What does $70 million buy?
From:
Sheldon Gitis
Date:
May 11 22:36 UTC
Short link
Opposition to the one-size fits all replacement of the current bus routes on
University Ave. and I-94 is not opposition to LRT. Opposition to the
Pawlenty-Met. Council one-size fits all reduction of the most frequent, most
heavily-used, most cost-effective public transit in Minnesota is opposition to
a $billion concrete project which limits public transit ridership on a line
serving both downtowns, the State Capitol, the Midway, and the University of
Minnesota to just a little more than 40,000 daily riders (there should be more
than 40,000 riders getting on and off the train at the University alone), and
places those 40,000 riders in the middle of a city street in rail cars designed
to travel 70 mph and requiring a distance of 2 football fields to come to a
complete stop. The train in the middle of the street reduces local transit
service, is a safety hazard for motorists, pedestrians and bicycle riders, and
requires a 40-yard wide strip of concrete with no accommodation for bicycles
and very poor accommodation for green space and other pedestrian amenities.
Everyone can bemoan the duping and the rip-off that resulted in the loss of the
Twin Cities streetcar system, but getting duped and ripped off again by another
transit reduction scam isn’t going to bring the streetcars back.
.