Under a directive from Mayor Jacob Frey and the Vibrant Downtown Storefronts Workgroup, the City of Minneapolis and Metro Transit have been in a planning process to remove buses from Nicollet Mall and shift them to other streets downtown. Three options have proposed that involve moving the 11 and 25 routes to Hennepin Avenue. The options differ in their treatment of the 10, 17 and 18 routes, either moving them to South Marquette Avenue and Second Avenue South or over to Third Avenue South.
According to the city’s own website for the project, their goal is to make transit as good as or better than it is now. Specific details for each option can be found here.
This is a significant change to our transit system and to how all people experience downtown Minneapolis. I’ve heard two main discussion points in the conversations I’ve had with other transit users around this project. One is actually about transit service and the transit rider experience, while the other is about Nicollet Mall itself.
From Washington Avenue South to 12th Street, buses take an average of about 10 minutes per trip. The proposed plan would lower that to six minutes. That sounds great, but it doesn’t take into account the full rider experience of waiting for the bus, getting to your destination and transferring to other modes — light rail, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), or another bus. Will the four minutes gained by having the bus run on another street be lost in walking over to resources on Nicollet Mall? Will a person feel safe waiting for the bus on a street that doesn’t have a lot of people on it after 6 p.m., like South Marquette or Second and Third avenues?
It’s also important to note that option two, which would move buses to South Marquette and Second on two-way routes, will make express service slower than it is today. This shift will have a very real impact on people’s daily lives, whether their bus currently runs on Nicollet or Marquette.
Vibrant Downtowns Include Transit Riders
If you see transit improvements only in the context of the speed of the bus, you’re ignoring the other half of taking transit. You’re dismissing transit riders as a part of the vibrant downtown for which you are striving. Marquette, Second and Third are isolated streets with little storefront presence and narrower sidewalks, and they will make for a less pleasant trip.
Transit riders should have good things, too: nice shelters to wait at, bright lighting and, yes, public art. The bus stops on Nicollet have some cool lighting features and art, and losing those is a disappointment. The stops are designed to be part of the street, and I worry whether that sensibility will be carried over to the other options.
The other discussion point is Nicollet Mall. It is an important street in our city and a major transitway through downtown. It should be thriving — with full storefronts, people walking around and with a vibrant community. Even at the three public input meetings in late January, there’s been very little commitment from the city on what this redesign will look like, except that buses and transit riders won’t be part of it. The Downtown Action Plan is the best high-level overview. It focuses on Nicollet Mall street activation, placemaking and generating a long-term infrastructure plan, but it does not go into details.
If the goal is to truly pedestrianize Nicollet Mall, we should have more permanent seating, more clean public restrooms (apart from the few now that take insider knowledge to find), drinking fountains, landscaping and built green space. These all make it easy to enjoy being a pedestrian downtown. Instead, we will likely get more concrete space for street festivals and concerts. Who will Nicollet Mall be for? Police, to park their cars on the sidewalk and protect Target?
Call to Action
I am most bothered by this whole process because a directive was made with no input from the people who will be most impacted: transit riders. I love Nicollet Mall, but what I truly love is all of the people, especially all the transit riders walking around. If buses move, we won’t get to experience that anymore.
Share your own viewpoint with the City of Minneapolis by filling out the survey about the transit options. Look for it on this page, under Community Input.