Transit Is in Trouble: Can We Expect Anyone to Come Help?
When your experience of riding the light-rail doesn’t mesh with the long-term solutions being proposed, what do you do? Speak up!
Tag Archives: light rail
National Links: Yes, Your Neighbor’s Noises Annoy You
Why noisy neighbors bother us, where cities will be building next, Los Angeles’ warmer future and other (inter)national links for January 9th, 2023.
Riverview Corridor: Finding a Good Balance Between Light Rail and Streetcar
A comprehensive look at and recommendations for the Riverview Corridor, a proposed streetcar between Downtown St. Paul and the Mall of America.
Bus Rapid Transit: Not As Simple and Cheap As It Seems
Often, if not every time, there’s an article written by Janet Moore of the Star Tribune that relates to bus rapid transit (BRT). It’s defined as a “service that mimics light rail in terms of service and reliability but for a fraction of the cost” (quoting this article). This is a generalized statement that doesn’t […]
Rail vs Bus along the Midtown Greenway
By 2024, the B Line will be operational and provide rapid bus service along Lake Street, Marshall Avenue, and Selby Avenue between West Lake Station in Minneapolis and Downtown St. Paul. Just north of Lake Street is a former railroad trench, now partially occupied by the popular Midtown Greenway trail, that for years has been […]
$129 Million Spent on Botched Blue Line Extension, Equivalent to Three Completed C Lines
Yesterday, we received the dismal news that the promised route for the Bottineau Blue Line light rail extension was only a dream, and that dream is now officially scuttled. What is more troubling is that $129 million in local, county, metro, and state funds were spent on engineering and planning the project when rail company […]
What Happens When You Build Things Near Transit? An Unsurprising Case Study
A few weeks ago, I spoke to an older couple who, over the course of our conversation, mentioned that they had both attended the University of Minnesota. I am not a Gopher alum, but I did live near to the campus for a couple of years, on a little stub of 4th Street SE near […]
The New(er) Mall of America Station: A Temporary Solution
Most of my trips to the Mall of America aren’t to the actual mall but rather to the transit station for getting on a bus or train. For over half a year, however, I’ve made an effort to avoid using Mall of America Station, going so far as to walk from 28th Avenue Station to […]
How Houston Reimagined its Transit Network and Increased Ridership
Featured image credit: Laura Bliss, CityLab As a transit-oriented blog reader, you may have heard back in 2015 that Houston’s Metro system changed the route map of its buses overnight after years of careful planning and community feedback. Now going on four years later, what has been the impact on riders and the communities they live in? […]
How You, and All of Us, Can Escape Car Dependency
I’m coming up on my two-year anniversary of being car-free in Minneapolis. But it didn’t happen at the snap of my fingers. Selling my car was the last step in a gradual, deliberate process that involved becoming aware and making decisions based on how I move around the city (and the world), and no small […]