As a Californian from an MSP-sized metro, I wish San Diego had the same urbanist confidence as MSP does. We were #1 in the US for 2022 LRT ridership, we're building two $4B infill TODs on the same LRT line outside downtown, our busiest LRT corridor runs every 7.5 min off-peak, yet there's overwhelming NIMBY pessimism of how San Diego is sprawlsville and will never be like Portland.
We were in San Diego earlier this year and really enjoyed out visit. We took the LRT several times and avoiding getting in a car for the whole weekend. Culture can change over time and I feel like San Diego is starting from a fairly strong point.
I hope Michigan follows the progress here, we can create an incredible corridor of transit/urbanism/affordable/sustainable from The Twin Cities MIlwaulkee Chicago Detroit [Cleveland | Toronto].
I think Cleveland is getting off on the right foot with Mayor Bibb. Last I heard, Cleveland is beginning a plan to expand funding to parks, there's numerous new multi-use neighborhoods under construction currently VERY close to downtown on old brownfield developments, and they're also looking to roll out a plan at reorganizing the city's zoning code and increasing density along transit routes and stations.
Michicagn is the last place in the world that will be usable transit. They fund minimal transit just to prove that “transit is unusable” Too many people in the stay adhere to the auto industry propaganda. The majority who live there claim that good transit threaten local jobs and economy. In Europe as well as in the US, the more vibrant the auto industry, the worse the transit.
great video!! as a MSP resident, i'm so excited to see the news getting out about all these huge wins coming from advocacy (and politics of course) in the transportation space. even with the formal commitment of funding to these plans, there is still a lot of skepticism and even protest in the region largely due to misinformation and smear campaigns. i hope that more people use their platform like you do! and maybe one day we can graduate from LRT/BRT to true mass rapid transit... cheers :)
It's great to see major progress being made in MSP. I haven't been there in about 15 years so it sounds like I have a good reason to go back now! Thanks for the great video.
One thing that seems to be missing here is that major DOT reforms are also needed to make streets safer and more livable. Many DOTs use the MUTCD, which is a highway design manual, as their guiding design document. This is how we end up with stroads and high speed roadways blasting through what should be quiet residential neighborhoods. Without a reform of the engineering profession, which is sorely needed at every level, much of this success will be limited because DOT agencies will always prioritize cars and will fight against any improvement. Anyways, love the video and I gotta say, I really appreciate your optimism. I don't think I would have the same level of optimism for the Midwest, but I'm glad someone is out there trying to spread the message. Thanks!
Thanks, Jamal! Great point about DOT reform. One win I briefly touched on is the requirement to consider climate goals, particularly the goal to reduce vehicle miles traveled, in road and highway projects. That's not the same as the broader reform you're talking about but I think it's a really important step.
@Heartland Urbanist This is a good point, but seeing as how DOTs weaponize this language to greenwash their projects, e.g. claiming that reduced congestion will reduce emissions, I'm not convinced that is enough. I definitely appreciate the effort from the state government and I think they're doing good work, but I personally think a complete overhaul to the profession is needed. It probably needs to come from the feds, though, because we shouldn't build these standards on a state by state basis.
I'm from Minneapolis, this is a great first step, and I'm so glad our metro is trying so hard. Hopefully we'll make some of those brt lite lines into light rail in the next ten years such as the midtown line :D
I was really surprised by how much pushback light rail seems to be getting in Minneapolis. Seems like all of the political support and momentum is for BRT.
@@HeartlandUrbanistThat’s because the Blue Line extension is way over budget and behind schedule going through a relatively low density set of suburbs. Meanwhile BRTs are relatively a lot cheaper, easier to implement, and contractors have significantly more experience building roads vs rail. I recently saw a map of how potentially the Blue extension could have gone through a higher density area.
Super exciting. Now that we in Wisconsin are getting our gerrymandered maps fixed, I'm hoping MN, IL, and WI can all make some amazing transit gains that will connect all of us together.
