urbanMSP

Ridership figures from the weekend -- 61,000 on the Green Line on Saturday (14 hours), nearly 46k on Sunday, for a total of 107k.

https://www.metrotransit.org/107000-rid ... ng-weekend

Saturday had around 93000 rides on light rail. That's gotta be the record ridership so far for one day.

Rode it for the first time today. Metrodome to Victoria took 28 minutes which is a couple minutes slower than the schedule. We didn't clear many lights without stopping. There seems to be opportunities to extend the university green light and train phase. Many times the train waited through both the left turn cycle and cross traffic after just missing the green.

At least it's getting down to 2 minutes later. It's happening!!

Road the Green Line today. Saw cars constantly blocking the intersection at Washington and Huron causing significant delays to trains. Has anybody witnessed this?


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Does anyone think that the signaling is getting worse?
Trains never seems to make it across 280 without at least stopping once, even on a weekend with scant traffic. Yesterday there was a situation where EVERYBODY was stopped at 280. Trains, cars, peds. I guess it seems that the signals aren't "smart" signals but rather just cycle through their cycles.
Can't signals detect when a car is there or not?
This morning at westgate my EB train was stopped while it waited for the oncoming left hand signal to cycle through.... Even though there was no cars waiting to turn left. It's one thing to have a train stop to let little me and my Hyundai go through, it's another thing to have the train stopped for nothing, nothing at all. Baaaaah.

Over the weekend I saw another weird signal issue at University and Malcolm Ave SE in Minneapolis.

The train got stuck at a red while EB and WB cars had green left-turn arrows. Then EB and WB traffic got green lights to drive down University but for some reason, the train's signal remained as a horizontal bar for about 30 more seconds before the train was allowed to proceed.

This seems to be quickly turning into a green line complaints thread.

This seems to be quickly turning into a green line complaints thread.

We are all transit advocates here and many of us have been attending planning meetings since 2006 - you will find my name in the official project comments for as far back as there were comments. We are the line's advocates. these are things they need to address for the line to reach its potential, and they are fixable things that we would have hoped would work on day one, but it looks like they need to do some tweaking. Maybe that constitutes complaining but I think it's good to enumerate the issues.

I do hope metro transit had somebody following this thread and other public input channels.

On Friday I saw a train get stuck westbound at Harvard St waiting for a go signal while the traffic light went through an entire cycle. The driver ended up just blowing his horn and running the signal.

On Friday I saw a train get stuck westbound at Harvard St waiting for a go signal while the traffic light went through an entire cycle. The driver ended up just blowing his horn and running the signal.

There was definitely some issues with the signals on campus last Friday. It seems they have been resolved since then.

Also it look like the train isn't backing up traffic at University and Huron anymore.

-1 to Mr Lindsay.

The signaling issues are really the only complaint I have with the line so far. But it's a critically important thing to get right, so I feel the complaints are well deserved.

That said, my train this morning stopped at Chatsworth (frustrating) but from there only had a ~5 second pause at Marion until stopping at 7th...and 6th...and 5th... in DT St Paul. Still, a step in the right direction!

I just don't understand the point of us constantly harping on the signals issue right now; it isn't as though MT doesn't know about it, and is trying to fix it. When they've had some time to get it right, then we can make more reasonable judgments.

Actually I think it can be helpful if channeled the right way. I'm sure Metro Transit would like to fix it, and I'm sure we have the technical capabilities, but do we have the political will? Do we have the political capital to ensure that a $1 billion train is not encumbered by signal timing that treats cars as equals on the corridor? We need to make sure there's political demand to ensure the proper technical outcome.

I'm not able to ride the green line on the regular, so I appreciate the updates and ancedotes. As a transit advocate, I'd rather know the status of this critical issue and keep my eyes wide open.

Also, we have to recognize that our regional leaders made a value judgment when they denied this line signal priority like Hiawatha's. Some of think that wasn't the right call. Glossing over the consequences of this decision does a disservice to this billion dollar investment. Do you think car drivers would be quiet about the train's affect on traffic if every time a train came they got a red light?

Metro Transit needs to hear about this everyday until it's fixed.

Edit: What Matt said.

At this point I don't know if full signal pre-emption is necessary or not, but it might be worthwhile to actually get the signal prioritization working correctly before we determine it to be a failure.

It's like saying that universal healthcare is a bad idea because the MNsure website didn't work correctly. Or something.

the east side of the line as too many stops, just my opinion (i know a few others) but i understand why these addtl stops were added. but it bogs down the line to have this redundancy. i love the line and all it brings and univ ave hasn't looked this good in decades. the landscaping in the mediums along univ are nice touches. but yea, particularly after snelling heading east. the line's best points are the univ transit mall/wash ave. then gliding across the bridge to west bank. if lived in say, prospect park and worked dt mpls, riding this to work and back every day would be a delight.

I don't think anyone here has suggested the Green Line is a failure.

^ Good analogy, whatever you think of universal health care.

I've been watching the 29th & University Ave (Prospect Park station) intersection as a pedestrian, and the lights there are horrible for pedestrians, but great for the train. The train needs to cross the westbound traffic when it enters or leaves the station, and as far as I can tell the signals are working well. When the train passes Malcolm heading west the westbound car traffic gets a red, and the train takes the turn in front of the traffic without a delay. Eastbound trains seem to trip the light signals to orange while they're dwelling at the station, and then by the time the train is ready to head out the traffic has a red and away the train goes.

Pedestrian phase seems to have been [nearly] forgotten in the whole thing, as I waited 4 minutes to cross University this morning.

Metro Transit needs to hear about this everyday until it's fixed.

You're right that somebody should hear about this everyday until it's fixed, but I think it would be more effective if everyone contacted the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and Hennepin and Ramsey counties - particularly St. Paul and Ramsey County. These are the agencies that own the signals along University avenue and have the final say with respect to signal timing and priority/preemption.

I doubt we need to convince anyone at Metro Transit that this is a problem that needs fixing, I don't think we can say the same for the various public works / traffic departments at St. Paul and Ramsey County.

Actually I think it can be helpful if channeled the right way. I'm sure Metro Transit would like to fix it, and I'm sure we have the technical capabilities, but do we have the political will? Do we have the political capital to ensure that a $1 billion train is not encumbered by signal timing that treats cars as equals on the corridor? We need to make sure there's political demand to ensure the proper technical outcome.

Sure, but we should also know what we're dealing with so that we know where to focus it. Right now, with things still essentially in Beta, we don't know what can't be fixed without further action and what just needs fine tuning.

Metro Transit needs to hear about this everyday until it's fixed.

Why? Do you think it's Metro Transit's decision whether the line gets preemption or not? MT is doing what it can; you're going to be preaching to the choir. Contact your local elected officials instead.