[Mpls]: Tragic "misplanning" by Metro Transit

[Mike Jensvold]

(Warning, strong start then some rambling)

I would agree with Laura Wittstock that some middle ground should be 
reached.  Street parking near LRT stops on residential streets should not 
be completely barred to non-residents, but some accommodation needs to be 
made for residents.  I did some online searching a while back for parking 
studies, and it looks like the Met Council looked seriously at parking and 
then put the recommendations in a drawer for two and a half years.  If 
anyone knows of anything that was actually adopted or more recent info that 
this, please post..

http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/lrt/ParkingRecs.htm

I like (as much as one can like paying for parking) the parking machines at 
various Minneapolis parks.  Perhaps the City parking folks could talk to 
the Parks and Rec parking folks?


At 03:32 PM 8/2/2004, Laura Waterman Wittstock wrote:

"... I don't mistake the street for my personal property. There must be 
some middle ground here."

Laura
"Southeast and jonesing for speed bumps on my block"


Speed bumps are very crude, but they are cheap.. narrower roads are a 
better means of traffic-calming in my opinion and you can get more sidewalk 
as a bonus.  Some of the streets in the Wedge are good examples of this, 
although there are also a few speed bumps which are more or less 
superfluous..  The complete closing of intersections like at 32nd St South 
and Garfield in the Lyndale neighborhood is a page from the suburban 
planners handbook and has no business in a real city.

And.. I'd like to gloat that I predicted many of Hiawatha's shortcomings on 
this list a week or so before the big opening. On June 17th I wrote:

"It's important that the Hiawatha route does connect major destinations and 
is long enough to be useful...I think Hiawatha will be less successful in 
between.  The stops are too far apart, the population density is too low, 
and the walk to the stations is often awkward.  Parking is also limited, 
discouraging "intermodal shifts" from car to rail line.  Prospects for 
higher density redevelopment along the middle of the line are somewhat 
limited in the near future.  If you live near a stop .. it will be nice, 
but I bet a significant number of people who live in between stops .. will 
see the trains go by but never bother to make the 10+ minute walk to get to 
a stop."

I was a bit pessimistic in not considering the timing of bus routes with 
the LRT.  Curious to hear first hand accounts of how well the timing works.



Mike Jensvold
East Isles