Still hope for a bold transportation bill this session!

By Dave Van Hattum, Senior Policy Advocate

Taking action: This week at the Capitol, supporters called on legislators to fund transportation now.

In a surprise move a week ago, freshman senator Melisa Franzen offered an amendment on the Senate floor to the Omnibus Transportation Funding bill to provide new funding for roads and transit. That amendment passed and, soon after, the entire bill was adopted.  HF 1444 (previously SF 1173) includes a phased-in half-cent increase in the metro area sales tax for transit, and a phased-in increase of 5 cents in the state gas tax. The amended bill also includes a small percentage for bicycle and pedestrian connections, and increases transit funding for Greater Minnesota, meeting 70 percent of the need. Together, these investments will put Minnesota’s transportation system on the right path for the future. The question now is whether these elements make it into law this session.

TLC and the Transit for a Stronger Economy coalition have advocated all session for a funding bill that will greatly expand transit, and safe, accessible bicycling and walking connections. This past Wednesday, the coalition gathered outside the Governor’s office and marched to Speaker Thissen’s office. The walls of the Capitol echoed with voices calling, “Transportation Now!”       

This week, the Minnesota House and Senate have been conferencing the bold Senate bill with a “lights on” House Transportation funding bill that offers no increase in funding, but rather keeps status quo transportation budgets in place.  The Conference Committee is comprised of the following legislators.

Senate	House
Dibble	Hornstein
Champion	Bernardy
Carlson	Beard
Jensen	Erhardt
Kent	Sundin

There is still hope that end-of-session negotiations will get the job done on transportation. One possibility is that the half-cent sales tax will be packaged with $300 million in trunk highway bonds and as yet unnamed additional funding for roads. Another funding effort is a House bonding bill, championed by Rep. Alice Hausman, with funding for Southwest light rail and other key transit projects. 

All session, Governor Dayton has remained committed to his budget proposal, which includes a half-cent increase in the metro sales tax to significantly expand the metro area transit system. Let’s thank the Governor (click here or call 651-201-3400) and inspire him and legislative leaders to get the job done in the final few days.

The Transit for a Stronger Economy coalition will remain engaged in legislative action right up to the final bell—in this case, Monday, May 20.  We encourage other transit, bicycling, and walking advocates to do the same, and to keep the pressure on your elected officials through the weekend!  

Take action: send a quick message to your state legislators right now.

Photo Credit: Val Escher

Connecting the Dots: Transportation and Health

By Teresa Roark, TLC Intern, Graduate Student at U of M School of Public Health

 

Throughout this legislative session, Transit for Livable Communities has been facilitating the Transit for a Stronger Economy coalition. Our coalition’s name emphasizes the positive economic impact of increased transit, but the benefits of public transportation are broad. Not surprisingly, the list of Transit for a Stronger Economy’s 52 member organizations is equally broad, representing a variety of sectors, including public health. Earlier this spring, coalition partner Rachel Callanan, Regional Vice President of Advocacy for the American Heart Association and Chair of the Minnesotans for Healthy Kids coalition testified in favor of increased funding for transit, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements. In her testimony, Callanan made a strong connection between transportation and health. As she emphasized, greater investments in transit and active transportation options are likely to have positive health implications for Minnesotans, while also saving our state money in health care costs.

Lack of physical activity is associated with a number of chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, and obesity. The Surgeon General recommends that adults get at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity. Almost half of American adults do not meet this recommendation. But as  Callanan noted, “Increased access to public transportation may provide more opportunities for physical activity as most transit trips begin and end with walking.” In fact, Callanan said, “Public transit users spend an average of 19 minutes daily walking to and from transit. . . . This modest amount is significant enough that it could reduce the obesity epidemic and its related health costs.”

Improved physical health is not just important for individuals who currently don’t exercise. We will all benefit from lower health care costs. Callanan shared research conducted by the American Heart Association that predicts that the “healthcare costs from obesity alone could exceed $861 billion by 2013, which would account for at least 16 percent of U.S. health expenditures.” By acting now and increasing funding for transit, bicycling, and walking, we can prevent this astronomical increase in health care costs. 

Transit, bicycling, and walking are good for Minnesota’s economy, but these transportation options are also good for our health. As the diversity of our coalition members reminds us, the potential benefits we will see when the legislature passes a comprehensive transportation funding bill are many—hopefully too many for elected officials to ignore. 

