A recent article in Finance & Commerce provides more fluff about the BRT system as touted by local city government officials and the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce. While the article provides little detail that hasn’t been published elsewhere, aside from pictures of Will Branning and Mayor Mary riding the bus, something they’re unlikely to do unless a camera crew is in tow, the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce President provided one of the most hilarious and ridiculous quotes ever.
From the article:
More than attracting development, local proponents also see transit as a tool that can be used to draw young people back to the community.
“This is about changing the dynamics of the suburb,” Kearney said. “This isn’t quite Uptown, but we have become Southtown.”
Wow, just wow. What Kearney is trying to say here is that cities along the busway which starts in the farm fields of Lakeville and terminates at the Mall of America–THE most hated and uncool shopping area in town–adding at least 45 minutes to the average professional’s commute, is somehow going to become a trendy and hip thing to attract young professionals to Apple Valley.
If this were possible, the busway as it’s currently developed would have spawned development and growth for young and hip professionals because the current system is faster and effectively exactly the same:
When the line is finished, buses will travel every 15 minutes between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays, carrying commuters from Apple Valley to Bloomington in roughly 30 minutes. Weekend and special event service is also planned, though schedules are still being worked out.
As we suspected. This is a totally useless entity. The only added benefit will be more trips to the Mall of America, where no one wants to go on the weekdays, 5 days a week. They’re not going to actually run this thing on the weekends. Guess why Uptown and other areas in Minneapolis and St. Paul are popular? BECAUSE YOU CAN GET THERE ON THE WEEKENDS. By limiting this to the weekdays, the busway is setup for a similar fate as Northstar Rail: it’s faster and cheaper to take other methods of transit (like driving), it terminates in a useless and undeveloped area, and IT DOES NOT RUN ON THE WEEKENDS except for special events.
The more we learn, the more we realize this isn’t cool and hip like Uptown, it’s boring and useless like Apple Valley has always been. What do you think?
Related posts:
- Apple Valley Home and Garden Expo: Apple Valley, MN
- Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce President Agrees Cedar/42 is Real “Downtown”
- Apple Valley May Buy Another Skyway? Seriously?
- Apple Valley to Allow Further Degradation of Central Village Plan?
- Apple Valley Cedar Ave Bus Rapid Transit Display
Dakota Complaints Map
Dakota Inmate Dashboard
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December 14th, 2012 at 8:07 am
Well, Apple Valley has a couple of things in common with Uptown, all the restaurants are shitty, and most of the stores are boring chains.
(I am not including Lucia’s in that assessment since that is a half a block off of Hennepin)
December 14th, 2012 at 9:27 am
At least you can find places to park.
December 14th, 2012 at 10:17 am
Considering I moved from Apple Valley to Uptown (as you know), I say, “good luck”. Transportation to/from Bloomington is not going to make a city a hotspot. There’s so much more to it like culture, accessibility, and options to name a few.
Plus, only running until 11pm? That makes it a little risky for return trips after shows/events, but then again, we all have to plan accordingly for public transport no matter where we live.
December 14th, 2012 at 10:21 am
Irrelevant with all of these world-class, futuristic transit options.
December 14th, 2012 at 10:47 am
We mature adults have spent all our lives trying to kick these young nail-headed, tattooed, post-apocalyptic, black wear’n, zombie crawl’n, late night party’n, douchenozzel kids out of our homes , our town and our lives. And now some gawdawmned bullshit bus that’s kinda of train but really a bus, and a short one at that, is going to draw these generational misfits BACK into town? Takes forever to get seated at Applebee’s at 4:00 as it is gawd damn it. Whose idea was this. I think they scheduled to damn city council meetings in the middle of night on purpose so decent, kind, sensible citizens of a certain age can’t come because we’re already in the bag in bed by then.
December 14th, 2012 at 10:50 am
The Star Trib ran a “happy talk” article about the BRT based on interviews with local officials a few days ago written by Laurie Blake (lblake@startribune.com).
Here’s my response to her:
Hi Laurie. I appreciated reading your piece on the Cedar BRT. It sounds wonderful based on the quotes from the political supporters. But as an interested citizen, living in Apple Valley, I will say that the jury is out on whether this will be a good investment or a sorry boondoggle with really cool looking buses disguised as trains, doing nothing more than current bus service provides—-with multimillions of taxpayer dollars spent.
I had called local government (I can’t remember who I talked to) to ask whether the BRT buses would have the capability to control traffic signals so they always had a green light which would allow them to move unimpeded through the corridor except for the stops (Just like light rail). The answer was they would NOT have that capability and they would only be able to move through the corridor at the same pace as the other traffic. They did say that timing the lights to improve traffic flow would be a priority…but the buses would not have any special ability to avoid the traffic lights. Hmmmmm…….so why would the BRT be any faster than regular bus service?
A second issue that has caused me concern is the fact that many millions have been spent widening and upgrading Cedar Avenue through Apple Valley—–however, the three lanes and 4th shoulder bus lane narrow down to 2 lanes (plus a shoulder lane) starting at CO 38 and extending almost to the MN River Bridge going Northbound. MN DOT has a study underway of either widening this section or using a moveable lane (another bad idea that will cost millions and keep on requiring energy and personnel costs to move concrete barriers on a daily basis). But apparently this was not a coordinated action with the BRT planning. So bottom line is you will have a multimillion dollar BRT project running into a Northbound bottleneck. Maybe the BRT buses will get through faster, but they will have to go slower in the shoulder lane with the parking lot of cars during the AM commute. Hmmmmm…..so why would the BRT be any faster than regular bus service?
A final issue raised by your article was your statement that the the busway will not be geared to commuters! I have never heard this and was appalled to hear it. One of the goals I thought for the BRT was to reduce traffic volumes on Cedar Avenue! Commuters make up a major part of travel through the corridor and not having the BRT serve them will not relieve any traffic in the corridor. So who is the BRT for? Retirees like me to go the Mall of America in the middle of the afternoon? I also see that bus service to downtown will continue as usual. So we are building this multimillion dollar system and it will not replace existing bus service as a cost savings? I continue to wonder about these decisions…..and to again ask the question…….why will the BRT will be any better than the regular bus service?
I personally supported a light rail solution for the Cedar Avenue corridor. The politicians that opposed it call themselves conservatives….and felt it was too costly. But it would have truly created a transportation alternative that was effective, efficient and would have removed vehicle traffic from the road.
Will the BRT turn out to be a boon or boondoggle? Time will tell……………
December 14th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
BRT was a way for them to use transit dollars to widen Cedar and make it more convenient for cars. There’s nothing redeeming about the BRT as a transit project and it is a shame they labeled it as the equivalent to light rail. Again, just a way for Dakota County to check a few boxes off the “friendly to transit” form, and also widen a highway with transit dollars instead of highway dollars.
December 14th, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Next will come the monorail.
December 14th, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Monorail?
December 14th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life my Hindu friend.
December 14th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Nils,
They already have those place in place and a pilot program has been underway since 1978 at the Minnesota Zoo. However, because the Monorail is too much like an actual train riding on a track, Dakota County Commissioner Will Branning said that they plan on ripping out the concrete monorail and will replace it with a widened, elevated asphalt roadway. The Commissioners feel this will provide the utmost flexibility in delivering people on a limited course which runs only during daylight hours in a gigantic loop around a bunch of animals looking at shit that takes about 45 minutes to complete.
In addition, the Zoo will close on the weekends, aside from special events currently unknown at this time, because no one would want to use the Busaroehl then.
December 14th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
I had to do a double take and make sure that was a Bill post, and not a MSPD post.
Good form.