There is a concept called open BRT, where the BRT is actually the facility, not the route. So you have, say, three routes that use a separated facility and then branch off outside the facility.
I guess I'm not understanding the concept. For someone along the main trunk, is there just one route, with a transfer required to one of the branches or do all three "branches" run along the same trunk? If the latter, I don't see how there is any better frequency for someone traveling from the trunk to one of the branches.
LRT could also fit on Broadway so I don't find than a strong argument for BRT either.
No, it couldn't. The curves are too zig-zaggy and the 80' segment is too narrow.
There is a lot of surface parking that could be used to widen the ROW. A few buildings would have to be taken but I'm guessing not as many as one might think. A few years ago a county engineer told me it was possible, though rejected due to travel time concerns.
Five years ago, the Uptown transit station was two blocks from a cornfield... Yet strangely enough, it's true. It was right where the Flux dog park is now. I walked by it every day.
Yes, but five years before that there was a factory there, so it's not exactly the same situation. But I want to seize on your last point. If we can bring dense development to Brooklyn Park's cornfields with a wave of the LRT wand, isn't there a better magic hat to point the wand at? What's the regional benefit to bringing dense development to this distant area as opposed to a decaying inner suburb (like the other Brooklyn)?
The cornfield was next to the factory. Both existed at the same time. I don't know if the cornfield was always an undeveloped lot or if a house or something got torn down in the distant past.
But anyway, of course that's not the point. Brooklyn Park isn't exactly gangbusters wealthy. There is a lot of money there in places, but a lot of poverty too. It is *far* more racially diverse than Minneapolis.
I don't think we're favoring development in one area over another. I think it's pretty reasonable to assume Brooklyn Park is going to develop and that developing more densely around LRT is better than continued sprawl.
All this said, I would agree that given what I know, Bottineau is less of an opportunity booster than Southwest but people in North Minneapolis are still excited about it. On the other hand, I haven't tracked Bottineau anywhere near as closely as I've tracked Southwest so there's a lot I don't understand about the project. There may be lots of opportunity opened up by it that I'm just not aware of.