A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

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intercomnut
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby intercomnut » October 22nd, 2016, 2:19 pm

I would imagine that there are more service workers in the corridor, especially at Rosedale and Harmar. That being said, they should have a reduced frequency on Sunday evenings if that is the case, as many service industries close earlier.
Yeah, you would think.

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mister.shoes
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby mister.shoes » October 22nd, 2016, 8:18 pm

Fewer local routes overlapping and filling the frequency gaps?
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intercomnut
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby intercomnut » October 23rd, 2016, 9:09 am

Fewer local routes overlapping and filling the frequency gaps?
Looks like the 84 does end at 8:45-9:15 on weekdays and 7:15-7:30 on weekends, that could explain it.

jebr
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby jebr » November 18th, 2016, 1:45 pm

Frequencies on the A Line in the evenings Monday - Saturday are improving to 15 minutes until approximately 11:30 PM starting December 3:

https://www.metrotransit.org/Data/Sites ... /ALine.pdf

Looks like the 10 minute frequencies end slightly earlier (10-20 minutes or so) but the 15 minute consistently until late at night is a huge improvement. Often under the current schedule I've hit the 25 minute window around 8:30 PM on the northern end, and it's a pain in the rear. 15 minutes until late will be a LOT nicer.

Tcmetro
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby Tcmetro » December 9th, 2016, 12:23 pm


fehler
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby fehler » December 12th, 2016, 10:17 am

A-Line to Arden Hills? I'd rather see A-Line to Edina.

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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby Anondson » December 12th, 2016, 10:28 am

To continue a fantasy-A extension discussion... extend A to 50th/Grandview, or Southdale?

I hope E gets extension some future year to Southdale.

masstrlk67
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby masstrlk67 » December 12th, 2016, 10:37 am

As someone who could actually use and benefit from the A Line north extension... yeah it'd be better off extending west from 46th Street Station. I bet the north extension (post TCAAP redevelopment) could outperform the Red Line though!

RailBaronYarr
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby RailBaronYarr » December 12th, 2016, 11:01 am

If the option were on the table, I'd prefer Grandview. Accessing Southdale from points in S/SW Minneapolis should be accommodated by one of the following single-transfer strategies:
- Using N-S bus routes (including the Orange Line) with a transfer to the 515
- Transferring to the E Line (which should absolutely head to Southdale) from one of two E-W routes (Lake St/Midtown and possible A-Line E-W extension along 50th)

talindsay
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby talindsay » December 12th, 2016, 12:54 pm

If the option were on the table, I'd rather see them build more actual dense urban lines than run more extensions of existing ones.

mattaudio
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby mattaudio » December 12th, 2016, 5:03 pm

Seems like we ought to set some serious transit-orientation goals for the TCAAP site... or Grandview for that matter... and make extension of A Line contingent on having a legitimate transit-friendly place to connect.

hoffm83n
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby hoffm83n » December 12th, 2016, 7:02 pm

I am not optimistic on this one... especially since it seems like they don't have any communication with boston scientific and land o'lakes which is undergoing an expansion. Tcaap is the only dense housing up here and nothing is walkable. Im surprised they would even consider County C and Snelling as a layover location, traffic is awful during rush hour there.

MSPtoMKE
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby MSPtoMKE » December 12th, 2016, 7:08 pm

It seems to me that extending route 84 to the TCAAP site is a much more realistic and reasonable use of resources than extending the A Line in the near/mid term. Route 84 could essentially replace route 225, just extend farther to the new development. Even something like having every other 84 trip extended in the evenings and weekends would still be a significant improvement of what is currently there. It would probably be pretty cheap to extend routes 141 and 4G trips as well.

Anecdote! I met someone yesterday who was originally from St. Paul (his family lives near Snelling) but has lived in Vancouver (a city with a much better transit system) for years and hasn't been back in a few years. He volunteered that he was impressed with the A Line and has used it several times while he has been back visiting. :)
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pannierpacker
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby pannierpacker » December 21st, 2016, 10:31 pm

Several local improvements could boost A line northerly extension ridership:

* Minneapolis Diagonal Trail extension to County Rd C with grade-separated trail crossing over Snelling Ave

* Snelling Ave Trail project
Connecting Northwestern's campus to Rosedale with bike trail built on west side of Snelling Ave. This would serve other businesses in the area as well, not just Northwestern.
Section A - Lydia to County Rd C
Just build it and use redevelopment as an opportunity to bolster the process (Pizza Luce was huge missed opportunity)
Section B - County Rd C to Rosedale
Improve lighting on existing trail in Rosebrook park to encounter commuter use of facility. Create better trail connection south of Rosebrook park to the mall. This will require some coordination with private property owners to use their land as MNDOT effectively has no space in their ROW in this pinch spot.

