Net Density

The two alignment choices in Minneapolis

The big news this week is that the planned Central Corridor LRT line will get three new stations between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and the reason seems to be the new FTA rules which relax the sole focus on cost-effectiveness from travel time savings to include broader goals of “livability“.  With the three new stations, the project would not have met a “medium” rating for cost-effectiveness, and therefore would not likely not have been funded by the FTA under the old rules.

What implication might this have for the planned Southwest LRT line and its contested route?  It’s hard to say, but it certainly seems like the alternative routes should be re-assessed under the new formula before telling the feds that 3A is the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA).  More below the break.

Read more »

Tags: hennepin county, lrt, met council, minneapolis, southwest, transit

Some pedestrian-friendly development along Route 3A

On Wednesday, the Policy Advisory Committee for the Southwest LRT project voted to recommend Route 3A, also known as the Kenilworth Alignment.  Ralph Remington, Minneapolis City Council member representing southwest Minneapolis, was the only dissenting vote.

Remington said the average daily ridership formula the Federal Transit Administration uses to approve rail projects favors suburban rail lines over those serving the inner city because it doesn’t count weekend ridership or trips to special events like Twins or Vikings games.

“I think the formula is flawed,” Remington said. ” I still believe the greater number of citizens in Minneapolis are not being served” by the chosen route.

Without a rail link, the citizens of Uptown and southwest Minneapolis will be disconnected from the rest of the rail system, Remington said.

Tags: lrt, minneapolis, southwest, transit, value engineering

A few days ago our house was hit with a flier urging us to pledge our support for the the 3C route at the upcoming public hearing.  It’s a bit text-heavy, but I agree with the talking points in general.

I didn’t need convincing to go to the meeting, but I guess I’m impressed that public support is ramping up.  Another website that the flier tipped me off to is Connect Uptown.  It has some background on the project, and arguments about why you should support 3C.

Tags: lrt, minneapolis, public engagement, snail mail, southwest, transit, transitway

Yonah Freemark at the Transport Politic has written an indispensable summary of the Southwest LRT routing alternatives. This is the post I wish I had written, plus his maps are prettier than mine!  His take on the FTA ridership accounting rules is especially interesting.

If you haven’t read it, go there now and arm yourself with talking points before you hit one of the open houses.

Tags: hennepin county, lrt, minneapolis, southwest, transit

Where are the transit riders in southwest Minneapolis?

The very first Southwest Transitway open house happened tonight, but hopefully some of you intrigued transit nuts will come home and want even MORE data to think about.  Based on comments from one of my previous posts, I realized I hadn’t done any analysis of where people are riding transit.

Thanks to the amazing Data Finder, you can see where transit trips are happening by bus stop.  To make this map, I summed all the weekday trips from bus stops within 1/4 mile of each planned LRT station.  Station areas are labeled with their totals.  As you would expect, downtown stations show the most trips, with Uptown and 28th Street next.  The 3A alignment shows very few trips.  The Met Council data for Van White shows a stop, but no routes and no trips are assigned to it.

I’ll be attending Thursday’s open house in Minneapolis and I’m excited.  It’s great to be on receiving end of a public meeting once in a while.  The gossip I’ve heard is that 3A and 3C ridership would be the same, which is something I would like explained in detail.  Anybody out there go to Hopkins tonight and have any post-meeting thoughts?

Tags: bus, hennepin county, lrt, minneapolis, southwest, transit, transportation

Today Hennepin County Commissioners received analysis from HDR showing the projected ridership and costs of the two potential alignments for the Southwest LRT.  3A would cost $1.2 billion while 3C would cost $1.8 billion.  Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman, who chairs the Policy Advisory committee, implied that 3A was the better choice.

“Dorfman says the projected cost of the line ranges from $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion, depending on the final route. Those numbers put the proposal give the project a Cost Effectiveness Index of $30 per rider for the length of the line, just outside the range required by the Federal Transit Administration for federal funding.

In order to move into the next step which would be to begin preliminary engineering you have to reach that $29 CEI number, so we’re very close to that,” she said.

Dorfman says the new numbers show the less costly option is to build the line along the Kenilworth trail near Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis.

Neither the MPR nor Star Tribune coverage of the meeting makes clear the difference in ridership between the two alignments.

Tags: lrt, southwest, transit, transitway

Hiawatha LRT

I’ve never written a long post about my opinion on the Southwest Transitway LRT alignment alternatives, although I have participated in some intense discussion on the City of Lakes Urbanism blog.  I cynically believe that the routing decision will probably be made based solely on the numbers that allow the line to compete for federal dollars, rather than the best long range planning, but that won’t stop me from adding my two cents and possibly rousing rabble at the upcoming meetings.

When comparing the 3A and 3C alignments (Kenilworth Trail versus Uptown), the question for me has never been how easy is it to engineer and build (Kenilworth wins this one every time), but who will the line serve, or in other words, what is its purpose?  Is it a commuter line to get people from the far-flung suburbs to downtown Minneapolis rapidly a la Northstar, or is it an urban transit line a la the Hiawatha line?  3A represents a commuter line that would serve suburban customers and move them to downtown quickly, mostly bypassing any housing density, retail or transit-dependent populations.  3C would serve the “second downtown” of Minneapolis, Uptown, as well as some of the most dense housing, large employment centers and more people who depend on transit to get around.  In short, missing one of the most vibrant activity centers in the Twin Cities because you have an easy right of way would be a huge mistake.

Before I get too deep into a rant, I want to share some maps that I think illustrate the point.  I assume the data behind these maps has been factored in to the alternatives analysis, but I guess we’ll have to wait until August to find out.

Population Density and LRT Alignments

Employment density and LRT Alignments

Transit-dependent populations and LRT Alignments

Grey circles around stations represent one quarter-mile walk-shed.

Tags: EIS, lrt, southwest, transit, transitway, transportation

Some transit-supportive development along the 3A alignment

The Southwest Transitway Route Selection Open Houses have been scheduled.  The purpose of these meetings is to release the evaluations done as part of the Draft EIS of the three potential LRT alignments. The evaluation measures include:

• ridership forecasts
• cost estimates
• cost-effectiveness calculations
• transit mobility measures
• an inventory of potentially affected critical environmental resources

These evaluations will be used to select the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA).  Two SW Transitway Advisory Committees will make a recommendation on the preferred alternative in the near future.  The preferred alternative will then need to be approved by the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority and the Metropolitan Council before it gets the full environmental review treatment.

The bottom line though is that this is the data that will get used to make the selection.  I’m very interested to see the results, and I hope I can attend at least the Minneapolis meeting.  I’m a little late on this news, but I assumed if I signed up for the mailing list I’d be notified of upcoming meetings.  Apparently this is not the case.

If you’re too lazy to click through to get the schedule, here are the meeting dates:

• August 11: Open house at Hopkins City Hall from 6:30 to 8:00 PM
• August 13: Open house at downtown Minneapolis Library from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
• August 13: Open house at Marriott Southwest Hotel in Minnetonka from 6:30 to 8:00 PM
• August 18: Open house at St. Louis Park City Hall from 6:30 to 8:00 PM
• August 19: Open house at Eden Prairie City Hall from 6:30 to 8:00 PM

Tags: EIS, lrt, minneapolis, southwest, transit, transportation