Metro Red Line + MVTA = A Great Ride to the Zoo

By Hilary Reeves, Communications Director

When the Metro Red Line opens on June 22, it will be the region’s first station-to-station Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line. It will travel on bus-only shoulder lanes along Cedar Avenue, with stations at Apple Valley Transit Station, 147th Street, 140th Street, Cedar Grove station in Eagan, and the Mall of America, where connections can be made to the Blue Line (aka the Hiawatha light rail line). Unlike commuter bus service, the Red Line BRT will run frequently all day, every day—so frequently you won’t need a schedule, says the Metropolitan Council. The operating hours will be from 5 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday, and 7:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday and Sunday.

Metro Red Line buses will serve each station with level boarding, real-time signs, and other transit advantages, much like service on the light rail (LRT). Credit: Metropolitan Council.

 

When the Red Line opens June 22, some MVTA bus routes will change to feed to and from the Line. Commuter bus service will not change. Credit: Metropolitan Council.

 

With the expansion of the transit network in the south metro, the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA) will adjust bus schedules to feed into the Red Line and back. While commuter buses from the MVTA will not change, the combination of bus, BRT, and LRT will make it easier to get to key destinations by transit.

One MVTA route adjustment will give families an affordable way to get to the Minnesota Zoo. Starting June 22, take the Red Line to the Cedar Grove Station (ask for a transfer) and catch the MVTA bus for a 15 minute ride to the Zoo, with hourly service every day of the week, from morning to early evening. Kids under 5 years old travel for free (the limit is three free kids per one adult). The off-peak fare is $1.75 per adult or child over age 5. And, use your transfer to get discounted admission to the Zoo. Given that regular Zoo admission is $12.00-$16.00 and parking for cars is $6.00, the Red Line-MVTA combo could be a money-saving option!

 

If you’ve got tickets to one of the summer concerts at Minnesota Zoo’s Weesner Family Amphitheater this summer, MVTA also is offering special express bus service (route 475) from the University of Minnesota through downtown Minneapolis to the Cedar Grove Transit station, arriving at the Zoo by 7:00 p.m. for 7:30 concerts. Buses will leave the Zoo at 10:30 p.m. The fare is $5.00 round trip, paid as riders board the bus to the Zoo. The Zoo concert series runs through the end of August. For more information about the special route, click here.

Thanks to Robin Selvig at MVTA for her help with details about changing service.

# # #

 

Streetcars in the City

By Dave Van Hattum, Senior Policy Advocate, and Teresa Roark, TLC Intern

Energy around a streetcar revival has been steadily building in the Twin Cities—and with good reason. The modern streetcar is far more than an ode to the dominant transportation mode preceding today’s ubiquitous car culture. Streetcars provide a valuable transit option uniquely suited to dense urban settings and with strong opportunities for new commercial and residential development. But are streetcars likely to make a major comeback here in Minnesota?

Streetcars (referred to as trolleys outside North America) have been part of the U.S. transit system since the late 19^th century. By the 1920s, they were commonplace, even spawning the term “streetcar suburb” for their notable influence on development patterns and commuting habits.

As local authors John Diers and Aaron Isaacs describe in Twin Cities by Trolley, many older Minnesotans fondly recall riding the 520-mile streetcar network that once stretched from Stillwater to Lake Minnetonka, with dense grids of track serving Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

 

Passengers boarding a streetcar at Hennepin Ave. & 9^th St. in Minneapolis, part of the extensive network that once served the Twin Cities metro area.

After declining in the 1940s and 50s for a variety of reasons, including growing suburban development and the emergence of rubber tired buses, streetcars are reappearing in more and more cities across the country—not only as a way of moving people from one place to another, but as part of a comprehensive development plan.

Peer Cities Embrace Modern Streetcars

Today, modern streetcars operate in Charlotte, NC, Portland, OR, and the Seattle-Tacoma metro area.. New streetcar service will launch in Dallas and Washington, DC, later this year, and is under construction or procurement in Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Salt Lake City. Historic streetcars still operate in Boston, Memphis, New Orleans (replica), Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

  
Passengers about to board a modern streetcar in Portland, OR.

