[Mpls] True impact of Crosstown "victory"

[A.J.Colianni]

> Fancy trains aren't magic.  To get LRT, we'll need to spend 2 1/2 
> times more
> than BRT (assuming dedicated right-of-ways for both).  And that gets a 
> 20%
> bump in ridership.

You're right, they're not magic... they're just proven to work! Nothing 
magic about that. We need to give people alternatives so they don't 
have to drive everywhere. Besides, I don't care if it costs more. 
Throwing money at a problem is not the goal here. The goal is actually 
upgrading the system.

> Everyone and their grandmother wants to build a couple lines and
> are beggin' the feds for money for it.

We don't want a couple of lines, we want a system. A system that lets 
people make choices about how they want to get around. We have a 
funding source for transit, it's just that unlike other cities 
(Denver?) nobody has the guts to do it!

***
Raise the gas tax and dedicate it to transit! (How much would a 10-cent 
raise in the gas tax generate every year?)
***

The main problem with the BRT is that it is half-baked. Correct me if 
I'm wrong, but the dedicated lane, and the stations stop north of 46th 
street. How does that help exactly? All it does it get more people to 
the bottleneck even faster... so they can slow down and sit in traffic.

If we're going to build a BRT line. Do it right. Make stations all the 
way to downtown. Give it a lane and right of way all to itself. Build 
it so it could be upgraded in the future to LRT. (Because the stations, 
right-of-ways, etc. will be in place)

If that was how the BRT was going to be built. I would be all for it. 
As it is.. it's just shifting the problems around because it is being 
designed in the "Micro" instead of "Macro" sense.



On Mar 19, 2005, at 9:52 AM, Allen wrote:

> Fancy trains aren't magic.  To get LRT, we'll need to spend 2 1/2 
> times more
> than BRT (assuming dedicated right-of-ways for both).  And that gets a 
> 20%
> bump in ridership.  We got a decent deal on the first one because the 
> Feds
> were happy to share a lot of money.  But they're not so quick to do 
> that
> anymore.  Everyone and their grandmother wants to build a couple lines 
> and
> are beggin' the feds for money for it.  They don't have infinite 
> pockets and
> are likely to cough up less and less or even none at all (just ask 
> Seattle
> about that).  Chances are if Minneapolis is going to get a LRT line 
> running
> along 35W (btw- how about up Cedar to build up that corridor?), we'll 
> have
> to come up with a billion dollars of our own money, county money and 
> state
> of Minnesota money.  I don't think that is likely.  So it's going to 
> be a
> long wait in line waiting for the feds to cough up half of that.
>
> Allen Graetz
> Lowry Hill
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mpls-bounces at mnforum.org [mailto:mpls-bounces at mnforum.org] On 
> Behalf
> Of A.J.Colianni
> Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 10:43 PM
> To: Sean Wherley
> Cc: Mpls Forum
> Subject: Re: [Mpls] True impact of Crosstown "victory"
>
>
> Why not extend an exclusive BRT lane all the way downtown? As soon as
> those BRT buses hit 46th street, they are going to be in the same
> congestion as everyone else. Besides.. are the people between 62 and
> downtown not trying to drive in as well? Or is it only people in Apple
> Valley that need rapid transit?
>
> But if they had the vision to extend BRT the whole way, perhaps they
> would have seen an even better solution staring them in the face: An
> LRT expansion.
>
> Vision. We need it. I don't care if LRT is more expensive now. I don't
> care if it's not "next in line" for LRT expansion. It's the right
> solution! A stopgap solution is just that: a $240 million dollar waste
> of money. In the long run, LRT will be cheaper for everyone involved...
> and it is actually an alternative to driving more and more cars
> through, as you said, the busiest interchange in the state.
>
>
>
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