urbanMSP

I don't disagree that I-94 needs more lanes, and there's a pork barrel bill that would provide $30 million in bonds to add a lane from MN 101 to MN 241, but if we're going to invest in meaningful highway expansion we need to fix the overall funding situation, not provide pork for pet projects here a...

Can someone refresh me as to what was so wrong with it before the last redo?

The merge area between the east US 61 ramps and the west English street ramps will be well below standards, and the weave at the cloverleafs will remain, Mn/DOT had a design that didn't create problem 1 and fixed problem 2, it would have taken out two of the cloverleafs and combined the two intercha...

I believe Mn/DOT has shut up about moving the ramps to 38th because of neighborhood opposition. FWIW the original early 1990s plan (which included light rail and would have taken out a row of houses west of the freeway) kept the ramps at 35/36th but braided them to eliminate that nasty weave. Even b...

Scott County has butted heads with the met council before about transportation priorities so I'm now surprised they wanted a freeway, as for US 169 I'm thinking the long term idea might be for a HOT shoulder during peak periods, like I-35W approaching downtown. I don't agree with stealing safety sho...

I was driving by the U today and I noticed all the student housing projects going up. So I'm wondering why the need? Are more students wanting to stay in the area as opposed to driving? Can the U dorms not accommodate all the people that want to stay on campus? Are the U dorms unattractive to todays...

It would be interesting to do an origin / destination study to find out where the traffic is coming from. My bet is a lot of it is traffic from outside of the area that's heading to point southeast that's cutting through on surface streets because they Lowry Tunnel and I-394 are such disasters at ru...

If there's enough pedestrians that they're competing with right turning cars it might not be a bad thing to have a an exclusive pedestrian phase, followed by a green right turn arrow in tandem with the green through movement. I'm not aware of any exclusive ped phases in the metro, but if a controlle...

Is that a lot for your industry? My office downtown has been averaging at least 50 per opening the past few years It might be more like that now. I was told this years ago, probably 2006 or so. Because it's in the healthcare industry a lot of people probably think they're unqualified if they're not...

I don't think most people can be fussy about where they want a job now days. As much as I hate going downtown I'd work there if that was were my job was. I'd even drive to Brooklyn Park from my house in east Bloomington I had to. I work for a huge company that has a very suburban campus with nothing...

I gave up on the "New Zoo" back in 1992 because it was too boring (and expensive), and is sounds like nothing has changed. I want to see Lions and Tigers and Bears (and Giraffes), etc, not the same animal that was raiding my garbage cans last night that may or may not be hiding somewhere w...

Thought I'd address the issue of countdown pedestrian lights that someone mentioned in a previous post. Any new pedestrian signals have to be the countdown type, so that's a given. The reason why you see so few of them on existing lights in Minneapolis compared to the suburbs is that the countdown m...

9.1 million doesn't buy a lot more than new pavement nowdays. One thing I see discussed various places is making traffic signal improvements to benefit pedestrians- leading ped phases, giving a Walk if there are no conflicting vehicle phases, etc. The problem is Minneapolis has a lot of extremely ol...

I don't have a philosophical reason, just that I like a house with a yard and want to be able to drive alone without being stuck in traffic and would like other people to have the choice. Although I ride trains I haven't been on a public bus in 25 years, but I do support having a bus system for thos...

One thing I kind of wondered if there's a market for a world class indoor waterpark in the area, something along the lines of Edmonton, not the puny thing by the Mall of America. I know it's been talked about for the Mall of America phase II, but it'll likely by another small one. Right now Southdal...

I do like the idea of two stops at Shakopee, one in the downtown area and one at Valleyfair. One thing I thought of is their parking lot would make an excellent park and ride location, since it's already there, and is only ever full on nice weekends in the summer. There's also a lot of room between ...

I guess I'm one of the people that frustrate you then, since I do a lot of shopping, including all my grocery shopping a Walmart. I'm not sure how I'll fit in here, but I thought I'd join as the token pro-freeway, pro-suburban sprawl, pro plenty of parking member. I wouldn't characterize the Walmart...