‘Transit’ Archives
Metro Transit – You’re voting for an agenda
BY JOHN CHARLES WILSON This is another slow month for transit news in the Phillips Community. I was originally going to write about the Gold Line, a Bus Rapid Transit line being planned to operate on the East Side of Saint Paul, when I was inspired to change the topic to something more geographically universal. The primary elections are coming up on the 14th of August. How does that relate to transit? Since 1970, the State of Minnesota, the Metropolitan Council, and various other local government entities have run the transit system in the Twin Cities. The Federal government provides funding for specific transit projects, like Light Rail and Bus Rapid Transit. In this context, elections are important. (more…)
Metro Transit – The squeaky wheel gets the grease
By JOHN CHARLES WILSON Another slow month in the transit world”¦ However, there was one interesting piece of news for Route 2 riders. I went to an “open house” in June regarding proposed improvements to Franklin Avenue bus service, including cutting back on the number of stops to make the bus go faster, installing new (presumably better) bus shelters, and adding signal priority, which is a system that allows buses to request a green light sooner than would normally be the case. Unlike signal preemption, which is used by emergency vehicles to demand a green light immediately, signal priority requires a computer to make a judgment call as to whether granting an early green to the bus is better or worse for the overall movement of people through an intersection. The most controversial part of this proposal from the bus rider perspective is probably the stop spacing. Metro Transit is proposing to have a stop once every four blocks on average instead of every two blocks. [...]
Metro Transit
By JOHN CHARLES WILSON One of the sad things about writing for a monthly paper is that even when you have early access to inside information, you rarely get the “scoop” because it”'s publicly available before your publication hits the stands”¦. That said, this month”'s big transit news is the quarterly service change, which was originally planned for 16 June, but was moved up to the 9th in order to coincide with construction on I-35W. There is no direct effect on Phillips, but residents will notice anyway. The most obvious change is that buses which normally go down I-35W are being detoured off the freeway between downtown Minneapolis and 31st St. Routes 133, 156, 467, 552, 553, 554, and 558 will be using the Portland/Park one-way pair without stopping, and Routes 135, 146, 535, 578, and 597 will be using the Blaisdell/1st Ave. S. one-way pair stopping only at Lake St. (more…)
