Jerome Johnson: A new era for Riverview mobility
The East Metro transit establishment is ultimately getting it right By pivoting to a more practical Bus Rapid Transit organization model it is signaling that the concept of a Riverview Transit Corridor lives on and by announcing plans to acquire additional off-street right-of-way it is hinting that there may yet be a role for rail-based transit in the corridor But to ensure that both long- and short-run narratives play out policymakers must act now not to both jump-start short-run bus-based corridor mobility and then to secure sufficient throughput quota to realize Riverview s ultimate economic logistical and recreational possible Metro Transit can start by implementing a Highest Frequency arterial Bus Rapid Transit HF-BRT provision over a rebuilt West Seventh that improves current - to -minute express bus frequencies to five to six minutes and then extends the arrangement north to Maplewood over the Purple Line BRT way This will move Riverview and Purple Line riders to from and through downtown more efficiently by reducing annoying curbside wait times and eliminating downtown transfers it will move Gold Line and other transferring riders through downtown faster via shorter platform waits and it will afford all riders unprecedented arrangement reliability and broken trip recoverability There is nothing new or radical about five-minute bus system over extended city arterials It is being done at present in the suburbs of Toronto where key components of the Brampton ZUM organization operate at five-minute rush hour and -minute midday frequencies over arterials connecting suburban activity centers to Toronto s rail transit infrastructure Several of these -mile routes now handle over weekday riders thanks to multiple double-digit year-over-year increases Not surprisingly the operator is planning to upgrade key parts of that system to either full dedicated guideway BRT status or as extensions to Toronto s light rail grid As such it is a blueprint for what can happen here Five-minute provision however is just the start City and Ramsey County leadership must also secure sufficient off-street right-of-way to cover longer-run corridor-wide traffic improvement and usage contingencies Acquiring the -mile CP Spur an abandoned railroad pathway connecting the -acre mixed-use Highland Bridge maturation with the Randolph Avenue West Seventh commercial district makes that happen Through a bit of geographic luck the spur comes sufficiently close to West Seventh at key transfer points to make it a viable trail and busway supplement to West Seventh itself It will be just a short walk for example from the spur to Sibley Plaza Lexington Parkway and Randolph Avenue station sites on West Seventh as well as to the Mississippi River recreational corridor at Otto and Shepard Road Beyond these alignment attributes the spur can safely advocacy transit operations - to -mph faster than over a congested West Seventh making it the only realistic right-of-way option for an eventual regional light rail presence in the corridor should social and economic conditions warrant And absolutely the spur in transit deployment can accelerate conversion of acres of industrial real estate along scenic Shepard Road to transit-oriented residential and commercial usage near foreseen Randolph does St Paul really want a garbage truck fueling station there and Homer Avenue station sites based on similarly thriving Green and Blue Line station area conversions near the University of Minnesota and th Street respectively The West End has waited for more than a decade for equitable transit institution on its well-patronized Riverview Corridor as proponents tried without success to sell the community on a slow rail-based street-running alternative Met Council can mitigate that by deploying best-in-class five-minute bus provision now while Ramsey County can nail the happy ending to the Riverview mobility saga by securing for the common good the right of way for what someday could be a faster safer and far more effective version of the Modern Streetcar Jerome Johnson is a retired transportation economist and cofounder of Citizen Advocates for Regional Transit CART a St Paul based mobility advocacy organization
