[Mpls] Real BRT doesn't share a lane with cars. . . .

[David A. Greene]

John McClellan wrote:
> Hopefully somebody here can explain to me some of the
> basics of what the city is trying to achieve.
> 
> Do they want to install a dedicated bus lane from
> Downtown to ???, 494?, south of 494?

Downtowen to Lakeville, eventually.  Right now the Crosstown
project limits the scope to 46th streetr but the resolution
included a provision (introduced by councilman Niziolek)
that requires this project to work with the Access project
to make the lane go all the way downtown.

> Where is this lane supposed to go?

That's why the plan was rejected.  There _is_ no lane.  The
design will need to be modified.
> Is the City suggesting that we drop the 4th lane for
> regular traffic?  Or somehow add a 5th lane all the
> way north?

I'm not sure.  My guess is that the design will need to be
reworked some.

> Dropping a lane doesn't sound too smart, considering
> that 35W is the most heavily used roadway in the
> state, close to 200,000 cars per day at Lake St.  
> That would negate any possible benefits from the 62
> expansion.

Not necessarily.  The bottleneck at the weave causes much
of the problem.  Fixing that plus adding transit should
help a lot.  Part of the problem with the current design is
that projections without transit indicate that it will be
congested the day it opens.

> Even adding a single pair of lanes north of 46th would
> mean rebuilding: 46th,  42nd, 40th pedway, 38th, 36th,
> 35th, 31st, Lake, 28th St, 26th St, 24th St pedway,
> Hwy 65 over 94, maybe the 94 flyover.   So 10 bridges?
>  At say, $30 million a piece, that's way more then
> doubled the cost of the original project.   Probably
> looking at a cool $500 million by the time your done.

Are you including the cost of the Access project?  I don't
think the transitway will double the cost of Crosstown +
Access.

> Yeah, that's still cheaper then the Hiawatha LRT, but
> considering the Feds footed the bill for most of that
> - actually probably right around $500mil.   I
> sincerely doubt the Feds are going to be writing out a
> check for something like this.

Why not?  Right now transit gets the same 80% federal
match as roads.  Of course, transit opponents are trying
to reduce that to 50%.  Call you legislators and tell
them to fund transit!

David Greene
Lowry Hill East