I think traveling along Hiawatha isn't going to do much good in understanding speed 
limitation. You need a little imagination.  You need to consider the alternative speed 
and then ADD the excess over the existing limit that is now pervasive. In short, when 
you increase the speed, it is not to 55 but to 60 or 65, which is what most people 
will be going. When you consider that this is a boulevard with many stoplights, 65 is 
NOT an appropriate speed for it!

And yes, there is the problem of crossing it. But I'm still convinced that the project 
should provide subterannean tunnels, the same as what link the buildings at the U.  
Skyways may work downtown, but out in the open in a climate where windchills can drop 
to minus double digits, tunnels make more sense than bridges or skyways.  And they are 
more amenable to adaptations for the handicapped.  There shouldn't have to be more 
than perhaps four of them.  After all, if you build the stations too close together, 
you defeat the purpose of rail transportation, which is speed.  In fact, I think at 
least half of the trains have to be express to attract riders.

By the way, I think it is good for the soul of the suburbanite to drive 35 instead of 
75.  They all have hurry sickness, and Hiawatha is their chance at salvation (praise 
the Lord!)


--------------
Jim Mork--Cooper

"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our Country 
deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." Gen. William T. 
Sherman (1864) Letter to the Mayor of Atlanta.

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