Counterpoint: To save LRT, make stations more welcoming

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Twin Cities transit ridership has been slow to recover from the effects of the pandemic. Our two light-rail lines currently see a bit more than half of their previous ridership. Recently, policymaker and media attention has focused on concerns around crime and safety on public transit ("Systemic insecurity: Saving Twin Cities light rail," editorial, Nov. 19). Metro Transit has ramped up fare enforcement and other security measures on the light rail, and is now considering significant investments such as installing gates and turnstiles at light rail stations.

While these efforts address one important aspect of transit usage, public safety on the trains or platforms is not the only issue holding back light rail ridership. One crucially important but underdiscussed problem is how our city's physical environment, specifically in the areas surrounding light rail stations, affects riders' experiences. Building a successful future for the Twin Cities' transit system requires us to focus on this issue, too.

Consider the area around the Lake Street/Midtown Blue Line station. A transit rider disembarking the train, perhaps headed to shop at Target, descends a usually nonfunctioning escalator to walk through what can only be described as a thruway for automobile traffic. Cars, trucks, and buses rush by along confusing, crisscrossing multilane roadways.

If successful in crossing one of many vehicular turn lanes, walkers often find themselves stranded on an island, surrounded by moving traffic. And the overpass, designed so that cars on Hwy. 55 do not have to stop at Lake Street, creates undevelopable space, funnels cold wind and is unwelcoming to even the most hardened city dwellers.

Other stations are similarly alienating to pedestrians: The Franklin Avenue station has another imposing overpass, while stations at 46th and 38th Streets are surrounded by car-first infrastructure and railroad tracks that trip up walkers, especially during the icy wintertime.

On a recent class field trip, college students could barely cross Hiawatha Avenue at 46th Street before the pedestrian timer counted down. Similarly, at 38th Street, elderly folks, if they're bold enough to negotiate railroad tracks surrounded by imposing grain elevators, find it nearly impossible to cross before the light turns red.

Research confirms that these kinds of station-area factors can meaningfully reduce transit ridership. For example, a study of the Washington D.C. Metrorail finds that nearly one-third of the variation in ridership across stations can be explained by the kinds of surrounding land uses. And when pedestrians choose walking paths in cities, they avoid industrial areas, vacant lots, and places with higher amounts of vehicle traffic.

One of us recently co-authored further research quantifying the extensive presence of such dis-amenities along the Blue Line. At stations on Franklin Avenue, Lake Street, 38th Street, and 46th Street, about a third of the area within a 10-minute walk (about half a mile) consists of pedestrian dis-amenities including highways and roads, industrial uses, and vacant lots.

As we aim to help our public transit system improve and thrive, we must keep this issue in mind.

A mix of short- and long-term solutions can help us address station-area dis-amenities. In the short-term, traffic engineers should revisit the crossing times allowed on Hiawatha Avenue, enabling all residents to safely cross. In the medium term, the city and county should remove turn lanes that let cars blast through intersections at high speeds and replace them with bumped-out sidewalks. The city should also work to foster street-level vibrancy in these areas. The current vision to transform a small park west of the Lake Street station into a home for the Midtown Farmers Market is a great start — planners should also take cues from other cities' creative projects that have brought more life to the spaces under freeway overpasses.

Long term, planners should rethink Hiawatha Avenue/Hwy. 55. To create truly accessible and popular transit, pedestrian and bike pathways should take up as much space as automobile lanes.

Currently, Twin Cities residents are thinking about many strategies to create a successful transit system. Making our light-rail station areas more lively and welcoming is one crucial piece of solving our transit puzzle.

Sarah West is an economics professor and Zak Yudhishthu is a student at Macalester College.