I think one of the reasons our urban design is so poor is we do not look outside of ourselves. Spend a week in Vancouver without touching a car or bus. It's really easy to do! We walked everywhere when we were out there. It's a very dense city but feels very open. This is due to smart design choices. Many buildings have a gradiated height. At the sidewalks they are two stories, a bit further back, three stories, then four a bit further back from that, then, and only then, do they...

I would like to know if Mr. Frank has some ideas about how to do development around bus lines. Historically, it's been difficult to do for a few reasons, primarily because it is not a permanent corridor the way rail is. There is also the very real rail preference bias in mode choice.

Since I don't see us as a state making a strong commitment to rail in the next ten years, I'm hopeful that we can figure out some way to leverage our bus system better than we have in the past.

@Steven

Kenilworth is exactly the right choice for Southwest. The primary reason is that it serves North Minneapolis, a community desperately in need of good transit service. It opens up a whole new corridor of jobs to those folks and while I agree with your view that transit ought to talk our whole lifestyle into account, we can't deny the need to provide access to jobs to those who need them the most.

With the Uptown alignment, we would have effectively said we'll spend $...

@Karen

People have been clamoring for better suburban bus service for years and years. And I agree we need it badly.

However, we apparently aren't willing to pay for it. No one wants to pay for 15-minute headway bus service when "all I see are empty buses on the road." Unless and until suburban residents make their elected officials want it enough, it ain't gonna happen. That's where the political power is right now so that's where the leadership is going to have to come...