These streetcars operate in urban cores and make frequent stops. They are smaller and less expensive than light rail vehicles, but larger and more expensive than buses. Popular models can accommodate 41 seated passengers and 100 standing passengers. They can either operate with autos on existing streets or, like LRT, on their own rights of way.

STREETCARS
Key Differences from Light Rail Transit (LRT)	Key Differences from Buses
Less capacity (see graphic below)	More capacity (see graphic below)
Can operate in mixed traffic	Higher visibility
Shorter routes, more frequent stops	Often spurs more development
Less construction Impact	Electric powered
Less expensive $30 to $60 million/mile vs. $100 million/mile for LRT	More expensive $30 to $60 million/mile vs. $5 million/mile for arterial BRT

*Sources for cost estimates: Streetcars 101, City of Saint Paul website; LRT based on cost of Hiawatha, Central, and Southwest LRT cost, Metro Transit Arterial BRT Study.

 

Credit: City of Minneapolis

Streetcars, with their high visibility and fixed routes, encourage economic development and mixed-use land development. For example, since streetcar service began in 1996 in the historic South End of Charlotte, NC, property values have increased from $20 million to $360 million. The streetcar is now considered “the spine of the district.”

Portland, OR, first began operating Central City Streetcar in 2001. Since then, there has been $3.5 billion in development within two blocks of this streetcar line (over 50 percent of total downtown development). Much of this development has been mixed residential and commercial, with residential properties averaging just 0.6 parking spaces per unit. Not long after opening a streetcar line, Portland birthed United Streetcar, the only manufacturer of modern streetcars in the U.S.

It is easy to see why many American cities are choosing to invest in streetcars, but will the Twin Cities join them?

Studies are underway to evaluate streetcar feasibility and determine the best routes for streetcars in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

In Minneapolis, an Alternatives Analysis (AA) has narrowed the most feasible routes to a single starter line. From downtown, the line would travel south on Nicollet Ave. to Lake St. and northeast on East Hennepin and Central Ave. We imagine this starter line will have strong potential for future development and would attract visitors and downtown workers to a wide variety of restaurants, shops, and other attractions. The AA will also examine a longer route—from 46^th St. South to 41^st St. North—that may follow a successful starter line.

Other promising routes include a streetcar along the Midtown Greenway connecting the Hiawatha LRT and the future Southwest LRT (a project being studied by Metro Transit) and a streetcar along West Broadway serving North Minneapolis. Particularly given that the proposed Bottineau LRT route skirts North Minneapolis, a new streetcar on West Broadway could bring welcome reinvestment potential to that area of the city along with more frequent transit service.  

These potential streetcar routes and many others are simultaneously being assessed as possible rapid bus corridors.

Saint Paul is also studying streetcars. By the end of 2013 when the City’s streetcar feasibility study concludes, it will have identified one to two priority corridors for implementation. Over a dozen corridors are currently being examined, including Snelling Ave., Payne Ave., Lexington Pkwy., West 7^th/East 7^th St., Rice St., Ford Pkwy., Robert St., Grand Ave., and several others. Evaluation criteria include ridership potential, development potential, and transit-supportive land uses.

Streetcar Funding

Both Saint Paul and Minneapolis still need to identify a funding source for any future streetcar lines. Streetcars are not currently identified in the Metropolitan Council’s Transportation Policy Plan, nor eligible for funding through the Counties Transit Improvement Board (1/4-cent metro area sales tax for transit), or by Metro Transit, which has had very limited resources to increase bus service over the past decade.

Given the potential of streetcars, however, a variety of new funding sources are being explored. These include: 1) allowing streetcar construction and operation as one use of an increase in the metro area sales tax (HF 1444), 2) value capture legislation (HF 617), which would allow Minneapolis to secure a portion of capital costs by borrowing against future property tax increases in locations served by a streetcar, and 3) federal funding from the Federal Transit Administration’s Small Starts program.

Want to get involved and learn more? Weigh in on bringing streetcars back to Saint Paul. Stay informed about ongoing Minneapolis streetcar planning efforts and upcoming opportunities to participate: Nicollet-Central or Midtown Corridor.

Find more on Portland’s streetcar system and development-oriented transit here.

 

Breaking: Senate Passes Increased Funding for Transit, Bike/Ped, Roads

Update: Bill passes 35-27! Update (8pm): Senate passed amendment but is still debating the transportation finance bill.

