I took the C Line to the Orange line a few times this week. The C-Line has riders, but can be sparse at times. The Orange Line is so empty I feel guilty riding it. The E-Line will probably be somewhere in between. I would like to know what the current ridership is on this stretch of Hennepin. COVID, Rideshare and scooters and ebikes and concerns about safety have changed the transportation business in inner-cities. We need to evaluate our assumptions on ridership on these projects and we need to adapt.Like I understand where you are coming from, but we are already seeing the return of ridership on major high frequency routes and aBRT tends to just increase that as well. The road also reopens in 2026, which is 4 years from now. I have a comfortable hunch that transit ridership(especially in the urban core) will have returned to pre-pandemic levels.I have to say I wonder what ridership will be on this line. The parking should reflect ridership. Which we don't know what that is yet. Parking shouldn't be removed for empty buses. Bus ridership isn't what it once was obviously.
On a personal note...I took the transit because I was ill, but I am going to return to biking, because it's easier and faster and safer. The stop I get off of for the C-Line someone was killed there and I have to walk past the memorial every time I get off the bus. I know of shootings at 3 of the Northside C-Line stations in the past months. My family and I stay off of Penn in our car and on our bike when things heat up. To say the least we're not going to be taking the bus when we don't feel safe driving on the same road. Before COVID we freely took the C-Line Downtown for enjoyment and etc.