* Impressive transit station at Snelling/B2 built during bridge reconstruction event
Station would reside in median of Snelling with pedestrian underpass access to Rosedale/MN-DOT and County B2. This could provide significantly more efficient transit access to Rosedale and MN-DOT since the buses would never have to leave the highway. This would especially make sense if Rosedale ever considers expanding outward towards Snelling Ave along the trajectory of the AMC (hey they've already began doing this towards County Rd B2, so why not)?

* Encourage denser development along Snelling Ave north of Rosedale and south of Lydia
The section 8 apartments on the east side of Snelling and the Presbyterian Homes building set good standards for the kind of height we can get away with along this highway.

* Redevelopment of Ford dealership site in Roseville Twin Lakes area
This is long overdue, especially given how the site really doesn't fit well into the whole atmosphere of the ideal Twin Lakes buildout. It's also an extremely low density use for land and very auto-oriented.

* Connecting Twin Lakes Parkway to Snelling Ave
To increase value of land and encourage redevelopment and assist with creating better traffic flow within area.

* The University of Northwestern's continued effort to expand into the Twin Lakes area
Their recent expansion choices they've made so far have done nothing but help the area in my opinion (by taking over vacant properties and increasing pedestrian activity in the area).

* Consider bike connection along Snelling Corridor between Lydia and County Rd E
To increase land value along corridor. Currently, a complete one almost exists today on the east side but turns to woodchips and private property as you approach County Rd E (going north).

twincitizen
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby twincitizen » December 22nd, 2016, 7:19 am

It seems to me that extending route 84 to the TCAAP site is a much more realistic and reasonable use of resources than extending the A Line in the near/mid term. Route 84 could essentially replace route 225, just extend farther to the new development. Even something like having every other 84 trip extended in the evenings and weekends would still be a significant improvement of what is currently there. It would probably be pretty cheap to extend routes 141 and 4G trips as well.
Agreed. There's just too much low-density emptiness between Rosedale and TCAAP to deserve the high-frequency of the A-Line. And Metro Transit really does not want to start branching the aBRT lines (i.e. having every other A Line bus extend to TCAAP). The ideal service to TCAAP, at least initially, would be a local route to Rosedale Transit Center and peak-hour express service to both downtowns.

intercomnut
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby intercomnut » December 24th, 2016, 4:08 pm

Metro Transit really does not want to start branching the aBRT lines (i.e. having every other A Line bus extend to TCAAP).
Looking at the arterial transitways study, the following lines are planned to have shortlines/branches:
  • D line (Shortline runs from Brooklyn Center to Chicago & 56th St)
  • Central Ave (Shortline runs from downtown to Central & 53rd Ave)
  • Nicollet Ave (Shortline runs from downtown to Nicollet & 66th St)
Since Rosedale is a major transit station, I think it would be pretty intuitive to have a shortline that ends there.

Though I'm far more supportive of extending Route 84 instead. There are many other more important bus routes that could use that extra capital/operating funding.

twincitizen
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby twincitizen » January 22nd, 2017, 6:40 pm

Strib on A-Line (and Red Line) ridership: http://www.startribune.com/snelling-bus ... tion=local

A Line was certainly well used yesterday (Women's March). Unfortunately several thousand people were trying to board the Green Line at Snelling/Uni, spilling into the streets while trains already 100% full rolled on by. We got on the A Line at 46th St and was at crush load by the time we hit University. I think all but one rider got off

jebr
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby jebr » February 17th, 2017, 5:41 pm


talindsay
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby talindsay » February 20th, 2017, 12:08 pm

So a million rides in eight months isn't bad, but I thought its ridership was higher than that. Several bus lines have substantially higher ridership.

RailBaronYarr
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Re: A Line - Arterial Rapid Bus

Postby RailBaronYarr » February 20th, 2017, 2:54 pm

Yeah, at an extrapolated ~1.5 million rides/year, the A Line by itself places outside the top 10 routes by itself: https://streets.mn/2015/01/28/chart-of- ... ship-2014/ The 84 still picks up some folks, so I assume, the in-corridor ridership would place in the top 10 maybe? In any case, I was surprised that Snelling scored 3rd highest after Chicago-Fremont & Lake St, mostly since existing ridership was so low. The good news is that almost all of those routes in the top 10 have aBRT studied. I do think the 4 and 3 should be implemented as well.


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