As someone who lives in St Paul, I really think we need more crosstown bus routes and rapid transit. Like there is absolutely no reason why the 46 doesn’t run on weekends. The 3 and 64 should just be combined and not make you have to go downtown although we still should have a version of the 64 that goes down Payne Avenue. Also if you love south of 46th street, north of Lowry Avenue or live in East side Saint Paul, there’s basically no crosstown transit and we need crosstown routes there
Wow, that is just awesome! I'm sitting over here wondering if I want to move to Minneapolis now 🙃 It's so impressive that they are moving on this so definitively. I'm used to hearing why we can't or won't do these things from my local officials, and there they are showing it's possible 🔥 It's also cool how their investments compound each other; investments in their bike network add value for users of transit and vice versa. Thanks for another awesome video!
I really needed this inspiration and reinvigoration! Great video once again, love how you define the buzzwords like NIMBY in your video to teach people about it. I am a big fan of the twin cities and would love to move there. I hope they consider expanding the lines to continue to transit. They really need to work on the regional rail system across the state, there is no reason the Northern Lights Express (train to Duluth) should not get pushed through (I know its funded but it needs to keep going). They then need to connect Eau Claire and increase expansion of trains between MSP and Chicago. With all those connections to other cities those cities (Duluth, Superior, Eau Claire and other points in their State wide plan). The Twin Cities need to be looked at by other cities in the Midwest, looking at you Columbus!!!! Side note, Columbus needs to build train lines damn it. No reason Columbus shouldn't have a commuter, regional and light rail system!!! Personal sidenote, as you know I am from Columbus but currently live in SLC. Have you heard of the Rio Grande Plan? Its an interesting proposal from another RUclipsr, Civil Engineer, and transit lover Christian Lenhart. I recently met with them to determine how we can get more people to know about it and I would hope you would take a look at this great project and maybe do a video on it from an urbanist perspective.
The biggest challenge for the Twin Cities will be managing costs and delays. The public has barely been able to swallow the debacle of the southwest green line. Another round of massive cost overruns and delays on other projects could easily tip the scales against transit expansion plans.
Every transit system that builds rail infrastructure in the country has the same problem with New York City being the worst. I think the issue lies with how project delivery is procured. Whether it's on the planning and design end or the construction end, it's turtles all the way down! Meaning consultants and contractors. And public private partnership or design build operate? Maryland's Purple Line shows what a debacle that is!
@@edwardmiessner6502 oh my gosh, we were living in DC for a lot of the early construction work for the Purple Line. What a mess! Still, very excited for it to eventually open.
These are some pretty exciting plans for Minneapolis. It’s definitely looking like it’ll be the Salt Lake City or Portland of the Midwest in a few years. And it’s great that they are one of the few midsized metros in the country (and only one in the Midwest) that’s taking its transit seriously. Hopefully this will bring the amount of anti-car ownership down to two in the next few years. That’s being said, I wish that MSP would consider more LRT over BRT. BRT isn’t a good long-term solution as it can’t hold as many passengers as LRT can and is just a glorified bus. It’s also not going to captivate new riders the way a train can. Also, Urbanism shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It should be an issue that every politician should focus on. There are plenty of conservative urbanists and even rural Minnesota could become more walkable. Making urbanism a partisan issue will only turn off the other side and create even more unnecessary opposition. Finally, the rail service between Duluth and Minneapolis is a good idea but a high (or higher) speed train is what is needed in order to compete with the cars or planes for this to be successful. Amtrak should also consider Acela-style routes for the connections to Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. Service to Winnipeg (with stops in Fargo and Grand Forks) could also be considered. All in all, good video. This will do wonders in making Minneapolis a more attractive place to live due to walkability.