Late this afternoon on the Senate floor, Senator Melisa Franzen (DFL) District 49, introduced an amendment to the transportation finance bill to phase in increases in both the metro area sales tax for transit and the gas tax. The amendment passed, dramatically reviving hopes for action this session on behalf of transportation needs statewide.

The amendment includes funding for transit (bus and rail), bicycling and walking projects, and road and bridge projects statewide. The bill, now through the Senate, if enacted would increase the regional sales tax for transit in all seven metro counties by 1/4 cent sales tax now, with 1/4 cent next biennium. The bill would also raise the gas tax by 2.5 cents now and 2.5 cent gas tax next biennium. The bill also increases funding for Greater Minnesota transit and safe routes to school.

All eyes turn next to the House-Senate conference committee.

 

This Spring: Influence Twin Cities Regional Development for the Next 30 Years

By Dave Van Hattum, Senior Policy Advocate

 

 

The Metropolitan Council’s new regional development plan, Thrive MSP 2040, will set the framework for how the Twin Cities metro area will grow over the next 30 years.  It will influence the footprint of the developed area, including how much land will be converted from farmland and open space to housing and employment sites. It will set targets for affordable housing and establish goals for parks and water quality. And Thrive MSP will also influence our region’s future mix of transportation options: Will we invest in more highway lanes and new interchanges? Or will our region shift investments to additional public transit, bike routes, and sidewalks along with the repair of existing roads?  

You Have the Power to Influence this Plan

This spring, the Metropolitan Council is seeking input on the plan. We strongly encourage you to tell the Council what investments matter most to you, and what kind of community you want to live in going forward. Your ideas matter! Share them online, or participate at an upcoming Thrive MSP Roundtable Discussion near you. These roundtables will focus on four issue areas: 1) Regionally significant economic places, 2) land use and transit, 3) affordable housing priority, location and need, and 4) water supply and a thriving region.

Upcoming Thrive MSP Roundtable Discussions:

• Tuesday, April 30, 6:30-8:30 PM, Eagan
• Saturday, May 4, 10 AM-Noon, Saint Paul
• Thursday, May 9, 6-8 PM, Shoreview
• Thursday, May 16, 6-8 PM, Minneapolis

Setting Goals for Land Use and Transit

With regard to land use and transit, here are three key points to keep an eye on when you comment on Thrive MSP:

** Affordability = Opportunity. Thrive MSP should make sure the entire region has convenient access to transit and safe, accessible bicycling and walking options.

The Thrive MSP Transportation Goal should include the word “affordably.” Today’s transportation system works pretty well for people who can afford to drive a car, largely connecting motorists with destinations safely and reliably. But it nearly requires owning a car—a huge cost to families in the region. For young adults, the elderly, people with a disability, or others without the means for car ownership, this burden limits opportunity and makes home ownership, educational advancement, and personal health harder to achieve.  We can advance Thrive MSP’s equity principle by prioritizing affordable transportation options. For example, materials for the Thrive MSP Roundtable discussions ask, “How could transit investment decisions enhance access to opportunity for low-income and people of color. . . . ?” We think the best way to enhance access to opportunity is to increase investment in transit, bicycling, and walking – affordable options.

** Connect the Dots to Climate Change. Thrive MSP should help achieve Minnesota’s goal to reduce climate change by setting and measuring goals for the percent of trips by transit, bicycling, and walking in our region.

If our region is to dramatically reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, Thrive MSP needs to include a specific goal (as is already in state statute) for the share of trips made by public transit, bicycling, and walking that will help to achieve the state climate goals. To make progress toward those goals, the Met Council needs to explicitly advocate for the funding and policy change necessary to expand the availability of these transportation options.  Transit emits a fraction of the pollution of driving alone, and bicycling and walking are emissions free.

** Transit-Supportive Land Use.  Thrive MSP should encourage most new development inside the I-494/I-694 beltway and along transitways or near high-frequency transit.

As Thrive MSP Roundtable materials state, “Over the last 60 years, our rapidly expanding region built a network of highways and grew outward around them. This new development provided jobs, homes, schools, and recreation for the region’s residents. However, this development pattern is not sustainable.”  We agree with the Metropolitan Council. Planning for the majority of new growth (housing and employment sites) to occur where there is current infrastructure (roads, utilities, schools, etc.) in place, along major bus corridors and transitways, and inside the I-494/694 beltway where density levels are favorable for providing efficient transit makes good economic and environmental sense.

