"Highland Park residents will be enduring years and probably decades of pain as
Ryan and the City of St. Paul will create a traffic nightmare in the hopes of
convincing people to give up cars." Emphasis on convincing others to give up
cars.
Elsewhere in the OpEd it notes that there are some plans to reroute some
transit, but not necessarily add transit.
The same thing is happening near Allianz Field. In the same Villager issue,
page 7, it is noted that because of high groundwater levels, The Pitch, a 158
unit development with 13,000 square feet of commercial space, will have to
reduce off street parking from 142 spaces to 55 spaces. That is a significant
reduction. The city has no minimums on parking in neighborhoods near transit,
so no variance was required. Proponents of the "no parking minimums" often say
that providing off street parking increases rent. No word from Wellington on
whether rents will now be reduced at The Pitch.
The whole "encouraging others to reduce car trips" is interesting. We do need
neighborhoods that offer jobs, groceries, restaurants, and general shopping if
people are going to "live, work, play" in their own neighborhood. We also need
reliable, efficient, and quick buses/trains if people are going to use that
mode over cars.
I will say that people are choosing other modes of transportation, sometimes
more than they used to. I have more co-workers taking the bus than I used to. I
meet more people that I know on bus/train than I used to. I know more people of
all ages that ride bicycles than I used to.
However, they are choosing other modes for some trips. They are not completely
giving up their cars. And that is the general state of things in most cities,
even more dense cities like NYC, Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco. In those
cities, there are ramps to store your car for a few, or apartments are built
with off street parking, or you know someone with extra space and you rent that
space for someone's car storage. And those cities have more reliable transit
and biking options.
I don't know why anyone thinks this town will be any different. In fact, we
still have a long way to go before most of the city has adequate options for
anything but a car.
At least with most of these developments, both at the Ford site and stadium
sites, plans will move slowly with plenty of space to build ramps as needed.
But, I do question how this will affect those in the lower incomes, especially
if through these desires to increase transit use that we make car usage too
expensive.