I was out last Friday making a video about people’s experience with the A Line. Now, I knew about the 30% increase in ridership in this corridor since the A Line opened. But the numbers did not quite prepare me for people’s enthusiasm.
“It’s just really easy.”
“The A Line has helped me by taking 10 to 15 minutes off my commute every day.”
“I like riding the A Line because it’s very fast.”
“I really love the fact that it comes so often.”
The A Line works so well because it’s “arterial Bus Rapid Transit” (aBRT). If you want to brush up on what “arterial Bus Rapid Transit” is, you can check out www.betterbusesmsp.com/about-abrt; and while you’re there, you can watch the video and judge people’s enthusiasm for yourself. Streets.MN has also had several useful posts about aBRT.
My goal with this post is to let you know about the proposal to accelerate the construction of aBRT lines, and how you can support that acceleration if you wish.
Governor Dayton has proposed bonding for $50 million to fund more aBRT. The proposal itself does not specify which routes the funds should be used on. $35 million would almost certainly go to fully fund construction of the D Line along the route of Metro Transit’s #5 bus, the busiest bus line in Minnesota. Substantial additional money would go to advancing the B Line, aka Lake-Marshall between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. There’s a nice summary of how the rest would be spent in the April 15 Pioneer Press editorial supporting the investment, here: www.twincities.com/2018/04/15/editorial-a-clear-case-for-these-buses/. (The link title gives away the conclusion, but it’s worth a read anyway.)
Would you like to see more fast, comfortable, reliable buses in the Cities? The two regional Chambers of Commerce and East Metro Strong have set up a way to make it easy to say so to decision-makers. The site www.betterbusesmsp.com/ will automatically find your legislators and help you let them know of your support.
(In the interests of full disclosure, and keeping with the Streets.MN editorial guidelines: I’m the Executive Director of East Metro Strong, but writing as myself. And this post doesn’t take a position on a specific piece of legislation, largely because the Governor’s proposal hasn’t been formally introduced legislatively yet. A supporter might see that as all the more reason to let legislators know that one wants to see such.)