a total ridership of 6.965 million, and a weekday average of 82k. The weekday average is up a modest 1.87%, but the total amount of rides increased by 4.04%, which might be partially related to a lot of exciting sports teams playing at once.

Metro Transit's bus services logged a total ridership of 13.64 million, which is down 3.46%. Unfortunately APTA appears to have made a typo in the weekday average column, as the number they've listed is not credible, and so we don't know what that true number is.

Northstar and the suburban bus services are holding essentially steady.

mamundsen
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby mamundsen » December 16th, 2019, 8:14 am

Metro transit did a big refresh on their website. Ill be interested to see if there are any new features.

Bakken2016
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Re: Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

Postby Bakken2016 » December 16th, 2019, 8:15 am

Metro transit did a big refresh on their website. Ill be interested to see if there are any new features.
Ease of use and bringing the website into a modern design are the main changes.


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