Ramsey County and St. Paul officials recently rallied to get Metro Transit to hold off on launching a type of Bus Rapid Transit service down West Seventh Street by late 2016.
The thinking is that overlapping city, county and Metro Transit initiatives on West Seventh will confuse the public, interfere with federal funding and possibly block competing transit infrastructure.
Instead of arterial BRT that operates in normal traffic, Ramsey County will instead pursue a study of all the options available on the Riverview Corridor, the transit corridor from downtown St. Paul to the international airport. They say that study is about 12 – 18 months away from completion, and will look at everything from bus rapid transit to streetcar.
Many transit advocates say they’re disappointed that the city and county are dismissing the bird in hand for two in the bush.
But Joseph Totten, a student in civil engineering focusing on transportation studies, isn’t one of them. Here’s his take for Streets.mn on the “go slow” approach, which he favors.
Following his blog post, there’s a spirited discussion critiquing his critique. It’s worth a gander.