Thanks for this. Totally agree that urbanism shouldn't be partisan - but investing in transit very much is today. I don't think anything I say will convince MAGA extremist to stop hating cities. It's pretty baked in at this point. But maybe the Republican Party will eventually turn away from its demons. I certainly hope so. On LRT - I understand that the current light rail expansions are actually very controversial in the cities (even among urbanists), partially because they're seen as more disruptive of communities like interstate highways of the past. It seems like BRT has more consensus support and can be built out cheaper and faster - helping get the Cities to the network effects it needs. Last, on intercity rail, I do know that many corridors in the Midwest are slated to get 110 MPH service (it helps that we're so flat) - so that should compete nicely with driving and flying!
@@HeartlandUrbanist I voted for Trump twice, but when it comes to urbanism I disagree with the GOP. The principles of great transit--frequency, grade separation, walkability, and TOD transcend ideology. I don't even expect transit to be profitable, I will gladly pay taxes to improve it. I simply expect my taxes be spent on maximizing frequency before free transit.
Even the Cato institute fired Randal O'Toole (the guy who says density was a Communist plot) and now supports abolishing single family zoning. Because the richest man in the world's most lassiez faire economy made money from lots of TOD megaprojects.
It's worth noting that 1. BRT is being built because it's cheap and a cost effective way of upgrading high performing bus routes. LRT is still getting built and planned, including the Riverview corridor and Blue+Green Line extensions. 2. The Minneapolis to Duluth train, Northern lights Express, is a higher speed rail line at 90mph with an average of 60-68mph.
@@HeartlandUrbanist On BRT - Many BRT advocates always argue cost and flexibility and time over LRT and Subways but they also require more staff to drive the buses (even articulated buses can’t carry the capacity of a 5 or even 4-car train), require more maintenance (roads require more maintenance vs. rail especially in the winter, although this is arguable) and can be used as an excuse for the city to cheap out on its infrastructure, causing it to become a glorified bus that can even end up getting stuck in traffic if the city doesn’t plan it well enough. It’s alright if BRT is used temporarily to test the ridership of a corridor or if it branches off of a rail corridor to reach areas where rail is impractical or where there is a high demand for service but the area is also full of NIMBYs. It also could work in smaller cities as a transit backbone. However, it seems as if it’s being used as the backbone in most of MSP which I believe isn’t a good idea. Personally, I always thought BRT sucked the fun out of taking transit. It was always nice to ride a train through the city. It provided a smooth ride that buses just cannot match. But if you enjoy riding buses more, to each his own.
@@trademark4537 Leave it to a U.S. transit system to come up with the term "BRT light" as if that's actually a thing. It would be interesting to see if this service meets ITDP's standard for classification as BRT.
@@jayell1761 The ITDP's standard isn't even a real thing anymore. It hasn't been updated since 2019. For what aBRT (What it's called here) is, it's a good upgrade for very cheap. It's not the end all be all, and some of these routes should get the full BRT treatment soon. But being able to push out one of these lines every year versus waiting 10+ years to go through the whole process of getting federal funds for a transitway builds ridership and trust in the system. The D Line opened 6 months ago and is having 500-1000 more riders every month and is already over pre-covid ridership. While providing a 20% increase in speed.
@Oak Island Pictures Your not gonna find any systems in America where high quality bus service is standard. As in all-door boarding, limited stops, good quality permanent stations, signal priority, bump outs. You might find them on certain routes, or certain corridors. But they are not standard. Building a new one of these every year for extremely low cost locally is how you get a a system like that. And even though some routes should be upgraded to real BRT in the near future. Building ridership through aBRT helps us get there. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.
What's crazy is that the aBRT lines (or BRT Light as I refer to them in the video) in the Twin Cities are better than what many cities call BRT. Columbus's first "BRT" line had a tiny fraction of these features.
You’re glossing over one key aspect of the Twin Cities: the people. You can have the best transit and walkability in the world, and it’s worthless if the people around you are cold, distant, unfriendly, and uninviting.
loved the video, thanks! < 3 ...possible noob question from an ignorant foreigner, but still: ^^' why not extend the commuter line to st paul or create a new one with just two stops, as a quicker alternative to the green tram branch? cheers from stockholm!
