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Spotty transit access keeps the carless out of vaunted state park system
For the three years Lee Oglesby lived in Minnesota, she went to Minnesota State Parks twice. Oglesby, who got to know the outdoors as a Girl Scout in Florida before relocating to Minnesota to work in publishing, didn’t have a car and hesitated to rely on others to get outdoors. “I don’t wanna impose on […]
As riders return, transit system again faces safety, nuisance issues
Editor’s note: After this story was published, the Reformer became aware that the writer, who was once active in a group called Twin Cities Transit Riders Union, said during a 2018 Met Council meeting, “Abolish Metro Transit Police.” To avoid perceptions of bias on the issue, Pan will not be reporting on transit safety issues […]
After hiatus, Met Council again enforcing transit fare
The Metropolitan Council said in an email to the Reformer on Wednesday that Metro Transit, which they oversee, will resume using their police force to enforce fares on transit vehicles after a 15-month pandemic hiatus. The message came after House Republicans lamented the $7 billion transportation budget bill, which passed Wednesday, does nothing to address […]
What’s in Minnesota’s $7 billion transportation bill?
Legislative leaders and the administration of Gov. Tim Walz came to an agreement on a $7 billion transportation bill that will fund transportation projects and decide transportation policy across the state over the next two years. The bill is a compromise between the Republican-controlled Senate, which favors directing most transportation dollars to roads and bridges, […]
Activists stand athwart highway expansion, yelling stop
DULUTH — Jordan van der Hagen, a landscape designer, wants I-35 through downtown Duluth replaced with a boulevard. The freeway, he argues, is a massive tangle of concrete shuttling fewer cars than it was intended for, while inhibiting opportunities for downtown development and more human-centered — as opposed to autocentric — movement. The idea was […]
Asian Minnesotans say discrimination is on the rise, push to make prosecuting hate crimes easier
At the start of the pandemic, Yaoyao Chen, a materials research engineer, was an early adopter of mask-wearing. One day in March, she was at a Woodbury intersection when someone yelled at her, “Your mask is a piece of [expletive].” She was so frightened by the exchange that she stayed home for a week. Then […]
Legislature debating decriminalizing fare evasion, allowing Metro Transit to focus on more serious crimes
An attempt to reform how Minnesota enforces transit fare and deals with a concerning rise in serious crime on trains and buses in recent years hangs in the balance as the Legislature nears a self-imposed deadline to finish their work for the year. People who ride without paying the $2.50 fare pay a $180 fine […]
The Legislature has a long to-do list on transportation
Every morning, Linda Hale crosses University Avenue just outside of Northtown Mall in Blaine to get to work at the local Burger King. She sees people zooming by on what the Minnesota Department of Transportation calls a rural road. She knows of two people who were hit and killed there. “I wish they would slow […]
Without help from the Legislature or Congress, Metro Transit is in trouble
This year has been a wild ride for Metro Transit and the Metropolitan Council that manages it. They traded a driver shortage for a pandemic that decimated ridership and revenue, forcing it to cut service for the foreseeable future. Metro Transit continues to struggle for stable funding, while receiving endless criticism from its riders and […]
As committee examines Met Council, a primer: What is it? How did it come to be?
No Minnesota government agency inspires more heat — and with it, less light — than the Metropolitan Council. Composed of 17 appointees of the governor, the Met Council, as it is known, is responsible for transportation, housing, land use, parks, and sewer planning and operations in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. The late Arthur Naftalin, who was […]
COVID-19 reduces Amtrak service here, in another blow to the future of passenger rail
Kyle Rusness travels between St. Paul and Detroit Lakes to see family. Rusness is a chef who uses the Amtrak “Empire Builder” line because it works with his schedule. “It’s like a commute; I can sleep on the train and be ready for work in the morning,” he said on a train heading to the […]