These materials also ask, “How could local land-use decisions improve the future viability of transit?” The Council can do this by ensuring that Thrive MSP is more specific, with clear goals, identified growth areas, and by channeling incentive funding into investments that help to achieve the plan’s goals.

Stay Informed, Get Involved

The Metropolitan Council will be working on Thrive MSP through the end of 2013, with adoption planned for February 2014. Because this plan will provide a strategic vision for the Twin Cities for decades to come, we encourage you to get involved, online or in person, throughout the process.

For more on this topic, don’t miss our other recent blogs in the Thrive MSP series:

Top Ten Elements in Regional Plans: Our Peers Have Set a High Bar

Thrive MSP 2040 – Why and How to Create a Shared Vision

Update from the Capitol: Senate Introduces a Bill that’s Good for Transit, Bicyclists, and Pedestrians

By Dave Van Hattum, Senior Policy Advocate 

 

Supporters of comprehensive transportation funding filled the Capitol Rotunda at a lively rally Wednesday morning.

 

Comprehensive transit /transportation funding bills are still alive in the Minnesota Senate and House. The metro area transit funding package that TLC has advocated includes substantial new funding for buses, rail and bicycle and walking options. There have been numerous ups and downs (as is typical for a major bill). A Senate bill being voted on today, however, gives us renewed hope. See more detail below.

Transit advocates appreciate Governor Dayton’s leadership. His proposed budget  includes a ½ cent increase in the metro area sales tax for transit. There is consensus by Capitol experts, however, that this plan will only be passed by the House and Senate if it is combined with significant new funding for roads and bridges. The logic for this is that Minnesota legislators have always addressed transportation as a statewide issue. Greater Minnesota legislators are more likely to vote for a package that addresses road, bridge, and transit needs in their districts.  

Moving separately in the House is a capital investment bill championed by Representative Hausman that includes significant bonding for public transit, Safe Routes to School, local roads, bridges, and trails. The Senate has yet to take up a bonding bill this session, so the path for adoption is still unclear.

 

Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak with supporters at today’s rally for transportation funding.

 

Transit advocates are joining with proponents of funding for roads and bridges, working hard at the Capitol, reaching legislators through phone banks, and hosting a Rally at the Capitol today.

All these efforts reflect the strong support for major transportation investments this session. We believe the Governor and legislative leaders (speaker Thissen in the House, and Majority Leader Bakk in the Senate) should pass into law a balanced transportation bill that addresses the statewide need for transit, roads, bridges, and bicycle and pedestrian connections.

 

In her remarks at today’s rally, transit advocate and North Minneapolis resident Kenya McKnight emphasized that all communities need transit options, safe roads, and bicycling and walking connections.

 

The bill supported by TLC and the Transit for a Stronger Economy coalition earlier this session included increased transit funding as well as substantial new dedicated funding for bicycle and pedestrian improvements in the metro area. We’re happy to report that these elements remain in place in both the Senate transportation bill (which will be heard Wednesday evening in committee) and in a House bill that is working its way through various committees.

 

  

The resounding message at the Capitol today: transportation is essential for a stronger economy, transportation bills are jobs bills.

 

Senate Transportation Bill includes the following:

Transit/bike/walk

•          ½-cent increase in the metro area sales tax for transit (buses and trains), which will rapidly accelerate the build out a 21-st century transit system.

•          Dedicated funding for bicycle and pedestrian improvements, and planning studies for streetcars.

•          $10 million additional funding per year for Greater Minnesota transit.

Roads/bridges

•          A tax at the distributor level on fuel (this exists already in more than a dozen other states) combined with a reduction of the gas tax.

 

 

After the rally, TLC and Transit for a Stronger Economy coalition partners headed to Governor Dayton’s office to deliver hundreds of postcards and messages supporting increased funding for transit and safe, accessible bicycling and walking.

 

The message is clear: we need a comprehensive transportation bill and the Senate has a good plan. The Senate bill will be heard in committees over the next week. We are hopeful that the House will take up a similar bill. Please help us keep the pressure to pass a strong and balanced bill this session (take action here). It’s essential for a stronger economy for all Minnesotans.