@@HeartlandUrbanist Very true, no state is perfect, especially Rhode Island lol! I think we have a lot going for us, but we just need the right people to finally enter our government to take advantage of it.
do you know if there are any plans to convert any of the existing/future brt lines to light rail like los angeles is planning on doing? coming from an atlanta resident, i just get worried about the complete focus on brt instead of lrt
@@ayeeeeeeee6240 Yeah... apparently light rail has been really controversial in MSP so that would need to shift before there could be a more significant expansion (beyond the current expansion projects). And the state government bared Indy from using referendum revenue for light rail, so there would need to be a political/policy shift there. Not anticipating that any time soon.
Crime rates are falling, the economy of the Twin Cities region has grown 17% in the last couple of years, and the population is growing too though more slowly.
Absolutely incorrect. Transit ridership is going up, crime is going down. Has been trending this way for years at this point. Expand your horizons beyond fox news
I’m not sure I see the connection - the transit connections don’t focus on improving local amenities. It seems like its more focused on connecting people across the metro area.
As a Californian from an MSP-sized metro, I wish San Diego had the same urbanist confidence as MSP does. We were #1 in the US for 2022 LRT ridership, we're building two $4B infill TODs on the same LRT line outside downtown, our busiest LRT corridor runs every 7.5 min off-peak, yet there's overwhelming NIMBY pessimism of how San Diego is sprawlsville and will never be like Portland.
We were in San Diego earlier this year and really enjoyed out visit. We took the LRT several times and avoiding getting in a car for the whole weekend. Culture can change over time and I feel like San Diego is starting from a fairly strong point.
I hope Michigan follows the progress here, we can create an incredible corridor of transit/urbanism/affordable/sustainable from The Twin Cities MIlwaulkee Chicago Detroit [Cleveland | Toronto].
I think Cleveland is getting off on the right foot with Mayor Bibb. Last I heard, Cleveland is beginning a plan to expand funding to parks, there's numerous new multi-use neighborhoods under construction currently VERY close to downtown on old brownfield developments, and they're also looking to roll out a plan at reorganizing the city's zoning code and increasing density along transit routes and stations.
This is the vision.
Mayor Bibb is fantastic. Makes me much more optimistic about Cleveland's future.
Michicagn is the last place in the world that will be usable transit. They fund minimal transit just to prove that “transit is unusable”
Too many people in the stay adhere to the auto industry propaganda. The majority who live there claim that good transit threaten local jobs and economy.
In Europe as well as in the US, the more vibrant the auto industry, the worse the transit.
great video!! as a MSP resident, i'm so excited to see the news getting out about all these huge wins coming from advocacy (and politics of course) in the transportation space. even with the formal commitment of funding to these plans, there is still a lot of skepticism and even protest in the region largely due to misinformation and smear campaigns. i hope that more people use their platform like you do! and maybe one day we can graduate from LRT/BRT to true mass rapid transit... cheers :)
Thanks! That’s certainly the hope (and to use MSP’s example to inspire action in other cities in the Midwest).
Hi from Orlando! Great to see the infrastructure revolution in action, especially since it’s not happening much at all down here 😅
Well, at least Brightline is something to be excited about!
It's great to see major progress being made in MSP. I haven't been there in about 15 years so it sounds like I have a good reason to go back now! Thanks for the great video.
Thanks! If you do go back - plan a bike excursion! I’ve heard that the off street paths are top tier.
@@HeartlandUrbanist Thanks for the suggestion! I'll keep that in mind.
One thing that seems to be missing here is that major DOT reforms are also needed to make streets safer and more livable. Many DOTs use the MUTCD, which is a highway design manual, as their guiding design document. This is how we end up with stroads and high speed roadways blasting through what should be quiet residential neighborhoods.
Without a reform of the engineering profession, which is sorely needed at every level, much of this success will be limited because DOT agencies will always prioritize cars and will fight against any improvement.
Anyways, love the video and I gotta say, I really appreciate your optimism. I don't think I would have the same level of optimism for the Midwest, but I'm glad someone is out there trying to spread the message. Thanks!
