urbanMSP

I'm not disagreeing with you, woofner, on the principles you describe, just that they're not entirely applicable in this situation. The stoplight at IKEA will still exist (to my knowledge), and all traffic coming off of MN-77 onto Lindau goes on ramps with relatively tight turning radii, meaning mos...

It would be nice to somehow get Northwestern and Bethel hooked up to useful transit somehow, but I can't think of a good way to do it given the way the campuses are oriented now. There's a pretty sizeable population of students living on-campus without cars, who rely on the campus shuttles to get th...

Not to nitpick, but...

It won't be 'immediately off the freeway extension' - I expect the new submerged section of Lindau to be somewhat effective at calming down to (what near MoA passes for) neighborhood speeds.

As with most of these sprawl-freeway-projects, you'll see short-term easing of congestion, followed by decades of just-as-bad congestion (spread out over a larger area) due to induced demand from the new capacity.

Well, with a name like the "Star", maybe you shouldn't be too surprised of the socialist origins!

Good teamwork!

(I need to get a usable camera...)

I thought that this wasn't really a sign, per se, but rather the logo painted onto the roof. It would only be visible if viewed from above (i.e., blimps). I don't see this as really 'opening the floodgates' for billboard-style signage downtown (although there already is a huge billboard right next t...

I thought the breakdown was this:

$98M now for renovation, split 50-50 between the City and the team.
$50M spread out over many years through a capital improvement fund (funded by City taxes).

I could be wrong, but I thought this was the plan.

If anybody wants to see what bus shelters look like before they're fully assembled, hurry down to the Coffman bus stop on Washington Ave - it looks like the un-assembled shelters were delivered last night.

Bricks are starting to go up on the first two floors - visible at least from the 10th Ave Bridge.

I've been on a Blue Line train that decoupled one car at Franklin (a 3-car consist leaving downtown around 9am - they were dropping it down to 2 cars for off-peak service). Took about a minute to move everybody out of the car that was separating, but the decoupling itself took only a few seconds.

I'm in the physics department at the U - we're supposed to start moving in this month. The official word is that the new building has 'beneficial occupancy' as of yesterday, i.e no hardhats required inside. We expect to be all moved over early in the new year. From an urbanist / architecture point o...

Hmm... I'm imagining 3-car consists coming from Eden Prairie, decoupling at West Lake into a 2-car headed downtown and a 1-car heading down the greenway. Oh, the possibilities! If they ever manage to interline at the Midtown station, you could link a 2-car Blue Line train coming from downtown with t...

What exactly does it mean for buildings to be too crowded? Like, they can't stretch their arms out?

By the way - still no carillon to tell us how late we are to class. I miss those booming hourly peals.

The 16 will terminate at Oak and University? That's news to me - I thought it would mirror the Green Line route all the way from downtown to downtown. There is a bus stop sign on southbound Oak and Washington, right next to the rusty metal wall. Not sure how long it's been there, and I didn't see if...

One of the nicer gas stations / auto shops in the Twin Cities (as far as urban form goes) is located in, of all places, Eden Prairie. The Bobby and Steve's shop near the EP Mall fronts the street, tucks the parking behind the storefront, and you can walk to the EP Mall, Old Chicago, or the Brunswick...

Electronic message signs are up at the East Bank station, and they have (unsurprisingly) the words 'East Bank' on them. All that really seems to be missing from most of the stops are the card readers and TVMs.

I'm assuming 'station sponsorship' is pretty much equivalent to advertising revenues, in which case the total 'subsidy' (grants+misc.) was only about $31k out of a $1M budget in 2012 (this is operations ONLY; capital budget is separate), so this is pretty much break-even just on business revenues al...

By the way, the article mentions such an event happening in downtown Red Wing. So, it's a little simplistic to pin this on 'the suburbs'.

Seems like if you were willing to slow down the traffic a bit and square out the corners, those type of interchanges could be very compact. I also like how they provide opportunities for some town-square-like space in the middle - perfect spot for a statue or something.