[Mpls] Where is the light-rail vision?

[Sean Wherley]

Minneapolis may not consider itself on par with the likes of Washington, 
D.C. but the city of lakes would be wise to learn from the example of our 
nation’s capital.

During the Johnson Administration, metropolitan Washington, D.C. faced a 
critical decision about its traffic-clogged highways: would it opt for a 
subway system to move about its two million residents or would it choose the 
more conventional path of tearing up its central city to construct more 
roads?  Ultimately, leaders there recognized that the region’s population 
would surge and roads would not suffice to meet future growth.  They 
committed themselves to a vision that was daring but practical: a 98-mile 
subway system.

Forty years later, the Twin Cities is in a similar situation.  Its 
population is nearly 50 percent larger than when metropolitan Washington, 
D.C. leaders committed themselves to constructing a subway system.  The 
region’s 2.9 million people are literally stalled in traffic.  As commuters 
waste hours each week crawling in cars on our region’s highways, they lose 
time that could be better spent at home relaxing with family.  Traffic and 
the time spent in it are often cited as one of the top factors affecting 
one’s quality of life.

Nonetheless, entities like the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, Wells Fargo, 
Allina, and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau are dedicated to paving more land to 
relieve traffic tie-ups.  One of the state’s largest construction projects 
is slated for the Lake Street interchange with Interstate 35W.  Wells Fargo 
and Allina are driving the $460 million plan to build new ramps at Lake 
Street, move existing ramps, and widen the freeway from eight to ten lanes 
from downtown to Crosstown/Hwy. 62.  Moreover, plans outlined in 1991 to 
build light-rail transit in the median of 35W have been abandoned by 
Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell.

It’s time for Minnesota leaders to listen and realize that roads are NOT the 
answer to alleviating the region’s congestion.  The Twin Cities is too 
populous to continue pushing for more highway construction, which destroys 
communities, impairs air quality, and continues to leave cars stranded in a 
sea of traffic.

Instead, it is time to create a vision for the region’s transportation needs 
that goes well beyond a 12-mile light-rail line between downtown Minneapolis 
and the airport.  Just as Washington, D.C. did, the Twin Cities should build 
a system of several light-rail lines, which serve as spokes radiating from 
the region’s two central cities.  This structure allows not only urban and 
suburban residents to easily work and play in each other’s backyard, but it 
also allows those same citizens to work and shop in a suburb on the other 
side of the metro area.

Building light-rail transit in the median of 35W from downtown Minneapolis 
to the southwest suburbs, the state’s fastest growing region, would be a 
sensible beginning.  Some of the tens of thousands of cars that flood 35W 
each day could be pulled off the road and negate widening the freeway 
through Minneapolis’ core.

Another practical location for light-rail is University Avenue between 
downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul.  Business interests support this 
initiative and the Minnesota Senate included $5.25 million in its bonding 
bill to study the feasibility of rail on the corridor.  Connecting the two 
central cities on an underutilized and sometimes forgotten thoroughfare 
makes sense.

The Twin Cities is the country’s fifteenth largest metropolitan area, and 
its population continues to grow.  Let’s hope that our leaders finally 
embrace this reality and accept that a light-rail system is neither too 
expensive nor beyond the Twin Cities’ needs.
The Twin Cities is an attractive and prosperous region, one which should not 
see its growth stifled because of an outdated dependence on roads.

-Sean Wherley, Kingfield

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