There is a lot of pressure to build the Excess ramps from Lake StreetWM: Since the use of "Excess" is deliberate here and continues throughout this post, we have a clear picture of Councilman Zimmermann as firmly allied with the "delay until it goes away" camp.
Businesses, Wells Fargo, Allina, Citizens groups, etc.
WM: Many who live here also claim that it gives us convenient egress from the mid south sideThey claim that the Excess ramps will provide improved access to their businesses. Alliana, for example, even suggests that they will not locate their new headquarters in the Sears building unless the Excess ramps are built.
More to the point, 35W has long been the corridor with the greatest amount of bus travel from and to the suburbs and exurbs. The Uof M has many freeway fliers from 82nd and virtually every exit going north to Lake St. Freeway fliers to downtown race up and down 35 daily. It is the one corridor where the bus company has been successful in attracting huge numbers of middle class riders. Inside the city limits the buses have been treated as the transport of last resort, which is a shame.
The council made a good decision by placing itself in the BRT camp with last Friday's vote; though it backed off by adding passenger cars with three or more humans to the lane. Adding access at Lake St. will allow the 21 Lake St. line to become a much more efficient line. It can then send out both fliers and locals, the fliers stopping only at transfer points before entering the freeway at 35--to Southdale, for example. Or Bren and Smeytana where an "office park" has a lot of jobs, to Excellsior and Eden Prairie. The busses, moving in that way, will pour a lot less crud out of their smoke stacks. (We have all had opportunity to experience the choking crud of stalled traffic and stalled traffic downtown on an air inversion Friday in the summer.) So we all know that moving traffic produces less crud than stalled traffic.
The MCTO, an extremely conservative thinking organization, has got to develop different demographics in their ridership or we won't ever achieve a good transit system. 35W is the most logical place to refine that notion into something workable. For them this is an opportunity to expand mass transit usage. Having the city council insist that they explore the possibilities could serve to move Aaron Isaacson off the dime. The council probably needs to lobby the MCTO tirelessly to get a good product. They did try to give the Lake St. transfer point on the bridge no more than a lick and a promise, but the committee did pretty well at getting them to see something more than just a bus stop. As it is currently designed, it is my opinion that it will still slow up traffic; that tussle is between MCTO and MNDOT.
WM: Dean, most of these questions needed to be asked over five years ago, before the county set out to hire a group of engineers, architects, etc. It is no time to introduce another complete strategy. The neighborhoods did ask for better bus access to and from the freeway and we stand to get it. That was both to improve mass transit and to lessen the amount of diesel crud thrown into the southside. For the same reason, it will help Allina and Wellsfargo, St. Mary's and the Sears site. Allina will put less money into parking ramps, leaving them able to put more money into what they are there for, health care. Maybe, with Children's hospital right there, they will be able to do longitudinal studies of the effects of air pollution on this population.Even thought, for example, Alliana says that they want these Freeway ramps, I contend that what. Allina really wants is not access ramps, & the expansion of the Freeway. What Alina/Abbott-NW wants is to be able to get its employees, patients, vendors, visitors, etc to and from their campus safely, enjoyably, efficiently, inexpensively and if possible without polluting the natural environment. If the Excess Ramps do that, great. But, do the excess ramps really do that? And would the same amount of money invested in some other strategy accomplish that goal, just as well or, perhaps even better?
WM: Whenever we're talking about a transportation corridor, it's best to consider any solution temporary, though the temporary may be 25 years or longer. The smart thing would have been to run light rail up 35W, and that may happen. Until we have some experience with the Hiawatha line, we won't have a real feel for how that could work for us.In fact these partial solutions may solve part of the problem, but only exacerbate other parts of the problem. Any serious plan must do a better job of getting people in and out of and around the Lake Street area.
WM: Since it's only to be temporary, since it takes so few houses and businesses, since it has the potential to lower emmissions, since it gives the southside improved access, and since it has the potential to support businesses both on Lake St. and 38th St., I'm less inclined to demand the ideal, particularly since it's not achievable in any transit system as we both agree.An ideal transportation plan and infrastructure would possess a number of characteristics, such as: 1. produces zero emissions in operations; 2. does not leave behind parking problems; 3. cuts the BTUs/per passenger mile by at least 60% compared to transportation options in use today; 4. does not require a yearly subsidy from taxpayers; 5. will cover all operational, maintenance & administrative costs through fare revenue. 6.will increase walking and biking among the general public 7. will serve as an efficient feeder to the LRT. 8. Takes up virtually no footprint. 9) lessens congestion on the streets. 10. will reduce the cost of transportation for a very large percentage of the people coming to and leaving the Lake Street area - or any area where the system is built. 11. reduces road rage 12. makes it easier for many more people to use various kinds of existing transit infrastructure more frequently than it is for them to continue their habit of, now, mainly going everywhere by car. 13. reduces the need to build more parking ramps, 14. operates 24/7
What strikes me as most important, is the sword rattling by Allina. St. Paul is offering them two great sites, both on the freeway with access already in place. The stable working class people in the southside include many, many who work at Abbott, St. Mary's, Wellsfargo, and Children's. Soon, dear god please, that could include the Sears site as well. The southside does depend on those employers to stay afloat and not drop back into the hole we were in ten years ago both economically and socially.
WM: Discuss all you like, but we do have to move forward with this project. We should be be prepared to begin in this upcoming construction season. (Acquiring properties, etc.) What you are suggesting will impede better use of mass transit. Given that the bulge in the population is baby boomers who approacheth 60 or have already achieved it, the sooner the mass transit improves, the better. These are not folks who are going to get bicycles and change their entire lifestyles. Given that the feds have become alarmed that, as a nation, we're raising kids who are too fat, it's the next generation who need encouragement to the fitness bicycles imply. Given that the temperature outside is presently 15 degrees, but the wind chill is something ferocious, it behoves us to address these issues soonest, not wait for an alternative plan.I suspect that there is no such thing as an ideal transit system, but I and 5 of my colleagues, with the support of the mayor, have introduced a motion to the City Council to have our City, over a 6 month period, look closely at the technology of the Taxi2000 Corporation. A transit system build with this home grown technology will address the 14 points above. As a part of this process, I am now putting the final touches on a map of where such a system.might be built. This map will be offered to the City and to the community as starting point of discussion.
WizardMarks, Central ________________________________
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