02-22-1988 - Agenda Packet City Council - regular meeting

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Planning Continued from Page I "HOW DO WE KNOW 1960sgenerated proposals forad- THEY'LL EVEN NEED ditional,non-Irmustwelmi,ways, ROADS 60 YEARS reviving the "diagonals" idea: in FROMNOH?" the Southwest Compiler, in the Northwest Corridor. along ledar Av., a long Central Av. NE. and crosstown at about 28th SL The in the form tha Av. Mu lis Park Board (the freeway would have had to cross Minneh a ha Creek and Park) slowed this up long enough for environmental andracg hbod"reskuanecto smpit.cehy revived it in 1974 under federal authorization for an "innovadwiminsponationdem- onstration"alenp Hiawatha Av. But the"innovetrve" part failed. In the end something like S50 million will be spent for what is basically a widening, paving and landscaping job. Them Is cone—i ity, too, In the proposals for "circumferentials' —the "ring mads" that appear in transportation plans as cities grew, when it beco roes difficult to go through the center and easier to go around, instead. The concept of a "ring mad" around downtown Minneapolis had appeared in the city's pplans by 1920. And in the lam MOsthe Highway Depart. ment was beginning a rimar ler- ential in the suburbs —Hwy. 100. h appeared foss on the west of M in- ncapolisas"Lilac Way,"afra- grant route for the rim -so- fragrant cattle trucks en them way to the stockyards in South St. Paul. Interstatesys,. N anewalign- Tha idea of a third circumferential, still fanharoul, has been resisted by the Metmpolian Council. But the norm side ofan outer ring may now be appearing: Hwy. 610. re- fentially an area-applicalion.but candy designated to connect Hwy. automated using sin -passenger 10 in Coon Rapids with 1-94 near vehicleson its own elevated sten O. structure. There is continuity also in transit Theo were streetcar cities until about 1920.Transilwasen"area" service, not simply a few radial mutes. Tracks were laid down every six blocks, so people would have at most a three -block walk to the law. This"ama"service. feed- ing the downtowns with a network of routes covering the central cities and first -ring suburbs. has carried down into the present without much change —except that in the late 1950sthe streetcars were m- moved and replaced with diesel buses Proposals forsome new transit "system"are basically proposals for the old road -.+ssido m to con- nect die downtowns io the ricw suburbs on the edge of the region. They am not proEusalstoextenit the MTC's"area service. The MTC. commi tied to cars -on. mils,appcalcd theCounciNdoci- slon to the Legislature. The issue isjumcd in the 1973 session. Di- .cd and uncertain. the Logida. x asked for a study of a third op- en: "personal rapid transit"—cs. The communitydebate about transit from 1971 to 1975 wasin- Then any household About 1979 the MTC withdrew from transit planning. Its new chairman,Juhn Yngve, found the agency so distracted by its involve. ment in discussions about "new systems" that its S I00-million-a- year bus business. neglected, had fallen into serious operational trouble. He and the new general manager began to concentrate in. stead on the mpairofthe bus flea, on theconstmctionof lung -needed new garages, on room impnrve- notsandon cost central. He was convinced, too. that fixed -guide. way transit was essentially a de. velopmentquestion,not atrans- portation quc amn. The general dissatisfaction led in pa9eoh'homo tokt munlci- 8s aege fringe of the syste in opt out of the MTC, and use their pm ny-tax revenues to design different and mom flexible pat. mmsofurvice. All thks, combined with the failure ofthe Metropolitan Council io fob low up its 1972 policy with speci. fic proposals for busway construc- tion, crated a vac scum in transit planning. Into th a vacuum stepped the advocatesoflight-rail transit. The LRT advocatuhiton a new and successful strategy. Their proposal had never proved persons. sive with the transportation -plan. ning agencies So they bypassed then wentdisand to electedesses They went m,cityy to elected in- dials: mayors, city council mem- hersman ty earn veinsinnersey did not and the gave mor.They did about the aimal rigin-ysls ebom travel denims ororigin-arid- deminnion pattems They did not talk a lot efuutridership—or where it would come from. They werevag ue aboul costs and cost-effectiveness They sold "urban image." They talked vehicles"'!soy showed slides of LRT in Europe. They made pointed comparisons be- tween the Twin Cities area and other cities that were installing real (i.e., mill transit, and they organ- vtd nips to those cities They talked about congestion. They played on the public's guilt about its heavy use of the automobile. Success came smadi Iv. The Met- RTB. premcdsuccessful allowing it to plan Wughtan