 

Crash Facts

Report: Motor vehicle crashes that involve a bicyclist or pedestrian represent 3 percent of all crashes, but 12 percent of fatalities.

By Barb Thoman, Executive Director

Every year, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety releases a report about death and injuries on Minnesota’s roads. The 100-plus page report, with the title Minnesota Motor Vehicle Crash Facts, contains information and statistics about crashes—who is involved (car, motorcycle, pedestrian), the likely causes, when and where they occur, etc. I’m always surprised that the annual release of this report isn’t more widely covered in the media.

TLC took a look at the most recent report and summarized the information about bicycle and pedestrian crashes in a new policy brief. The latest report, Crash Facts 2011, found that motor vehicle crashes that involve a bicyclist or pedestrian were 3 percent of all crashes, but 12 percent of fatalities. Over the last 10 years, an average of 40 pedestrians and 8 bicyclists died on Minnesota’s roads annually.

 

TLC’s policy brief also addressed information on bicycle crashes that occur, but are not included in Crash Facts. Because of federal reporting protocol, bicycle crashes that occur on public roads but do not involve a motor vehicle are not included. A separate database maintained by the Minnesota Department of Health showed that five times as many people were injured in a bicycle crash as were reported in the 2011 Crash Facts. One of the people injured was my husband, who fell after hitting a rock in a bike lane in Saint Paul. He had surgery to repair several bones in his hand.

Despite ongoing safety concerns and growing rates of bicycling and walking, bike and pedestrian safety has long been underfunded. The new federal transportation law, MAP-21, increases funding for traffic safety. TLC hopes that the state’s new traffic safety plan, which will be developed in 2013, will increase attention and funding for programs and projects that improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. Bicycling and walking are good for public heath, the environment, and community livability. The safer it is to walk and bicycle, the more people will participate.

To learn more, including the leading causes of bicycle and pedestrian crashes, read our brief on Crash Facts here.

Read the full Crash Facts report here. 

 

Taking Transit to Home, Work, and . . . the Park?

By Linden Weiswerda, The Trust for Public Land (guest blogger)

Editor’s Note: Our Twin Cities metro region is well known as a place where cityscape meets green space. Millions visit our robust regional park system each year. But did you know that most arrive by car? Some efforts are already underway to connect more residents and visitors to Twin Cities parks in other ways. For example, the Sierra Club North Star Chapter regularly leads outings to parks and natural areas via transit. Nice Ride MN bike sharing will begin serving expand service to Mississippi River Park and Recreation Area this summer. And next year, new bus service on Lexington Parkway will improve access to Saint Paul’s Como Park–one of our most visited regional parks. As our region’s population grows and the regional park system expands, will current transportation options ensure the parks are accessible to all? Here, guest blogger Linden Weiswerda with The Trust for Public Land makes the case for continuing to improve transit service to our regional parks.  

 

 
Minnehaha Regional Park, Minneapolis

 

Have you ever ridden a bus or light rail train to your nearest regional park? Chances are high that your answer is no. According to the last Regional Parks and Trails Survey (2008), less than 1 percent of people arrive at Twin Cities regional parks and trails via public transit. While the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region is filled with a diverse array of popular regional amenities that can be reached by multiple modes of transportation, our regional parks largely remain an untapped destination for the regional transit system.

The Twin Cities regional park system—which includes sites from the Chain of Lakes Park in Minneapolis to Big Marine Park Reserve in Washington County, and 49 other parks and park reserves—is an invaluable asset that helps keep our region thriving and acts as “the state parks of the metro area” (Metropolitan Council). As the largest and most natural public lands in our metro area, the regional parks provide a unique experience for visitors. In addition to protecting the most important and sensitive natural areas in the Twin Cities for current and future generations, they are central to creating healthy and enjoyable communities. And enjoy them we do, with over 44 million visits annually to the regional park system. Time after time, surveys cite that parks are one of the top reasons people find the Twin Cities region attractive and want to move here.

 

Crosby Farm Regional Park, Saint Paul

 

However, the 2008 Regional Parks Survey also found that almost 60 percent of visitors to the parks arrive by “auto, truck, RV, or van.” Meanwhile, as Transportation for America reports, 40 percent of Minnesotans are without a driver’s license, exceeding the national average of 32 percent. If large numbers of residents in the region cannot get to the regional parks and trails to enjoy them except by car, how can this significant segment of our population benefit from the regional parks? Combine this with decreasing rates of car ownership, particularly among younger and older demographic groups, and the regional park system could actually become less accessible over time—unless our region does more to improve transit service to these destinations.