Thanks, Jamal! Great point about DOT reform. One win I briefly touched on is the requirement to consider climate goals, particularly the goal to reduce vehicle miles traveled, in road and highway projects. That's not the same as the broader reform you're talking about but I think it's a really important step.
@Heartland Urbanist This is a good point, but seeing as how DOTs weaponize this language to greenwash their projects, e.g. claiming that reduced congestion will reduce emissions, I'm not convinced that is enough. I definitely appreciate the effort from the state government and I think they're doing good work, but I personally think a complete overhaul to the profession is needed. It probably needs to come from the feds, though, because we shouldn't build these standards on a state by state basis.
@@jamalgibson8139 Here's hoping we see some action from Pete, maybe in a second term 🤞.
I'm from Minneapolis, this is a great first step, and I'm so glad our metro is trying so hard. Hopefully we'll make some of those brt lite lines into light rail in the next ten years such as the midtown line :D
I was really surprised by how much pushback light rail seems to be getting in Minneapolis. Seems like all of the political support and momentum is for BRT.
@@HeartlandUrbanistThat’s because the Blue Line extension is way over budget and behind schedule going through a relatively low density set of suburbs. Meanwhile BRTs are relatively a lot cheaper, easier to implement, and contractors have significantly more experience building roads vs rail. I recently saw a map of how potentially the Blue extension could have gone through a higher density area.
Super exciting. Now that we in Wisconsin are getting our gerrymandered maps fixed, I'm hoping MN, IL, and WI can all make some amazing transit gains that will connect all of us together.
That would be so incredible. The Upper Midwest would be well positioned for growth as folks start flocking north.
As someone who lives in St Paul, I really think we need more crosstown bus routes and rapid transit. Like there is absolutely no reason why the 46 doesn’t run on weekends. The 3 and 64 should just be combined and not make you have to go downtown although we still should have a version of the 64 that goes down Payne Avenue. Also if you love south of 46th street, north of Lowry Avenue or live in East side Saint Paul, there’s basically no crosstown transit and we need crosstown routes there
Wow, that is just awesome! I'm sitting over here wondering if I want to move to Minneapolis now 🙃
It's so impressive that they are moving on this so definitively. I'm used to hearing why we can't or won't do these things from my local officials, and there they are showing it's possible 🔥
It's also cool how their investments compound each other; investments in their bike network add value for users of transit and vice versa.
Thanks for another awesome video!
I really needed this inspiration and reinvigoration! Great video once again, love how you define the buzzwords like NIMBY in your video to teach people about it.
I am a big fan of the twin cities and would love to move there. I hope they consider expanding the lines to continue to transit. They really need to work on the regional rail system across the state, there is no reason the Northern Lights Express (train to Duluth) should not get pushed through (I know its funded but it needs to keep going). They then need to connect Eau Claire and increase expansion of trains between MSP and Chicago. With all those connections to other cities those cities (Duluth, Superior, Eau Claire and other points in their State wide plan).
The Twin Cities need to be looked at by other cities in the Midwest, looking at you Columbus!!!! Side note, Columbus needs to build train lines damn it. No reason Columbus shouldn't have a commuter, regional and light rail system!!!
Personal sidenote, as you know I am from Columbus but currently live in SLC. Have you heard of the Rio Grande Plan? Its an interesting proposal from another RUclipsr, Civil Engineer, and transit lover Christian Lenhart. I recently met with them to determine how we can get more people to know about it and I would hope you would take a look at this great project and maybe do a video on it from an urbanist perspective.
did not expect to see a death grips shirt in this video haha
The biggest challenge for the Twin Cities will be managing costs and delays. The public has barely been able to swallow the debacle of the southwest green line. Another round of massive cost overruns and delays on other projects could easily tip the scales against transit expansion plans.
It sounds like so far the BRT projects have been very well received!
