urbanMSP

The answer is that the 2 mile stop spacing was made up out of whole cloth. It's not based on any demonstrated system, but rather was invented without any clear rationale during the opaque Regional Transitway Guidelines process, which were quietly passed with minimal public input in 2012: http://metr...

Is it worth mentioning that the 2 bus has to sit through multiple light cycles along with the rest of the traffic? Obviously your mind is made up here, but I'll point out that outside of your dystopian fantasy world, the capacity of Franklin would not decrease with a 3 lane configuration because of...

I don't think you'll find many impartial observers who will tell you that 20,000 vehicles per day in an area with significant turn movements can be handled in a three lane configuration. Is the FHWA an impartial observer? http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/10053/index.cfm It's act...

I got sucked into an Orange Line rabbit hole tonight as a result of wondering how the transit station component of the 35W/Lake St project will cost $40m.* I came across more details of what 35W will look like after it's rebuilt between 26th St & I-94. On page 6 of this pdf you can get a general...

People of modest income like myself didn't always have to settle for either multi-family housing or used single family houses, of which there's a fixed supply and thus a lot of demand. Why don't you purchase the raw materials and build a house by yourself with the assistance of friends? That's the ...

I think that when last we discussed this, the plans for reconstructing 35W between 26th & I-94 did not allow for an Orange Line station at Franklin. Last I heard the reconstruction was scheduled for 2018, but I can't find a project page. If you're curious, you could email scott.pedersen@state.mn...

even if we were to stop building greenfield developments in the metro, it might just result in people choosing to live somewhere else rather than moving into the city. I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that density and the urban population will increase as a result. Those same arguments were...

To be clear, SFDs take up 46% of developed land, so excluding farms and vacant land (but including nature preserves). SFDs take up 88% of residential land use, way above their 58% of residential units. An area almost the size of Hennepin County is dedicated to single-family homes in the Twin Cities....

If we stop building new single family houses eventually we're not going to have enough. 58% of metro area housing stock is single-family detached, taking up about 46% of developed land. If no new SFDs are built through 2040, and instead all forecast new households are accommodated in new attached s...

Have you really heard about someone being stopped for trespassing on 4th Ave? Can't tell if joke. That street's as "quasi-public" as it gets. I'd say that RiverStation is pretty porous, too, though certainly not ADA friendly. I used to walk through those passages pretty much every day when...

Not to pile on, but besides shade, trees provide other important ecosystem benefits that apt buildings typically don't, such as soil stabilization, water cycle functions, and habitat (certain apt buildings have some advantages for the last). This provides an important police power rationale for thei...

Here is the proposal that is too suburban even for the Park Board (starts on page 253): http://minneapolisparksmn.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1507&Inline=True This is the only rendering I could find, although there are a lot of more schematic views in the packet: https://gettin...

Sorry if this was covered when we were last talking about this two or more years ago, but why do they assume superliners are required? Seems like single level cars would be cheaper. Not that they're trying to make the 2nd train affordable, since they're assuming at least $95m in capital costs for a ...

Right, but remember how West Broadway is 330' away from Bottineau? I would challenge anyone to prove that a site that is conducive to TOD will no longer be conducive if the station is 330' away. Or are they claiming that the TOD for this project will only spring up immediately adjacent to the statio...

I think there's an argument to be made for running aBRT down Bottineau, but Oakdale/France/West Broadway will serve a lot more population and retail nodes. Have you seen a GIS analysis indicating that Oakdale/France/WBroadway serves significantly more population and retail? For most of this corrido...

There are currently many aBRT lines being built across the country using Small Starts funding: http://www.fta.dot.gov/12304_16264.html Fixed guideway is not a requirement of the program, and I see at least one project under $25m (Jacksonville). It looks like there was/is a requirement that capital c...

SW lacks an anchor on both ends, walkable station areas, destinations with broad appeal, existing transit users, reverse commuters, and non-commuter and weekend demand. Outside of downtown, Hiawatha goes through 5.5 mi of walkable urban space with 7 stations in that stretch. SW goes through 5 mi of...

Har, har, cyclists are jerks, very funny. I can't wait for the Strib to publish a commentary called "Seven signs you're a dick driver." Sure, speeding spandex warriors are annoying, but are they really hurting anything? It seems like just one of those annoyances of mass society (like, say,...

Sorry, dumb architect here. A story hits about this project being 45% over budget and...there are two pages of fare collection posts and scant mention of the bid. 45%... Serious question to the transit types: Are you so inured to these budgets being blown away by the bids that you just shrug at the...