Mall of America - Bloomington

[Tcmetro]

When I talked to a planner years ago (maybe 2006?) it was noted to me that the center of 494 was being reserved for "future transit use"; however, there wouldn't be room for stations under the bridges. So it seems to me that the "future transit use" has always been a MnPass lane. Anyways, the reconstruction of 494 from 100 to Cedar doesn't seem like it is going to happen at anytime in the near future, so it could just be a moot point now.

As for LRT on the 494 corridor, I doubt it will happen any time soon. Consider that the American Boulevard bus runs every half-hour during peak hours, and is typically quite empty. The 77th St bus is a little better with 15 min peak service, 30 during the midday periods, and 60 during evenings and weekends. Also, many of the jobs in the corridor tend to be white-collar and high-paying, whereas the nearby housing tends to cater to low-income or elderly people. So basically there is a severe mismatch of riders in the corridor, and we would likely have an underperforming train line.

[Mdcastle]

You could always built stations on elevated platforms like heavy rail in the middle of the Chicago freeways. I could see commuters from the southwest driving to the park and rides in Eden Prairie and then taking the rail rather than having to deal with the apocalyptic traffic on I-494. Or tourist going between the Mall and the airport and their hotel rooms on the I-494 strip.

[mattaudio]

Indeed. I fear for BRT on American Blvd/494 between E.P. and MOA because it's always done cheap. Amenity-rich bus stations don't do anything for ridership when choice riders refuse to walk pedestrian-hostile landscapes from the station to adjacent job centers. That's why it's critical that transit in job corridors is highly integrated with office complexes, even if it means expenses like skyways etc to connect to places like Meridien Crossings, Best Buy, the buildings at France, and the Normandale cluster. I have to imagine this could work well for the building owners too, if it meant they could cram more office square footage without the huge expense of more structured parking.

[mulad]

F&C has a paid article on the planned $20 million rearrangement of the transit station. I can't tell if anything has substantially changed from the plans we've seen posted before (nothing was attached to this article, as far as I can tell). They're planning to hunt for funding this coming year (2014), maybe into 2015, followed by a year of design work and 12-18 months of construction.

http://finance-commerce.com/2013/12/upg ... -red-line/

[twincitizen]

Mark Andrew beaten with club for his iPhone at MOA Starbucks

Yes, that Mark Andrew.

[mattaudio]

Not to be confused with Mark Anderson.

[ECtransplant]

We should stop building our light rail lines out to the burbs. All the riff raff in the burbs could take the train to our safe city

[Didier]

Kind of depressing that nobody stepped in to help him.

[uptowncarag]

And it also sounds like well never mind.

[MSPtoMKE]

I landed right next to the MOA on New Years Eve, thought people might want to see photos of the recent construction:

Pedestrian Bridge and Radisson Blu:

Radisson Blu by MSPdude, on Flickr

Lindau Lane:

Lindau Ln. Construction by MSPdude, on Flickr

[mattaudio]

Makes it very clear that six lanes is overkill for Lindau, Killebrew, etc. The choke points are the stoplights, turning movements, etc.

Also, looks like there's plenty of space in the southern third of that tunnel when they finally decide to move the LRT station to that spot

[Tom H.]

Does anyone else think the Radisson Blu looks like it's built out of LEGOs from that distance?

[Mdcastle]

As nice as having a skyway there will be it looks kind of strange just ending, like there should be another hotel on the other side.

[talindsay]

Yeah wow, nobody should use the phrase, "car sewer" in the context of anything in Minneapolis as long as this sits in Bloomington. I'm not against the Mall - I kind of like it an odd way, although I don't go there often - but *wow* that's a lot of unused asphalt.

[mamundsen]

As nice as having a skyway there will be it looks kind of strange just ending, like there should be another hotel on the other side.

There are already 3 hotels on that side of the street. It is a very odd area. The skyway is just an expensive crosswalk. #dumb

[Minneboy]

I was wondering about that skyway as well. Looks incomplete on the dead side. Maybe someone will buy those restaurants and build something more in tune with a skyway connection.

[Didier]

MOA is surprisingly terrible from the outside.

[Anondson]

Reminds me of Downtown Minneapolis's skyway to nowhere over Marquette. Took, what, a couple decades to finally build a building to connect it to?

[Mdcastle]

Looking at traffic counts, 4 lanes would be enough east of the first entrance to the parking ramps (15,700 on Lindau and 18,400 on Killebrew), and 2 lanes even west of them (9400/8500). Though I'd prefer roads to be overbuilt rather than underbuilt and they were probably thinking of the holiday shopping period and this is before the new expansion.

I happened to notice that, except for around I-494 to American, that 4 lanes aren't justified on Nicollet or Portland. I don't especially like 4 lane undivided roads so I was thinking it would be nice to convert them to three lanes and use the extra space for off-road bicycle trails. Bloomington has been restriping collector streets, but not arterials and certainly not county maintained roads, and the collector streets still don't have off road trails, just an informal bike lane on the sides.

[BigIdeasGuy]

I'm just spitballing an idea here and I have put in zero thought about viability, financing, etc but what does everybody think about restarting/re-founding the old Minneapolis Millers, having them join the American Association(same league the St. Paul Saints play in) and having them play at a new ballpark just south of the Mall?