Browsing by Subject "Metro Transit"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Building for the Future: Affordable Redevelopment on Wayzata Boulevard
    (2024-05-01) Farmer, Zachary; Breen, Aidan; Klingbeil, Dwight
    The way we think about commutes and suburban transit is changing, all the more rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Transit agencies nationwide are seeing demand for Park & Ride decline, and the same is true for Metro Transit in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. This study examines possible site plans for an underutilized suburban Park & Ride site near the corner of Wayzata Boulevard and Barry Avenue in Wayzata. Utilizing 1) Existing site conditions, 2) City regulations and documentation, 3) an Affordable Housing finance literature review, and 4) Developer interviews, our team compiles a development switchboard, which is used to propose two primary paths for redevelopment on the site. These two paths are used to illustrate tradeoffs that would be involved in the future development at this site. The first development path, As-of-Right, examines what is possible on the site under current zoning constraints, and how it may correspond and conflict with the goals of the City, Metro Transit, and a theoretical development team. The second development path, Maximize Residential, asks what zoning and policy changes would be required to successfully develop affordable housing at a meaningful scale, including accessing the resources of Housing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. The final section of the report outlines the past community engagement regarding this site and presents an equity-oriented engagement framework to incorporate key community member feedback throughout the process of site redevelopment.
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    Fare Free Future
    (2021-05) Cummins, Dillon; Ketcham, Caroline; Shepard, Erika; Hanson, Jed
    The COVID-19 pandemic radically altered Metro Transit’s revenue system, likely with lasting change to transit ridership. This disruption is an opportunity to evaluate Metro Transit’s fare system. This report provides recommendations to reach a vision for a simplified and more equitable fare system. These recommendations are developed from background information on Metro Transit and its riders, documentation of existing conditions, review of relevant literature, and interviews with stakeholders and subject matter experts. Recommendations focus on the conceptual level and center all-purpose riders. Recommendations vary in their complexity and impact. Metro Transit can effectively simplify the current system just by paring down its sheer number of fare offerings. Beyond simplification, Metro Transit may improve ridership and mobility through simplified pass and needs based programs combined with heightened enrollment efforts. In the medium-term, a fare capping policy may achieve much of these recommendations across rider groups. Finally, this report recommends eliminating fares. A fare-free transit system best achieves the stated goals of this report: a simpler rider experience, revenue stability and growth, and improved mobility for all-purpose riders.
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    Fare Free Future
    (2021-05-14) Cummins, Dillon; Ketcham, Caroline; Shepard, Erika; Hanson, Jed
    The COVID-19 pandemic radically altered Metro Transit’s revenue system, likely with lasting change to transit ridership. This disruption is an opportunity to evaluate Metro Transit’s fare system. This report provides recommendations to reach a vision for a simplified and more equitable fare system. These recommendations are developed from background information on Metro Transit and its riders, documentation of existing conditions, review of relevant literature, and interviews with stakeholders and subject matter experts. Recommendations focus on the conceptual level and center all-purpose riders.
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    Metro Transit Service Reliability Measures Assessment
    (2017-04) Liao, Chen-Fu
    The objectives of this project are to expand the definitions of transit service reliability, determine which ones are applicable to Metro Transit's services, and provide a proof of concept of how these measures could be applied using available operations data. We first reviewed common service reliability measures that are used for bus and light rail services both in the United States and internationally. We identified 18 common service reliability measures and categorized them into four groups (see Appendix A). Four service reliability measures, On-Time Performance (OTP), Excess Wait Time (EWT), Gap Assessment (GA), and the 90th percentile of lateness (LA90), were finalized for further evaluation. We applied the finalized service reliability measure on 13 high frequency routes (route 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 17, 18, 19, 21, 54, 64, 84, and 515) and 2 LRT lines (901-blue and 902 - green lines) using transit operations data from Jan. 2014 to Apr. 2016. The following selection criteria are applied to evaluate how the 4 selected measures are applicable to transit services and how they might be used most effectively by Metro Transit. 1. Is the service reliability measure easy to interpret? 2. Is data available for both historical reporting and real-time applications? 3. Can the metric provide a different perspective as compared to current OTP? 4. Can the metric support best operational practices? OTP is the current key performance index used by the Metro Transit. It will continue to be used as a baseline measure for service reliability. In addition to OTP, GA, and LA90 were selected for implementation. GA is a customer focused headway adherence measure. It could be easily implemented based on existing transit operations data. In addition to the OTP, the LA90 measure describes the typical late range of a transit service. It indicates 'how badly' the transit services are not meeting the OTP threshold. The excess wait time (EWT) is not recommended for implementation because it is difficult to interpret and the computed results are unable to provide a clear indication of operations performance. This study demonstrates how the identified measures could be applied using available operations data currently collected by Metro Transit to improve quality of service.
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    Planning for Essential Destinations: An analysis for the future arterial bus rapid transit F Line
    (2022-05) Brokl, Grant; Greteman, Laura; Lubben, Dan; Randle, Hana
    Metro Transit’s Transit Oriented Development (TOD) office requested that the capstone team evaluate essential destinations along the future arterial bus rapid transit F Line. The F Line is scheduled to replace route 10 and run along the Central Avenue corridor from downtown Minneapolis to the Northtown Mall in Blaine. While providing transit service for essential destinations has been a long-term goal of Metro Transit, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the need to shift from a commuter centric system to an all-day service model. Metro Transit’s own 2021 Rider Survey clearly showed a shift in travel patterns as a result of the pandemic. The share of commuter trips on the bus rapid transit (BRT) system dropped to 17% in 2021, down from 22% in 2016. Similarly, the survey showed a marked increase in BRT trips taken for running errands, comprising 34% of trips in 2021, up from 20% in 2016.1 Providing transit for non-work trips is more challenging than serving commuter trips. Work destinations tend to be clustered together, typically around a central business district. However, non-work destinations are more spread out, and are located across the entire region. This increases the need for effective accessibility analyses when determining the suitability of a planned route. An additional consideration when evaluating the project context is the impact of socioeconomic status on the travel behavior of riders. Riders below 100% of the poverty level are more likely to need transit service outside of the traditional peak hours than their wealthier counterparts.
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    SECURE BICYCLE PARKING AT TRANSIT FACILITIES
    (2020-05) Chao, Lynda; Del Rosario, Ari; Holland, Jeffrey
    The Twin Cities is one of the most bike-friendly areas in the nation. Metro Transit, the region’s primary transportation operator, is interested in exploring how to determine which transit facilities would beneft from secure bicycle parking, and to increase bike-to-transit users. The purpose of this report is to propose a methodology for Metro Transit to determine potential locations for secure bike parking investment. This report covers Metro Transit’s existing e°orts around secure bicycle parking, which has usually been implemented on a project-by-project basis. In addition, interviews were conducted with Metro Transit sta°, peer agencies across the nation, and other bike/micro-mobility agencies and researchers to better understand the story around secure bike parking.