Better Bus Routes - Metro Transit

[Silophant]

I think we've discussed the previous Better Bus Routes projects (Rt 2 and Rt 63) in the Public Transit News/Current Events thread, but that's a little unwieldy and impossible to search, so I'm making a new one.

Despite the pandemic, Metro Transit's been pressing ahead with the Better Bus Routes program, and just launched public engagement for the next project - Route 3. This one's a little more in-depth than the Rt 2 and Rt 63 reworks: in addition to the stop consolidation and stop/shelter upgrades that the previous routes got, they're also considering:

Scrapping the 3K branch, replacing it with a Rt 33 circulator that does a clockwise loop around 15th, Elm, Kasota, 280, and University/4th to connect to the Green Line as well as the remaining Rt 3 mainline.

Moving the downtown Minneapolis routing from 3rd/4th to Washington, via Seven Corners, then all the way up Washington to 10th Ave N. Strangely, this includes stop consolidation in the North Loop, changing N. Washington's haphazard stop locations to include pairs of stops at Hennepin, 3rd, 6th, 8th, and 10th, (presumably affecting the 14 as well), but doesn't touch the Mill District or Gateway stops beyond adding a pair at Washington and Marquette, so it would still stop every block or so in the Mill District. I'm hoping the 10th Ave S, Park/Portland, and NB only 2nd Ave S stops can be dropped - we may be stuck with the LRT stopping way too often and crawling through downtown, but there's no reason that has to apply to buses.

There's a survey at that link, fill it out! They're saying that construction is slated for this summer, so I don't think it'll be too long of a public engagement period.

[EOst]

I wonder if this is Metro Transit tipping their hand a bit on the ABRT route selection process. It's hard for me to imagine them doing this if they're planning to replace Route 3 with Como-Maryland BRT in a few years.

[SurlyLHT]

You'll probably have to take smaller areas and add them together and try to estimate.


"This dataset consists of housing unit, household, and population estimates for census tracts, census block groups, Transportation Analysis Zones (TAZs), school districts, and ZIP codes in the Twin Cities Region."
https://gisdata.mn.gov/dataset/us-mn-st ... -estimates

[blo442]

I wonder if this is Metro Transit tipping their hand a bit on the ABRT route selection process. It's hard for me to imagine them doing this if they're planning to replace Route 3 with Como-Maryland BRT in a few years.

Having asked this very question to someone on the inside recently, the answer is a pretty resounding no. This seems like a case of two departments being too siloed to talk to each other and coordinate projects. Route 3 was chosen as the next BBR project before the Network Next effort got going, and the fact that Como/Maryland was such a high-priority aBRT candidate blindsided the BBR project team. I wouldn't read too much into this.

[COLSLAW5]

I am confused about the 2 stops down on 7th street in downtown Minneapolis. Any idea what those are for?

[Tcmetro]

Those are for the late night line up when all the buses meet at 7th and Nicollet at 12:10 and 1:10 am.

[Silophant]

I wonder if this is Metro Transit tipping their hand a bit on the ABRT route selection process. It's hard for me to imagine them doing this if they're planning to replace Route 3 with Como-Maryland BRT in a few years.

Having asked this very question to someone on the inside recently, the answer is a pretty resounding no. This seems like a case of two departments being too siloed to talk to each other and coordinate projects. Route 3 was chosen as the next BBR project before the Network Next effort got going, and the fact that Como/Maryland was such a high-priority aBRT candidate blindsided the BBR project team. I wouldn't read too much into this.

Glad to hear it, honestly. It wouldn't surprise me for MT to not bother with BBRing the 3 if it was known that it was in line for an aBRT upgrade, but this is going to happen this year. Even if Como-Maryland is selected as the F Line, it wouldn't be coming until 2025 or 2026 - these improvements will have been helping people for four years by then.

[alexschief]

I wonder if this is Metro Transit tipping their hand a bit on the ABRT route selection process. It's hard for me to imagine them doing this if they're planning to replace Route 3 with Como-Maryland BRT in a few years.

Having asked this very question to someone on the inside recently, the answer is a pretty resounding no. This seems like a case of two departments being too siloed to talk to each other and coordinate projects. Route 3 was chosen as the next BBR project before the Network Next effort got going, and the fact that Como/Maryland was such a high-priority aBRT candidate blindsided the BBR project team. I wouldn't read too much into this.

Glad to hear it, honestly. It wouldn't surprise me for MT to not bother with BBRing the 3 if it was known that it was in line for an aBRT upgrade, but this is going to happen this year. Even if Como-Maryland is selected as the F Line, it wouldn't be coming until 2025 or 2026 - these improvements will have been helping people for four years by then.

In addition, the aBRT selection will likely be made before construction begins on the small enhancements for this project, so there will be a window of time to coordinate.

These are good changes, I wish they would move the #7 and #14 to Washington as well. There will be a strong case for bus lanes on Washington in the near future. Wish the timeline on these changes could be faster, there should be at minimum two to three of these BBR overhauls a year.