Winning

A bus driver commented on the previous post to say that I've won.

I have great respect for bus drivers. Bus drivers are the public transit backbone of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. They are the host, cashier, security guard, information desk, and driver with full steering and braking capabilities. Next to teachers and farmers, bus drivers have the most thankless job.

About winning, I respectfully disagree.

The current concept of the Gateway Corridor is a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along Hudson Road with light rail as either a secondary choice or a future replacement of the BRT.

The concept is flawed and likely to change.

Hudson Road in Saint Paul is mostly residential, although less residential than previous alternatives (3rd Street East, 7th Street East, & Minnehaha Avenue). Hudson Road has families, kids, and the elderly.

Rapid transit does not belong on residential streets.

Here's a Google satellite view of houses on Hudson Road.

Interstate 94 used to be US Highway 12, a highway that climbed the eastside hills instead of cutting through them. Before it was US Highway 12, it was Hudson Road. Remnants of old Hudson Road are a dashed line. They are incomplete. How would a transit line connect the pieces? How would Hudson Road and Old Hudson Road connect? How would a transit line bridge the Johnson Parkway valley at I-94?

Buses can be steered and are expected to stop on a dime. Buses make sense for residential neighborhoods. But the concept of Bus Rapid Transit is to have the bus lanes separated from other traffic. Picture two lanes with bordering curbs on either side. It has been said that BRT hasn't been done before in Minnesota, but I disagree. The University of Minnesota campus bus runs between the Minneapolis and Saint Paul campuses. It runs on a road with no other traffic south of the State Fairgrounds.

If I were a bus driver, I would like the bus separated from other traffic, yeah, providing the snow plows can differentiate between short curbs and snow piles, and not chop the curbs up into the road. I would want to be able to steer around obstacles, a ball or a kid, and not be forced to hit them like a train would. How fast is Rapid on a residential road?

The Gateway Corridor Commission says the bus will travel 9.8 miles (from Oaks Business Park to Union Depot) in 17 minutes. That's an average of 35 mph. That's too fast for a residential road and too slow for rapid transit. Light rail would take 15 minutes at an average speed of 39 mph. Public transit buses (MTC) currently crisscross the eastside of Saint Paul. Buses drive 55 mph on I-94 (that's bus rapid transit). What is the purpose of the Gateway Corridor?

▼ What is the justification of spending millions of dollars on transit consultants?
▼ What is the justification of a construction project that would disrupt lives and businesses?
▼ What is the justification of half a billion dollars for a bus or a billion dollars for a train?
▼ How could they possibly imagine that rapid transit could be safe on residential streets?!?

Maybe the Gateway Corridor Commission works on commission. It's tough to understand why Lisa Weik, Kathy Lantry, and the others are doing this. Their materials mention Oaks Business Park in Oakdale, at 7755 Third Street North, Oakdale, MN 55128, which is owned by the Carlson Real Estate Company of Minnetonka. What is their connection to the Gateway Corridor? Is this the development that the Gateway Corridor will help?

The latest Gateway Corridor plans estimate 9,000 daily riders whether the vehicle is a bus or a train. The Gateway Corridor Commission says 90,000 vehicles cross the I-94 St. Croix River Bridge every day, but the Gateway Corridor will not cross the I-94 St. Croix River Bridge. The ridership is fictional. Conrad deFiebre says the bus ridership would be closer to 6,000 which sounds closer to actual ridership.

Friday morning traffic on I-94

None of this makes sense. The Gateway Corridor Commission has not inspired confidence that they know what they're doing, like when their leader Lisa Weik confused light rail with 1950s streetcars.

It's like arguing on the Internet. How could anyone win?

The Aging of Light Rail

Newness fades. The future of light rail is easy to predict.

It's a list of "nobody told me it would be like this."

The accidents: "How could I know deaf people can't here the bell?!?"
The lack of maintenance: "Sweeeeeak," says the train as it rounds the bend.
The crime rate near certain stations effecting the real estate appeal of all stations: "'Close to train,' that's real estate code for troubled neighborhood."

Look at Chicago or New York L trains. Look at the apartment buildings near the trains. A great many still date to the time when the trains were first built, when they were new. When the tracks were new and the trains were new, over one hundred years ago, the L trains were relatively quiet. The tracks got rusty. The trains got rusty. The axles and wheels got rusty. Parts became obsolete. This year, Chicago will be starting a seven month rehab of half of the loop. Now... 115 years later.

Over time, apartment buildings parked right next to L stations lost their charm, their newness. People found better places to live.

The first Minnesota light rail transit (LRT) line was put in between the Mall of America, the airport, and downtown Minneapolis. That's the Hiawatha Line, soon to be known as the Blue line, and the foundation of the Twin Cities Metro system of buses (and light rail). The Hiawatha Line travels from prime destinations to prime destinations, and has exceeded ridership expectations.

Light rail planners use that route as the standard for other light rail lines in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, instead of the exception.

Construction of a light rail route between downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul is currently in full swing. That route, the Central Corridor is compared to the Hiawatha Line, even though it goes to Saint Paul.

No offense to Saint Paul, but nobody goes to Saint Paul. There is hardly any crime, because the sidewalks are rolled up at dusk. The last one out shuts off the lights. It is not a destination like the airport or the Mall of America. The Central Corridor route is not like the Hiawatha Line, except by trying to repeat what was done before.

The Central Corridor is a repeat. It wants to repeat the Hiawatha Line. And it wants to repeat the slicing of the Rondo Neighborhood by Interstate 94 in the mid-1960s. Rondo had just been reemerging, forty years later.

And it will come back, in another forty years.