Every transit system that builds rail infrastructure in the country has the same problem with New York City being the worst. I think the issue lies with how project delivery is procured. Whether it's on the planning and design end or the construction end, it's turtles all the way down! Meaning consultants and contractors. And public private partnership or design build operate? Maryland's Purple Line shows what a debacle that is!
@@edwardmiessner6502 oh my gosh, we were living in DC for a lot of the early construction work for the Purple Line. What a mess! Still, very excited for it to eventually open.
Might not help that there is presumably a car lobby getting in the way wherever it can
Great vid! Very informative
Thank you - so glad you liked it!
These are some pretty exciting plans for Minneapolis. It’s definitely looking like it’ll be the Salt Lake City or Portland of the Midwest in a few years. And it’s great that they are one of the few midsized metros in the country (and only one in the Midwest) that’s taking its transit seriously. Hopefully this will bring the amount of anti-car ownership down to two in the next few years.
That’s being said, I wish that MSP would consider more LRT over BRT. BRT isn’t a good long-term solution as it can’t hold as many passengers as LRT can and is just a glorified bus. It’s also not going to captivate new riders the way a train can.
Also, Urbanism shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It should be an issue that every politician should focus on. There are plenty of conservative urbanists and even rural Minnesota could become more walkable. Making urbanism a partisan issue will only turn off the other side and create even more unnecessary opposition.
Finally, the rail service between Duluth and Minneapolis is a good idea but a high (or higher) speed train is what is needed in order to compete with the cars or planes for this to be successful. Amtrak should also consider Acela-style routes for the connections to Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. Service to Winnipeg (with stops in Fargo and Grand Forks) could also be considered.
All in all, good video. This will do wonders in making Minneapolis a more attractive place to live due to walkability.
Thanks for this. Totally agree that urbanism shouldn't be partisan - but investing in transit very much is today. I don't think anything I say will convince MAGA extremist to stop hating cities. It's pretty baked in at this point. But maybe the Republican Party will eventually turn away from its demons. I certainly hope so.
On LRT - I understand that the current light rail expansions are actually very controversial in the cities (even among urbanists), partially because they're seen as more disruptive of communities like interstate highways of the past. It seems like BRT has more consensus support and can be built out cheaper and faster - helping get the Cities to the network effects it needs.
Last, on intercity rail, I do know that many corridors in the Midwest are slated to get 110 MPH service (it helps that we're so flat) - so that should compete nicely with driving and flying!
@@HeartlandUrbanist I voted for Trump twice, but when it comes to urbanism I disagree with the GOP. The principles of great transit--frequency, grade separation, walkability, and TOD transcend ideology. I don't even expect transit to be profitable, I will gladly pay taxes to improve it. I simply expect my taxes be spent on maximizing frequency before free transit.
Even the Cato institute fired Randal O'Toole (the guy who says density was a Communist plot) and now supports abolishing single family zoning. Because the richest man in the world's most lassiez faire economy made money from lots of TOD megaprojects.
It's worth noting that
1. BRT is being built because it's cheap and a cost effective way of upgrading high performing bus routes. LRT is still getting built and planned, including the Riverview corridor and Blue+Green Line extensions.
2. The Minneapolis to Duluth train, Northern lights Express, is a higher speed rail line at 90mph with an average of 60-68mph.
@@HeartlandUrbanist On BRT - Many BRT advocates always argue cost and flexibility and time over LRT and Subways but they also require more staff to drive the buses (even articulated buses can’t carry the capacity of a 5 or even 4-car train), require more maintenance (roads require more maintenance vs. rail especially in the winter, although this is arguable) and can be used as an excuse for the city to cheap out on its infrastructure, causing it to become a glorified bus that can even end up getting stuck in traffic if the city doesn’t plan it well enough.
It’s alright if BRT is used temporarily to test the ridership of a corridor or if it branches off of a rail corridor to reach areas where rail is impractical or where there is a high demand for service but the area is also full of NIMBYs. It also could work in smaller cities as a transit backbone. However, it seems as if it’s being used as the backbone in most of MSP which I believe isn’t a good idea.
