B Line Lake St Rapid Bus, Midtown Rail Transit

[Qhaberl]

I looked over the plans. There seems to be a lot more dedicated bus lanes for buses traveling west. Anyone have any insight on why that is? At this point, I don’t agree with it or disagree. Just wanting more information.


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[minneboom]

The "bike lanes" on the Lake-Marshall Bridge are really just narrow shoulders.

Couldn’t the narrow shoulders be converted to bike lanes, or are the shoulder needed for some reason? I don’t think the Franklin Avenue Bridge has shoulders. You could narrow the traffic lanes by a few feet and then install bollards or some time of curb protection for the bike lanes. Seems fairly straightforward.

[Bakken2016]

I looked over the plans. There seems to be a lot more dedicated bus lanes for buses traveling west. Anyone have any insight on why that is? At this point, I don’t agree with it or disagree. Just wanting more information.


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I was told by Hennepin County staff, that traffic forecasts showed with two bus lanes and that Lake St isn't being fully reconstructed(lots of bump outs and curb cuts) that traffic would come to a halt basically.

[MNdible]

I looked over the plans. There seems to be a lot more dedicated bus lanes for buses traveling west. Anyone have any insight on why that is? At this point, I don’t agree with it or disagree. Just wanting more information.


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I was told by Hennepin County staff, that traffic forecasts showed with two bus lanes and that Lake St isn't being fully reconstructed(lots of bump outs and curb cuts) that traffic would come to a halt basically.

I think the question is why, if you can only have one dedicated bus lane, does the west bound direction almost always get the priority? Was there some logic for that?

[Trademark]

I looked over the plans. There seems to be a lot more dedicated bus lanes for buses traveling west. Anyone have any insight on why that is? At this point, I don’t agree with it or disagree. Just wanting more information.


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I was told by Hennepin County staff, that traffic forecasts showed with two bus lanes and that Lake St isn't being fully reconstructed(lots of bump outs and curb cuts) that traffic would come to a halt basically.

I think the question is why, if you can only have one dedicated bus lane, does the west bound direction almost always get the priority? Was there some logic for that?

Is Lake street due for reconstruction sometime soon?

[kellonathan]

Lake St reconstruction is not on the table as most of it was rebuilt around 2007-2008.

WB bus lane is prioritized (over EB) as it performs better in delay reductions/ensuring higher reliability, in a situation where you have to choose one direction only.

[daveybabymsp]

I looked over the plans. There seems to be a lot more dedicated bus lanes for buses traveling west. Anyone have any insight on why that is? At this point, I don’t agree with it or disagree. Just wanting more information.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was told by Hennepin County staff, that traffic forecasts showed with two bus lanes and that Lake St isn't being fully reconstructed(lots of bump outs and curb cuts) that traffic would come to a halt basically.

If westbound traffic won’t come to a halt with a bus lane, why would eastbound be any different?

[xandrex]

Without reconstruction of curbs, there are only four lanes worth of space on Lake Street. I guess if you added the bus lane in the other direction, you'd have to remove the left turn lane they're proposing. I suspect that would slow things down quite a bit.

[daveybabymsp]

Without reconstruction of curbs, there are only four lanes worth of space on Lake Street. I guess if you added the bus lane in the other direction, you'd have to remove the left turn lane they're proposing. I suspect that would slow things down quite a bit.

Ohhh I didn’t see they were also doing a center turn lane with the remaining car lanes. That makes sense.


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[Trademark]

Without reconstruction of curbs, there are only four lanes worth of space on Lake Street. I guess if you added the bus lane in the other direction, you'd have to remove the left turn lane they're proposing. I suspect that would slow things down quite a bit.

Ohhh I didn’t see they were also doing a center turn lane with the remaining car lanes. That makes sense.


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I know it's not optimal but what about 31st being used for eastbound bus lanes from Lyndale to 1st avenue and 3rd to 22nd? Turn it into a westbound one-way for general traffic. Two way bus lanes could run underneath 35w and and Hiawatha to 27th and from there bus lanes aren't needed as much.

The downside is legability but big signs with arrows saying eastbound B line, one block that way could help with that. And the time savings from the bus lanes (and removing some stop signs and timing the lights better) would more than make up for the extra block walk for the vast majority of trips. Especially in a world where Greenway rail seems increasingly unlikely. Speeding up the slowest Metro Transit bus by getting it out of traffic is a necessity.

[Hero]

What is the purpose of 4 traffic lanes on the bridge? From what I can tell Lake street and Marshall avenue will each be 2 lanes not far from the bridge. Is the goal to create a dragstrip next to that tiny bicycle lane?

[MNdible]

Not sure what the traffic patterns are, but the Streetview does show both lanes westbound fully stacked up on the bridge.

[Mdcastle]

There's 22,000 vehicles a day on the bridge, which is above the 20,000 threshold where road diets normally are considered. Some of the traffic rapidly disperses onto the parkways and into the neighborhoods on either side of the bridge, on the other side of the parkways counts are below the 20K figure.

[Didier]

The "bike lanes" on the Lake-Marshall Bridge are really just narrow shoulders.

Couldn’t the narrow shoulders be converted to bike lanes, or are the shoulder needed for some reason? I don’t think the Franklin Avenue Bridge has shoulders. You could narrow the traffic lanes by a few feet and then install bollards or some time of curb protection for the bike lanes. Seems fairly straightforward.

These are very much standard bike lanes.

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9483487 ... 384!8i8192

[Qhaberl]

Someone mentioned that Lake Street was reconstructed sometime in the early 2000s. What part of Lake Street was reconstructed?


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[Tcmetro]

IIRC, it was ~ 2004-2006 and it was from Dupont to Blaisdell and 5th Ave to the river.

Blaisdell to 5th was postponed to be part of the 35W-Lake reconstruction project.

[StandishGuy]

Some of us advocated for a four to three lane conversion back them, but Hennepin County dismissed it outright. Their traffic engineers care most about moving cars, while pedestrian safety and improved transit is an afterthought. The result of the 2008 reconstruction of the Lake and Lyndale intersection is the most dangerous intersection in Minneapolis for walkers with the highest crash numbers.

A good question to ask is why does Hennepin County own so many of Minneapolis streets when they work against the City's goals of creating more multi-modal streets....

[Hero]

The eastbound lane shrinks to a single lane just as it crosses the river. I cross this bridge daily and don't see many turning off before the lane is lost. Why couldn't the eastbound lane be a single on the bridge? Or at the very least narrow the lanes. I find myself driving 45 and still getting passed on that bridge.

[seanrichardryan]

Yep- I live where that lane drops. 45-50mph is pretty normal coming across the bridge, and then there is aggression at the merge point. (All to end up at a red light on Otis or Marshall). We've lost 3 median trees in the past few years and the signs/ stoplights several times a year.

[Didier]

Construction on Lake Street is officially underway. The 4-3 conversion is not going over well on Nextdoor.