The current Twin Cities transit system provides limited means for travelling to regional parks, in part because peak service times are tied to the typical work commute. Transit services run most frequently during rush hours on weekdays. However, park use generally peaks for special events, in the evenings, and mostly on weekends.

 

 

Baker Park Reserve, Three Rivers Park District

 

Livable communities are active seven days a week and throughout the day as well. For comparison, think about a movie theater and office building that share a parking lot. During the week office employees fill the lot, and in the evenings and on weekends moviegoers take the same spaces. As a result of this shared use, the parking area needed to meet demand has a reduced development footprint, smaller amounts of pavement and stormwater runoff, and generally has created a more efficient community that is utilized more of the time. Increasing connections among the regional transit and regional parks and trails systems could similarly benefit both systems, picking up more transit riders in off-peak times and making regional parks more accessible to more people at more times.

In building an efficient transit system, one with more housing options and other development near stops and stations and with higher rider capacity, we should also be sure that our transit system connects as many regional attractions as possible, perhaps by both siting new parks near transit lines and by extending bus service to parks in current off-peak travel times. Our regional park system is also growing: current plans are to add more than 15,000 park acres and 700 miles of trails by 2030. By taking advantage of that growth, we can ensure that people can ride the bus or train, bike, or drive to their choice of regional parks.

If you’d like to explore a fun tool for seeing which regional parks (or other regional amenities) you can reach via transit in a certain amount of time, check out Mapnificent. Mapnificent is an online tool (still in an early phase of development) that shows you the area you can reach via public transportation from any point in a given amount of time. (A sample map for regional park destinations is pictured below).

 

 
Mapnificent generated this map of regional parks (red) that can be reached by transit from downtown Saint Paul (orange) in 30 minutes or less. (Note: Mapnificent does not work in Internet Explorer, but will work with other major web browsers.)

 

For a map to all the regional parks and a list of the activities available, visit the Regional Parks page of the Metropolitan Council, which links to the local park agencies who manage the regional parks and trails as well as their local park systems.

 

All featured images provided courtesy of The Trust for Public Land.

 

Find a Way!

Transit for Livable Communities is calling on legislators and the Governor to find a way to get a strong transportation bill passed this session. This week comprehensive transportation bills are moving through House and Senate committees. Transportation laws are usually statewide. In the metro, we have an historic opportunity to build out the regional transit system (bus and rail, bicycling and safe, accessible walking) in fifteen years, not whenever. We know this has statewide impact, but also that there are transportation needs in the metro and greater Minnesota for roads, bridges, and transit. There are corridors of commerce, safety and congestion issues, and farmers who need to get to market on bridges in good repair.

So we are saying to the legislature—find a way to get this done. This session!

This region needs an additional ½-cent for transit in the metro to get residents to work affordably and on time. This state needs to address critical infrastructure needs. If we don’t act this session, we send a signal to everyone that Minnesota is sitting on its hands, ready to watch other regions get ahead of us, have our children move there to work and raise families, have corporations decide this state isn’t serious.

Just as with education reform, we’re looking at the toddler today and saying we need a transit system that reaches across the metro by the time that child is ready to go to college. It’s about affordability, it’s about attracting and retaining jobs, it’s about access to jobs (in the core and in the suburbs), it’s about seniors aging in place. We also know it’s about creating healthy, livable communities—with less pollution and more active lifestyles.

Statewide, we need to address key corridors of commerce and ensure safety of our roads and bridges. We also have a huge unmet need for transit across the state.

We all depend on our infrastructure every day to get us where we’re going. The legislature needs to act this session to make sure we have funding for all our transportation needs. This is not a time to sit back and wait.

What can you do?

1)      Help us pack the Rotunda for a Transportation Rally at the Capitol. Wednesday, April 17, 10:00-11:00 am. Stay longer if you can to meet with your legislator. Info / RSVP here.

2)      Visit http://www.transit4mn.org/p/get-involved.html for links to use to call your legislator. Make sure your elected representatives know you support increased revenue for transit, roads and bridges this session.