Twin Cities Transportation Issues (Minneapolis, St. Paul: homes, community college, living)

[Beenhere4ever]

Bumper to bumper at 60? Whoa, that's not good. So you have a small taste of NASCAR!

[Beenhere4ever]

Ya know, watching this whole snarl with the light rail, I am wishing we could have a metrowide referendum on rail development. Reason is that I want to see who actually wants this and who actually wants to pay for it. I have this nagging feeling the people who want it do so because (a) someone else's neighborhood will be torn up to build it and (b) most of the cost will be born elsewhere, either through federal borrowing or through taxes levied in every part of the 7 counties for a benefit mostly derived by one part of one county. It becomes the next best thing to a freebie. Look back at things like the building of 94 and 35. Benefits went primarily to certain outlying districts, but whole neighborhoods were devastated to make the route shorter in getting to downtowns. So there was a vast disparity between the sacrifices and the benefits handed out. It was a great malfunction of democracy. Some big overriding whole-society advancement was claimed, but some groups really had to swallow a lot to get that. That's often the way it works in America. In fact, that becomes the definition of "leadership", when influential groups can FORCE others to bend under the blows of development because they are too poor to buy influence.

So, like I say, a referendum would tell us a lot. And just the lobbying before the vote would be very revealing, such as what happened in California when an initiative wanted to force labeling food according to its contents.

[Beenhere4ever]

The oil and gasoline price issue is a little fishy to me. As witness this article: National average continues upward trend - Gasbuddy Gas Prices

There's no way that anything we buy here comes from the Middle East. Sure if there got to be a region-wide war, shipments of oil from the Gulf are at some hazard. But the refined products are most likely to be used in the South and the West. Our gas comes from Flint Hills, Newport, and Illinois. If anything, I'd say some companies are just being opportunist. "Oh, disturbance in the Middle East, that's where Saudi Arabai and the United Arab Emirates are! Better jack up the prices!" It makes me want to find online a breakdown of the actual sources of our fuel. I don't even mind the rise in prices as much as the total BS given out as to why rising prices are necessary. It seems they take us for total idiots and ignorant beyond belief.

By the way, I now have a working theory about the gas-guzzling trucks. Despite historically high prices, people keep buying them. My working theory now is that the commissions are higher when a car salesman hooks a live one. So to the extent there are fools out there looking for a new vehicle, the dealers will bust their kiesters to put them in a gas-guzzler.

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

Ya know, watching this whole snarl with the light rail, I am wishing we could have a metrowide referendum on rail development. Reason is that I want to see who actually wants this and who actually wants to pay for it. I have this nagging feeling the people who want it do so because (a) someone else's neighborhood will be torn up to build it and (b) most of the cost will be born elsewhere, either through federal borrowing or through taxes levied in every part of the 7 counties for a benefit mostly derived by one part of one county. It becomes the next best thing to a freebie. Look back at things like the building of 94 and 35. Benefits went primarily to certain outlying districts, but whole neighborhoods were devastated to make the route shorter in getting to downtowns. So there was a vast disparity between the sacrifices and the benefits handed out. It was a great malfunction of democracy. Some big overriding whole-society advancement was claimed, but some groups really had to swallow a lot to get that. That's often the way it works in America. In fact, that becomes the definition of "leadership", when influential groups can FORCE others to bend under the blows of development because they are too poor to buy influence.

So, like I say, a referendum would tell us a lot. And just the lobbying before the vote would be very revealing, such as what happened in California when an initiative wanted to force labeling food according to its contents.

Can we also have a referendum every time a highway needs widening or we build a "bridge to nowhere" or someone's street gets repaved with the help of the tax paying public? Because those are also freebies.

I like California for a lot of reasons, but their referendum system is NOT something we should be emulating. It's a chaotic, expensive system that can indeed be used as tyranny of then majority. No thanks.

[Beenhere4ever]

Apples and oranges. If your street gets fixed, there is no disparity between payment and benefit. Also, this is not a referendum to turn thumbs up or down on the project, just to find out where ACTUAL SUPPORT exists. We know darned well that construction workers are 100 percent for it. But who else? I think it matters. The assumption seems to be that public sentiment now is what it was long ago when the broad outlines of the system were conceived. I find that assumption extremely dubious. Let us not just sleepwalk into this.

[Beenhere4ever]

On September 15, University Avenue in St Paul is closed to traffic from Hamline to Marion. It is St Paul Open Streets. I'm guess auto traffic will be detoured onto I94. Most natural place for traffic that otherwise would use University Avenue.

[Beenhere4ever]

The map makes me wonder if something has changed for the better on 169 and 494. The speed seems higher than a few weeks ago. 62 and 694 still seem jammed up.

Minneapolis St. Paul Metro Traffic Alerts | StarTribune.com

[Bslette]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

The map makes me wonder if something has changed for the better on 169 and 494. The speed seems higher than a few weeks ago. 62 and 694 still seem jammed up.

Minneapolis St. Paul Metro Traffic Alerts | StarTribune.com

It just crossed my mind, are you possibly a traffic reporter on the radio?

[Beenhere4ever]

Originally Posted by Bslette

It just crossed my mind, are you possibly a traffic reporter on the radio?

Nope just a very mild transportation wonk.

[601halfdozen0theother]

Having last night attempted to drive N on 52, W on 94, then N on 35 E, I would just like to say:

What

Tha

HELL!!!!!!

I hate driving in the Twin Cities. I hate driving in St. Paul. I hate driving in Minneapolis. I hate driving in Wayzata. I hate driving in Fridley. I hate driving in Eagan. I hate driving in Bloomington.

Did I mention how much I hate driving in the Twin Cities?

And all of you who do it on a daily basis are KEE EFF'N RAZY!