Solving BRT Creep
NIMBYs hate him! Learn the one neat trick to regional transit planning that traffic engineers don’t want you to know!
Tag Archives: met council
St. Paul and the Problem of Arterial-Only Housing Development
In St. Paul, we have confined the majority of our housing development to heavily trafficked streets, forcing residents to bear the consequences.
Can Metro Transit Fix Policing?
It probably seems like years ago. But, in actual time, it’s only been four months since February 2020. That’s when the Minnesota Legislature began debating a policy to change policing on Metro Transit trains and buses. At the time, the debate centered around a “law and order” narrative. Everyone at the capitol seemed to agree […]
What Does Greta Thunberg Want?
If you have a pulse, you can’t have missed the demonstrations that Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg has been organizing around the world. Whether you call it Global Warming, Climate Change, or, lately, the Climate Emergency, our changing climate is what she is organizing schoolchildren globally to protest about on Fridays. Most people have a favorable […]
The Blue Line Extension in Limbo
After decades of planning, Southwest LRT (the Green Line Extension) is finally under construction. Unfortunately the news is not so good for the Bottineau Corridor (the Blue Line Extension). Between Minneapolis (specifically just west of Olson Memorial Highway & Penn Avenue) and Brooklyn Park (specifically just north of I-94) the Blue Line Extension would operate […]
Chart of the Day: Housing Unit Growth v. Population Growth
Someone (apologies for I forget who) Tweeted out this report from the Met Council called simply “We Still Need More Housing” the other day. It’s got some great charts in it. Here are three of them. Keep in mind that this is all metro-wide data. For example, check out this chart, comparing MSP to other […]
Building A Network Of Rapid Buses — Evaluating the Corridors
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. […]
Brian Lamb and Metro Transit Deserved Better
How incredibly stupid. The newly appointed Met Council Chair has fired the best General Manager in Metro Transit’s history and replaced him with someone who has no transit background. What? The CEO sets the tone for the organization. I know how important a good general manager is to this transit system because I served under […]
Affordable Housing in Minneapolis and Beyond
The current debates over the Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan and inclusionary housing raise some interesting ideas for consideration about the city and Twin Cities metro area overall. First, more housing at all levels of affordability is critical to the future of the city, not for the sake of density itself but rather the city’s ability […]
Chart of the Day: Twin Cities Rental Vacancy versus Average Rents
Via the Star Tribune’s Editorial page, here’s a chart from the Met Council’s latest report on housing trends. It shows the average rents charted against the ever-tightening rental vacancy rate: Here are the key points from the report about this chart: The region’s rental vacancy rate has been under 5% since the fourth quarter of […]