Green Line LRT

[Ottergoose]

Any chance I could convince to to set it up on Github?

I've got a train-related Google Maps mash-up too - Railfan Atlas - and would love to tinker/play/contribute to the codebase a bit, if you're into that sort of thing.

[mlseim]

I'm not really sure how to use GitHub yet.
But I put the scripts on there for the Green Line.

https://github.com/maxseim/catpin-productions

[nate]

Strib story with headline that makes no news (Green Line was always going to surpass Blue Line for ridership) but a great chart showing ridership at each station for the last 12 months. There are some really interesting trends here.

http://www.startribune.com/green-line-l ... 309420891/

[Ottergoose]

Have had this shot in mind for a few weeks and got a chance to get out and bag it last night; nighttime pan shot of a Green Line train heading towards Downtown Minneapolis. Tip of the hat to Mr. Catpin; was nice seeing where the trains were.


Washington Avenue Pan; Minneapolis, MN by Nick Benson, on Flickr

[FISHMANPET]

Oh wow that's amazing. Excellent work!

[David Greene]

Any chance I could convince to to set it up on Github?

I've got a train-related Google Maps mash-up too - Railfan Atlas - and would love to tinker/play/contribute to the codebase a bit, if you're into that sort of thing.

Oh man, that's awesome.

We need an app for the railfan stuff and a MUCH better twin cities transit app. Does MetroTransit publicize bus locations as well?

I wish I had the time to code something up. If I ever do get free time, I've got like four other major projects to work on.

[FISHMANPET]

I think the API does provide bus locations, but the data isn't very useful. I recall someone on Twitter trying and they didn't have much luck.

The API correctly reports when a bus hits a timepoint (timepoints are the points you can select for a route in NexTrip, at the very least they'll correspond with scheduled timepoints, but I suppose it's possible there could be more GPS timepoints than schedule timepoints). But in between timepoints, much like the NexTrip arrival time, the location is estimated. So if the bus is scheduled to take 5 minutes between point A and point B, 2.5 minutes after it leaves point A, the GPS location will "be" halfway between A and B, regardless of where the bus actually is. So if it's running ahead of schedule it could jump from wherever it's supposed to be to the timepoint location.

So really to make a useful bus tracker app like that, Metro Transit has to report actual GPS locations of all of its vehicles.

[froggie]

Took the Green Line for the first time today (came in on the Empire Builder...exited at Rice St to get to my rental car). Not bad, though for mid-morning (10ish) was very lightly used in downtown St. Paul.

[VAStationDude]

Metrotransit's Facebook page alluded to modifications on the University of Minnesota Campus being completed during this weekend's service shut down. Anyone know what this is about?

[grant1simons2]

I don't know exactly but there's a ton of pipes, metal and smoke.

[VAStationDude]

I really hope it's not related to the U's ridiculous complaints about electromagnetic interference that might at an unknown time and in an unknown way affect their labs.

[Didier]

Just pointing out that I live at the Westgate station, on the border of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and routinely see trains on the St. Paul side stopping for red lights, especially around 280. Often they are stopping for one car to turn left.

This is still a pretty big problem. I often take the train to Minneapolis but rarely to St. Paul. I know neighbors who drive to work around the capitol because the train is so much slower. It really is absurd that St. Paul still has such poor signal priority for the trains.

[MN Fats]

Perhaps this has been discussed, but would it be at all viable to do a trial run of "full priority" where the train always gets greens? I wonder what sort of response there would be in the community.

[acs]

Yeah I gave up on taking it anywhere east of the U of M and now uber instead. I'd love to go to STP more often on the train but paying 5$ more to save over half an hour in travel time is worth it. It's not just the unscheduled stops, of which there are at least 3 or 4 of them each time I've ridden, or the rediculously close station spacing. Even when a train "makes" a light the operator often gets there well before the light has turned and has to slow down almost to a complete stop before it changes. That means most of the time between stations is spent accelerating/decelerating and not continuing straight through. It's sad this is a $1b streetcar for all intents and purposes, and it shows why the met council wants to stick to RR corridors for future lines to the the suburbs. The green line just wholly uncompetitive with a car.

[HiawathaGuy]

Perhaps this has been discussed, but would it be at all viable to do a trial run of "full priority" where the train always gets greens? I wonder what sort of response there would be in the community.

I personally think this needs more media attention again - with Mayor Coleman needing to feel the heat again.
Streetsmn article?

[mulad]

There's a big need for a good set of data and background information to explain the situation and how it has changed over time. Is there a place we can get average runtimes for the trains? Do the cities log the data from their traffic signal controllers in a way that is useful for tracking when the trains just barely missed lights, or when they were disrupted for other reasons? (Emergency vehicle activations, intentionally disabled for maintenance, or otherwise just not working, etc.)

[mattaudio]

Perhaps this has been discussed, but would it be at all viable to do a trial run of "full priority" where the train always gets greens? I wonder what sort of response there would be in the community.

I personally think this needs more media attention again - with Mayor Coleman needing to feel the heat again.
Streetsmn article?

Doesn't Minneapolis' agreement with Uber grant them some operational data? I bet St. Paul's does as well. It would be fascinating if there was a way to map out how many people are paying for Uber/Lyft/Taxis along the Green Line.

[VAStationDude]

Has the reliability degraded recently? I agree 280 is unacceptable but my overall experience isn't as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Trains blast through nearly every minor intersection and wait times have improved mightily from summer 2014 at major streets like Snelling, Lexington and Dale. Having working next trip has also been a massive plus.

I'm not sure full priority is wise at major intersections with high pedestrian traffic. Two trains passing within a couple minutes of each other results in several minute wait times for pedestrian signals at minor intersections.

Massive ridership numbers hardly suggest people are avoiding the train. Some well off people are willing to pay massive amounts of money to save a little time. I've taken $15 many car2go trips instead of using my metropass.

[David Greene]

Since my car died, for the last couple of weeks I've been taking the Green Line from West Bank to Union Depot to get to work. Honestly for commuting it is not that bad, given that I have a laptop and can get a ton of work done. Not everyone has that ability of course but I hardly notice the time.

The downside is I now have to leave the office a half hour early to arrive home at the same time to take over parenting duties. It's inconvenient for some meetings. Fortunately, my manager is very understanding. If it weren't for this schedule hiccup I'd take it every day, working car or not.

280 is definitely still a problem but I agree with VAStationDude. It hardly ever stops at minor intersections. It's mainly 280, Rice St. and some of the downtown crossings that hold it up beyond what I'd consider acceptable. Rice is almost a minor intersection and I'd like to see LRT prioritized there. It should also be prioritized at 5th and 6th at least. It's not unusual for the train to get a green at 6th and a red at 5th. The result is that the operator (rightly) slowly moves from 6th to 5th to save braking and extra energy use for acceleration. The consequence is that 6th is cleared slowly so it actually hurts traffic flow.

[mulad]

The 5th/6th problem in downtown St. Paul looks a bit worse in terms of impact on other traffic because the block is just a little too short to fit a full 3-car train length comfortably. The tail end tends to dangle out into the leftmost lane a little bit. But really, there should probably be a bumpout on that side of the intersection to widen the sidewalk anyway (at least if the street continues to be a one-way).