Personally, I always thought BRT sucked the fun out of taking transit. It was always nice to ride a train through the city. It provided a smooth ride that buses just cannot match. But if you enjoy riding buses more, to each his own.
Congrats on the recent wins! Baltimore and Maryland have much to learn from the Twin Cities. What is BRT light tho...an express bus?
Frequent limited stop bus with some transit signal priority, improved stations and some bus lanes.
@@trademark4537 Leave it to a U.S. transit system to come up with the term "BRT light" as if that's actually a thing. It would be interesting to see if this service meets ITDP's standard for classification as BRT.
@@jayell1761 The ITDP's standard isn't even a real thing anymore. It hasn't been updated since 2019. For what aBRT (What it's called here) is, it's a good upgrade for very cheap. It's not the end all be all, and some of these routes should get the full BRT treatment soon. But being able to push out one of these lines every year versus waiting 10+ years to go through the whole process of getting federal funds for a transitway builds ridership and trust in the system.
The D Line opened 6 months ago and is having 500-1000 more riders every month and is already over pre-covid ridership. While providing a 20% increase in speed.
@Oak Island Pictures Your not gonna find any systems in America where high quality bus service is standard. As in all-door boarding, limited stops, good quality permanent stations, signal priority, bump outs.
You might find them on certain routes, or certain corridors. But they are not standard. Building a new one of these every year for extremely low cost locally is how you get a a system like that. And even though some routes should be upgraded to real BRT in the near future. Building ridership through aBRT helps us get there. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.
What's crazy is that the aBRT lines (or BRT Light as I refer to them in the video) in the Twin Cities are better than what many cities call BRT. Columbus's first "BRT" line had a tiny fraction of these features.
You’re glossing over one key aspect of the Twin Cities: the people. You can have the best transit and walkability in the world, and it’s worthless if the people around you are cold, distant, unfriendly, and uninviting.
loved the video, thanks! < 3
...possible noob question from an ignorant foreigner, but still: ^^'
why not extend the commuter line to st paul or create a new one with just two stops, as a quicker alternative to the green tram branch?
cheers from stockholm!
That's a great question! I know the commuter rail is currently struggling - but maybe connecting it to St. Paul would help.
You hit the nail on the head at 6:08!
I'd recommend reading "The American Left's Chronic NIMBY Problem" in the Financial Times.
I wish Rhode Island was as progressive as this but we don’t even know how to keep a single bridge in a good state of repair.
Lots of “blue” states could do so much more on transit and so many other issues.
@@HeartlandUrbanist Very true, no state is perfect, especially Rhode Island lol! I think we have a lot going for us, but we just need the right people to finally enter our government to take advantage of it.
do you know if there are any plans to convert any of the existing/future brt lines to light rail like los angeles is planning on doing? coming from an atlanta resident, i just get worried about the complete focus on brt instead of lrt
Sadly I haven’t heard any plans.
@@HeartlandUrbanist ahhhhh that sucks. im hoping both msp and indy end up doing that sometime in the near future
@@ayeeeeeeee6240 Yeah... apparently light rail has been really controversial in MSP so that would need to shift before there could be a more significant expansion (beyond the current expansion projects). And the state government bared Indy from using referendum revenue for light rail, so there would need to be a political/policy shift there. Not anticipating that any time soon.
@@HeartlandUrbanist good to know, not good news though. thanks anyways!
Uh, things aren't going so good in Minneapolis ever since the 'George Floyd' riots.
Crime rates are falling, the economy of the Twin Cities region has grown 17% in the last couple of years, and the population is growing too though more slowly.
Absolutely incorrect. Transit ridership is going up, crime is going down. Has been trending this way for years at this point. Expand your horizons beyond fox news
Op believes conservative news probably
... why does this sound like nothing more than a WEF 15 minute city plan?
I’m not sure I see the connection - the transit connections don’t focus on improving local amenities. It seems like its more focused on connecting people across the metro area.