Central-South Final Plan: Stakeholder Meetings
Collecting information and ideas from city officials and business leaders
Metro Transit has redeveloped bus service in two other metro areas – in the northeast metro (September 2000) and in St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka (March 2001).
Work to evaluate existing service in the study area (downtown Minneapolis,
south Minneapolis, Edina, Richfield, Bloomington and St. Paul south of
I-94) began in 2001. Staff members rode every trip on the 55 affected
routes.
After gaining knowledge of current travel patterns and reviewing estimates
on future growth, planners met with "stakeholders" from the
study area -- elected officials, legislators, business leaders, corridor
representatives and neighborhood members.
Early this year the Metropolitan Council hosted a meeting with roughly 75 stakeholders to:
- introduce key players to the planning study
- build an awareness of transit issues among stakeholders
- prioritize the value of transit amenities
- identify new or improved routes/transit markets
- solicit participation in the planning and outreach process
Stakeholders were asked to fill out a survey rating the importance of service elements to them and those they represent. These include faster service, improved connections between routes and transit amenities like bus shelters and park-and-ride lots.
Participants ranked these objectives as their priorities (high to low):
- create faster service to major destinations (downtowns, airport, museums, hospitals, hotels, Mall of America, parks, University of Minnesota)
- center more service with Hiawatha LRT, I-35W South and I-494
- improve connections between transit routes
- add more service to high-density areas
- improve customer waiting areas (adding shelters, transit information, heating elements)
- integrate transit with new facilities (designing developments close to bus stops)
increase service to low-density area
Next, stakeholders planned bus routes as they would like to see them operate, giving transit planners a better idea of community needs.
