Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[EOst]

It's amazing how quickly people can forget how much they used to complain about Nicollet Mall being slow. If you could make the turn from Marquette onto 7th (northbound) and from 8th onto 2nd (southbound) faster, I wouldn't be all that surprised if their schedules would be pretty comparable.

[MSPtoMKE]

Until recently, LaSalle was being completely reconstructed, and 11th and 12 were being resurfaced. These are the only reasonable routes for Nicollet buses to reach Hennepin. Next year (I believe) 3rd Ave. will be redone with protected bike lanes. That doesn't leave a lot of options other than changing the detour. The only other option I can think of would be to stay on 2nd and Marquette all the way through downtown. On paper, that seems like a good idea, since it would be a straight shot for the 10, 17 and 25 to link to their old routing north of Washington. But there is only one through lane that doesn't turn into a parking lane off peak. Also, Washington being under construction will probably mean the 10, 17, 18 and 25 will have to use 3rd and 4th to head east from Hennepin.

Edit: They posted the new detour information
http://www.metrotransit.org/hennepin-avenue-reroute

[mattaudio]

I saw and photographed an eastbound route 27 bus driving in the protected bicycle lane down 28th Street this afternoon. Slow, with flashers on, like a freeway shoulder. I'd rather see peak-hour parking turned into bus lanes, but it wasn't the worst. Definitely something I don't want to see on high-frequency bus streets, but it seemed to be ok in this context.

[EOst]

You should report that bus to Metro Transit. The driver can be as careful as he wants, that still isn't safe, and it'd be a huge problem if it were normalized.

[seanrichardryan]

There have been some congestion issues on both streets . I waited 7 minutes and 5 light cycles to get through the lights at 10th Ave S & Chicago Ave on 26th this afternoon, at 3pm. That's got to be slowing down the 27 buses too.

[intercomnut]

You should report that bus to Metro Transit. The driver can be as careful as he wants, that still isn't safe, and it'd be a huge problem if it were normalized.

I'm thinking it's probably an MTS/First Transit route, but MT can probably give you their contact info.

[RailBaronYarr]

Nice article about transit ridership modeling process. Would have liked a bit more on the nuts and bolts, but probably not appropriate given the audience. http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy ... ss-transit

My favorite passage:

Wachs was the chair of a special committee that looked into forecasting practices for the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies in 2007. He thinks the current tools and methods of forecasting are sound, but added: “I find a lot of questions to be asked about particular circumstances when the modelers are under pressure by clients to support conclusions already reached for political reasons.”

The variables that can produce significant changes in final ridership forecasts include demographic information, economic growth, gas prices, regional planning, and surveys on how people actually travel.

“What is really important about forecasting is assumptions,” Wachs said. “Forecasts are more dependent on assumptions than they are the methods and the data. … [and] if you change the assumptions, you can get the outcomes to change dramatically.” And by the time assumptions become reality, once the project is up and running, it is too late, he added. “By then, the assumptions have done their job.”

[mamundsen]

On my ride home tonight (rt 61), the bus driver took a moment to get everyone's attention and mention that starting Nov 7 the Nicollet Mall buses will be re-routed onto Hennepin. At first this was confusing because our bus is typically on Hennepin, then we realized he was warning us about congestion and probably late arrivals. How bad do we really expect this to be? I see this reroute will be through 2017.

https://www.metrotransit.org/nicollet-m ... -on-nov-7/

[trigonalmayhem]

There was a lot of groaning on my bus this morning when they gave this announcement. People are getting pretty sick of the routes getting moved so much. Someone vocalized my own thoughts and said "how long until they move it again?"

[mattaudio]

Couldn't they have local buses temporarily use the outside traffic lanes on Marquette / 2nd Ave (opposite direction of main bus travel)???

[twincitizen]

Theoretically yes, but you'd have to bag all of the meters along both streets, pissing off businesses and costing the city quite a bit of meter revenue.

Regarding Hennepin vs. 3rd, isn't the ideal answer "both"? The Route 10, for example, has absolutely no business being on Hennepin...that is ridiculous.

[EOst]

Theoretically yes, but you'd have to bag all of the meters along both streets, pissing off businesses and costing the city quite a bit of meter revenue.

Plus the food truck area on Marquette.

[mattaudio]

I think 3rd could have easily been converted to right lane buses and bikes, putting up some plastic pylons (where right turns aren't required) to distinguish the right of way. Then wait for the protected bike lanes until buses are back on a reconstructed Nicollet Mall.

[MNdible]

Yeah, I am kind of stunned that the city is pushing ahead with the Third Avenue work before the Nicollet work is done.

[EOst]

The 3rd Ave work is a necessary prerequisite for fully closing Nicollet. Without Nicollet there's no even vaguely pleasant N/S bikeway between 1st Avenue and, what, 11th?

[acs]

So we should seriously impair local transit riders (who outnumber bicyclists by orders of magnitude) to build infrastructure for bikers that is redundant after 2016? Oh and last I checked there were bike lanes on 4th, 5th, Park and Portland but apparently those aren't "pleasant" enough for the Greg LeMond crowd who think they above all others deserve a high-speed commute through the heart of Downtown.

[grant1simons2]

Sheesh. You might as well just say screw all bikes man.

[acs]

Among the spectrum of transportation options in Minneapolis, bikers are not the ones that have been getting screwed recently.

[EOst]

Bikers are always the ones getting screwed. It's bikers, not transit riders or pedestrians, who are expected to constantly weave in and out of our (routinely ignored and blocked) bike lanes while every day facing physical aggression and outright death threats from passers by. Have you ever biked on 4th, 5th, Park, or Portland? "Stressful" doesn't even begin to describe it; there are certain intersections where I cross my fingers every day hoping someone isn't going to run me over. I don't care how slow your bus goes, you don't have to worry about your basic safety.

Does it suck that buses are going to be a bit slower for a few years? Hell yeah. But just because you're upset about the construction impacts of the Nicollet closure doesn't make it okay to belittle my safety.

[RailBaronYarr]

I'd just like to say that this is why we can't have nice things.

My personal hierarchy of mode prioritization on a street has bikes barely ahead of buses (peds, bikes, bus, car). Owning a bike is the cheapest means to mobility within our city ($100 Target special is the price of one monthly bus pass, basically), has far lower negative public health impacts than even transit (crash severity and pollution), and requires about the same amount of space per person to use. But, that's just my personal opinion. I recognize that a family with a baby can more easily hop on a bus in January than take the cargo bike out for a ride.

We seem to have these arguments all the time, where we're questioning taking space away from peds for bikes, from transit for bikes, etc. In this case, transit riders were already inconvenienced by the shift over to 3rd Ave thanks to Nicollet. Let's not blame bicyclists or the bicycle agenda for the inconvenience from the new shift over to Hennepin. And for 8 months a year, maybe biking into or through downtown would be a better option than taking the bus.