Just this past week, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) released a report entitled “Pathways to Decarbonizing Transportation” that models various ways for the state to achieve its climate goals. These goals were set in the Next Generation Energy Act (NGEA) that was passed in 2007 and signed by Governor Tim Pawlenty (!!!). Minnesota aimed […]
Several weeks ago, I published a series of articles on a potential path forward for rapid bus projects in the Twin Cities. I made an inventory of possible corridors, compared their current transit performance, and finally proposed a 2035 network of twenty routes. I got phenomenal feedback from a number of people who are excited […]
If you take away anything from the first two of this series of articles, it should be that we need to know more. Only Metro Transit has the data and staff hours needed to do a thorough review of the options for aBRT expansion. But such a review is clearly needed. While my basic analysis […]
As Metro Transit moves forward with its arterial bus rapid transit (aBRT) program, there’s an important opportunity to reassess the plans that will guide future investments. Those plans, which were developed almost a decade ago, are not comprehensive or inspiring. Some rethinking is needed. Last year, I wrote about the limitations of those earlier plans. […]
This past weekend, dignitaries and Metro Transit staff helped cut the ribbon on the C Line, the Twin Cities’ newest rapid transit service. The C Line is the second project in a planned set of five “Arterial Bus Rapid Transit” (aBRT) routes, the most exciting thing that is happening (and not happening fast enough) for […]
More parking leads to more driving, which leads to more greenhouse gas emissions. And we’re long past being able to afford that.
Right now, and up until Monday, the Metropolitan Council is accepting public comment on whether or not to add the proposed Riverview Corridor streetcar project to its long range transportation plan. I encourage anyone who wants to see good transit service in Minneapolis-St. Paul to make it a priority to weigh in and express highly […]
After a midterm election that saw DFL candidates sweep the statewide offices and make massive gains in the suburbs, transportation funding is in the air once again in St. Paul. To mark the occasion, a coalition consisting mainly of business groups has assembled to push for more money to go to transit. The group, which […]
This summer, for the first time, I had the opportunity to use the A-Line arterial bus rapid transit (aBRT) on Snelling Avenue. I don’t mean ride the A-Line. I’d done that for the first time during a visit to the Twin Cities (I live in Philadelphia) the summer before, soon after the service had started operating. But […]
The battlefield of the urban housing crisis is a confusing place to find oneself these days. At a time when American politics are as starkly divided as they have been in a century, housing politics do not fit comfortably into the familiar right-left narrative. Among a variety of constituencies, from older homeowning liberals to younger […]