Back in 2013 I was a bit too excited about bus lanes, which is one of the more frustrating enthusiasms a Minnesotan could have, up there with polylinguism and being a Vikings fan. But with all the talk about how a ridiculous amount of buses are going to be jammed onto Hennepin Ave, some of the nerdier streets.mn readers (I kid — we’re all nerdy!) will extract some interest in one of the fruits of my enthusiasm.
In short, I tallied the volume of buses that run on the primary segments of the various downtown streets. That way I could know which downtown street had the highest number of daily bus trips (2nd Ave with 684) and how many buses per hour run northbound on Nicollet in the AM peak (29). Long long ago, this information was on datafinder.org, and it may be now again, but it wasn’t then.
Except 2nd and Marquette buses get two lanes, so divide those numbers by two to get a buses per lane per hour comparison. Nicollet mall and hennepin buses don’t have the same staggered stops and passing lane configuration to take advantage of.
This is true, although even then 2 of the 4 direction/time combos would still have Hennepin+Nicollet with fewer buses per lane per hour.
This is a good metric, as bus movements certainly are something that demand and dictate built-environment needs and right of way designs. But it would also be nice to see riders per hour compared. I suspect that local routes with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder would at least match, if not greatly exceed, the Marq2 lanes. That’s an equally important distinction when deciding if buses should take a lane from general traffic.
that was my first thought too
Interesting to think about lane usage with all of the Nicollet Mall buses on detour shifting over to Hennepin Ave for the rest of the detour. Starts Nov 7th. Should be crazyyyy
Alex come back to Minnesota