Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[intercomnut]

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.

Nicollet is not and doesn't seem like it will ever be a good bicycle route. Third Ave is absolutely a necessary route to have in addition to Nicollet, especially if it can be extended north to University and south across 94. It is not redundant.

[mattaudio]

Having multiple north south bicycle routes downtown is no more redundant than having multiple north south car lanes downtown.

[intercomnut]

Having multiple north south bicycle routes downtown is no more redundant than having multiple north south car lanes downtown.

Exactly.

[grant1simons2]

http://www.metrocouncil.org/Council-Mee ... 0-ppt.aspx

Heywood II plans presented to the Met Council Transportation Committee Nov. 9

[seanrichardryan]

Imagine if they did Heywood II below grade...

[trigonalmayhem]

They're doing a great job of getting progressives to in fight by putting transit vs bikes to distract from the fact they are never going to significantly reduce capacity for cars to serve either. So we get to fight about how the scraps are allocated instead of have a serious discussion of why the hell we aren't taking car lanes for transit and bikes and pedestrians.

[intercomnut]

Metro Transit plans to open a new park and ride in Lake Elmo at Manning and 94 by 2017. It will have five trips to Downtown Saint Paul each weekday. The entire package (including the 550 stall park and ride, 4 articulated buses, and operating costs for some amount of time) will cost 9.1 million. It will also be the future terminus of the Gold Line.

[Anondson]

Buried in this news article about the extremely tight job market, employers are needing to take unusual measures to get workers. I thought this could as well go here because of the transportation shenanigans employers are resorting to getting employees.

http://www.startribune.com/labor-shorta ... 352580131/

Deli Express located off 212 in Eden Prairie has taken to using shuttles to bring workers from Minneapolis out to EP. SW Transit even got involved with busing workers from Minneapolis out to EP.

[twincitizen]

I don't ride transit often anymore (maybe 1-2 trips per month) but I have experienced the automated announcements enough now to comment/inquire:

Are they having problems with consistency? I feel like at some point in my bus trips the announcements go from calling out every single block to cutting out entirely. Do they normally call out every block (or every stop, same thing in most cases), or do they only call out timepoints and major cross streets?

I've experienced this on both the 4 and the 23 in recent weeks, where the announcements were very frequent at first and then just stopped several minutes into the trip...

After the announcements get interrupted by "STOP REQUESTED", how frequently do they resume? Do they resume while the "Stop Requested" sign is still lit up? You'd think it would be very important that "Stop Requested" should not preempt the verbal announcement of THAT STOP.

[amiller92]

I generally only ride the 14, and don't pay that much attention to announcements, but they only seem to be only for more "major" cross streets. They also seem to be rather early (for example, announcing the stop after an upcoming turn before the turn is made).

At least one day the announcements were entirely wrong, as though for a different route. Which would be really confusing if you were trying to rely on them.

[LakeCharles]

I was riding the 4 the other day, and just kind of zoning out, then all of a sudden the announcement said "Chicago Ave, transfer to the 5" and I freaked out for a moment. Then I looked around and realized we were at Bryant and 31st, right on track. It was weird.

[xandrex]

I take the 17 to work and either the 4 or 17 back home (whichever arrives first on Hennepin). The 17 never seems to voice prompt. The 4 only seems to make an announcement for the Basilica. Before and after that, frequently nothing.

[EOst]

The 18 is pretty reliable in making the announcements, but they are entirely preempted by "Stop Requested." They don't come on at all if the cord is pulled. I haven't found any pattern in when they go off; this morning I got "7th Street" as we approached 5th. Because of the Stop Requested issue, I have no idea whether it announces METRO transfers at 5th (because the cord is always, always pulled).

But on Monday, when I rode the 6 alllll the way from the U to Southdale, I heard them pretty consistently. It does seem like they only go off for major streets and transfer points.

[HiawathaGuy]

I was riding the 4 the other day, and just kind of zoning out, then all of a sudden the announcement said "Chicago Ave, transfer to the 5" and I freaked out for a moment. Then I looked around and realized we were at Bryant and 31st, right on track. It was weird.

That happened to me at exactly the same spot! I actually opened Google Maps to see where we were, because I had zoned out and panicked. LOL However, it said it again when the bus approached Lyndale on 31st - which then just made me laugh. But yet - agreed that if I were blind, this would be very alarming.

I've noticed that on some routes it mentions every cross street, and on others, only major transfer points. I'm hoping they get things figured out though. Hell, on a train leaving MOA 2 weeks ago, the train announcement said "This is a Blue Line train to Nicollet Mall Station". I was like - what?

[David Greene]

I think something is very off with their GPS tracking. I've noticed similar issues with announcements and Android Transit App seems to often list real-time arrival times (via NexTrip I guess) much earlier than actual arrivals, and then all the times suddenly increase well beyond the actual arrival time. It's to the point where I can't trust real-time data from Transit App. Several times it has said my bus left already when in fact it arrives in a few minutes.

Yesterday I saw CHECK SCHEDULES at Union Depot...

If I were a tourist I'd get lost pretty quickly.

[FISHMANPET]

I nice little puff piece on New Flyer, which manufactures buses in Crookston and St Cloud.
http://startribune.com/new-flyer-bus-ma ... 360682261/

It notes that they don't sell much to MetroTransit. Our articulated buses are New Flyer but the standard buses are all Gillig.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[trigonalmayhem]

So the real time information is unreliable, but the schedules are also completely wrong for all the detoured routes and won't be updated for a while. So basically it's the wild west for any north south local routes. Best of luck figuring out when you're supposed to catch it when the temperatures drop below zero.

[intercomnut]

So the real time information is unreliable, but the schedules are also completely wrong for all the detoured routes and won't be updated for a while. So basically it's the wild west for any north south local routes. Best of luck figuring out when you're supposed to catch it when the temperatures drop below zero.

Do you want to put up your own money to hire the extra planners to make it happen?

Go back in time and tell the City to give Metro Transit a decent amount of notice that they'd be ripping up 3rd while you're at it (not that I don't love that project).

[grant1simons2]

I ride the 6 almost every day from Marcy Holmes to Downtown. The real time info is pretty on point for me except when a bus is like 2 minutes late. When riding on the bus, the announcements for the street are actually pretty accurate, even downtown. Sometimes it'll miss 1 because no one got off on the stop, but that's it.

[David Greene]

For the first time ever yesterday I rode transit to Southeast. Announcements on the 6 were NOT preempted by Stop Requested. They were, however, off by about a block downtown (Approaching 4th when we were actually crossing 3rd).

But damn, is it hard to get a ride back across the river on a Sunday! Crappy Metro Transit stop signage can go jump in a lake.