Transportation and the Pedestrian Life of the City
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John VanHeel
Downtown Resident Representative on the Steering Committee of
the Minneapolis 10 Year Transportation Action Plan
Response to 2-16-07 Draft Downtown Transportation Action Plan
access draft Downtown Transportation Action Plan here
2-21-2007
Dear fellow steering committee members, if your time permits I would like to offer the following comments on three items in regard to the current draft Downtown Transportation Action Plan. Recognizing that, as a draft, there are elements that require further resolution, I offer these thoughts now because the time is drawing near when our committee will be requested to officially receive this document for public comment. I believe strongly in the vision and overall direction of this plan, but I believe it is my responsibility to call-out what I believe are omissions or misdirection’s.
Intra-Downtown and Downtown Neighborhood Transit Service
I believe that it has been a mistake to segregate planning for the “Visitor/Consumer Market” and the market made up of the residents and downtown employees of the “Near Downtown Neighborhoods“. While the Nicollet Mall should meet the highest possible level of service, I believe that the first “Intra-downtown” option provided in the draft (option A, pg.15) of a dedicated shuttle on the mall is impractical. It would appear that both of the other options would be highly dependent on the local Primary Transit Network routes that serve downtown neighborhoods and the city as a whole. This interdependence should be embraced. Nicollet Mall service (also called visitor/consumer market) and downtown neighborhood service should be recognized in a more unified downtown-wide “Intra-downtown” service plan.
In light of the enormous investment in residential, business and institutional development that has occurred over the last ten years in our “near downtown neighborhoods” I am frankly very disappointed that there is no cross-downtown transit strategy provided anywhere in this draft document. The only thing that comes remotely close is the map on pg.16 called PTN Service to Near Downtown Neighborhoods (fig.10). With the exception of the very center of downtown this appears to be Metro Transit’s current bus map. There appears to have been no consolidation of routes at all. If no changes are evident in a map perhaps words are required. I would like to request that at a minimum one page be added to this document that lays out a strategy for cross-downtown transit.
As an example of what such a strategy might look like I am offering the concept sheet that can be
linked to here => Intra-Downtown Transportation Concept 2-17-07
Improvements to Pedestrian Environment Along Primary Pedestrian Corridors At Freeway Bridge Crossings
I believe that our city’s downtown belongs to every citizen in every one of our city’s neighborhoods. Everyday when many of these citizens make there way up great avenues such as Hennepin, Nicollet, Chicago and Washington, there experience of entry into their downtown is of a windswept passage through chain link fencing and cracked concrete. It is a civic shame in addition to being a major pedestrian barrier cutting off employee filled neighborhoods from downtown and cutting downtown off from some of its most renowned institutions.
While we can hope that other planning efforts such as the Downtown Freeway Study, the Citywide Transportation Action Plan, and the Downtown Pedestrian Master plan will all address this same issue I believe that it is an important downtown transportation issue that should be part of this document if the city takes seriously the responsibility of planning for the full extent of its planning districts. I have discussed this issue several times before the steering committee requesting that this be incorporated into this plan. My perception was that there was support. I would like to request that a pedestrian network action item regarding improvements to freeway crossings along primary pedestrian corridors be added to page 31 of the draft document and that a note on this action item be added to the pedestrian corridor map on page 30. I am asking for the steering committee’s support for this addition. The creative solutions to the issue may happen over a long range period, but the inclusion of the issue in this document can be an important first step in addressing the problem.
(At the 2-22-07 project steering committee meeting I offered the following wording for an action item regading pedestrian conditions at freeway crossings -
City staff will work with the county, state and federal government in short and long term planning to pursue creative solutions to improve the pedestrian environment at street grade freeway infrastructure along downtown’s primary transit and pedestrian corridors. These corridors include Washington Ave. , Chicago Ave., Nicollet Ave. and Hennepin/Lyndale Aves. Long term planning for pedestrian improvements should also include LaSalle Ave., 1st Ave. , Park Ave. , Portland Ave., Seventh St. N. , Tenth St. N. and Glenwood Ave.)
Alternate Solutions to Reducing the Growth of Auto Trips Downtown
While some of the changes that this plan makes in reconfiguring transit routes promise better transit and auto flow, I am afraid that this may all be in preparation for what appears in the plan to be an accepted ongoing growth of auto trips into downtown. I want a dense and teaming downtown, but please let’s keep congested traffic out of this picture.
Improvements to transit and pedestrian systems can be very important in initiating a mode shift from auto use to transit and pedestrian, but if growth projections take this into account, but still indicate significant increases in traffic levels then I believe it would be incumbent upon the city to look to alternatives outside of traditional mode concepts in order to maintain or even decrease auto traffic. The city could investigate any number of innovative ideas, but it might start with car-sharing which is already successfully being established in residential areas across downtown.
In residential applications car-sharing provides an important backup support for people who generally do not own a car and who have pedestrian and transit oriented lifestyles. Perhaps the greatest potential for car-sharing however is how it could help change the travel habits of the many thousands of people who work downtown. If downtown employers were given incentives to provide their employees with car share vehicles for daytime meeting appointments, errands and family emergencies I believe the number of people choosing transit, biking or walking could increase significantly.
Conclusion
I believe in a vision for downtown that is more unified, a place that functions as a single live-work pedestrian campus. This is not just the right course toward a sustainable future, but also of an economically successful one. I had hoped that this document could be instrumental in moving our city toward this reality. I believe that there are very positive elements to this plan, but it falls short of the expectations that I had developed in early PSC discussions. I appreciate your time in hearing these thoughts. Sincerely, John Van Heel
Note:
The February 22nd steering has left me feeling hopeful that the downtown plan will be approriately expanded to address transportation issues that are important to the entire downtown area. jvh
Transportation and the Pedestrian Life of the City
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