Joe Soucheray- only the leisurely take the Green Line LRT ( & apparently public transit in general)

[progree]

Last edited Sat Sep 13, 2014, 10:24 PM - Edit history (1)

I wrote Joe Soucheray, a St. Paul Pioneer Press rightwinger (he also has a RW radio show somewhere), as follows:


Subject: Green Line Light Rail Transit is no slower than busses. Plenty of people use trains and busses to get to work. Also: fare deadbeats

Regarding your “We'd all be safer if Green Line operated like plaything it is” piece, 9/2/14
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_26454762/joe-soucheray-wed-all-be-safer-if-green?source=rss

You say:

“Look, the thing does not accommodate productive people, which is not the same as saying that productive people don't ride it. They do, for fun, I suppose, an outing with the grandkids maybe, or a leisurely way to get to the ballpark. But with 23 stops, the Green Line is as preposterously slow as it is preposterously expensive. It is essentially a free ride for people who don't have to get anywhere. ... There is no way these large, lumbering, heavy trains can accommodate an inattentive pedestrian. This train is nothing more than a toy. It should be operated at the speed of one. The people riding it are not trying to get anywhere quickly.”

First, it it is no slower than the bus line (#16) it replaced. I looked at an old 2011 schedule for the #16, and it took about 60 minutes to get from Ramp B / 5th Street Transit Center (less than a block from the Target Field light rail station in Minneapolis) to the other end of its run – Minnesota & 4th Street in St. Paul. (Almost all the way via University Ave., just like the Green Line). That is very comparable to the Green Line’s Target Field to Central Station run – on Cedar St. between 4th and 5th streets in St. Paul. – a 46-48 minute run during weekday peak morning times, according to the Green Line’s schedule viewed online today (9/3).

In the first week or two of operation, I’ve read the Green Line is taking more like an hour, but supposedly that has been improved as the St. Paul mayor relented to giving the train some control of the lights at minor intersections, as well as simply improving the synchronization of traffic lights. Anyway, that’s the last I heard more than a month ago.

Let’s just call it even – 60 minutes by the old #16 bus, 60 minutes by the Green Line.

So we mass transit travelers are used to long travel times. But we take mass transit because:

# it's less wear and tear on the car, plus gasoline (all operating costs of an average car -- including depreciation caused by additional miles -- total more than 50 cents/mile per the IRS, so the bus/train ($2 fare on average) is cheaper than a single-occupant car after just 4 miles),

# we don't have to pay for parking downtown (very expensive for an entire workday),

# we can relax or read or work on the way (unlike in a car), in other words, we can use most of the time productively (unlike when driving a car)

# for civic and environmental reasons -- contributing far less to traffic congestion / pollution per person than one or two people in a car (one doesn’t have to be a “libtard” to give consideration to this, just a non-sociopath)

I rode the bus for many years with the #5 highest ranked officer of the then (one of the 5 largest Minnesota companies) And plenty of other managers and executives.

While I’m at it, something else is sticking in my craw about what you wrote about the Green Line. In “Thanks for the sweet ride, Green Line. See you in 30 years or so”, 7/15/14
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_26155687/joe-soucheray-thanks-sweet-ride-green-line-see

you implied that there were probably a lot of free riders (people not paying their fares). You even talked to someone at Metro Transit about it. I’m surprised they didn’t tell you what is quoted in this 6/26/14 Star Tribune article http://www.startribune.com/local/264825221.html

"According to Metro Transit spokesman John Siqveland, Metro Transit police check tens of thousands of fares per week and issue citations to about 2,000 fare-evaders per year on the Blue Line. Siqveland said that Metro Transit police fare checks over 10 years on the Blue Line show a rate of fare honesty of 99.2 percent."

Or in your own paper 6/8/14:
http://www.twincities.com/transportation/ci_25924617/policing-green-line-metro-transit-promises-cameras-cops?source=rss

"Metro Transit police officers check fares thousands of times each week on average on the Blue Line. Based on those checks, the Blue Line compliance rate is 99 percent."

Were you really unaware of this information when you wrote your “Thanks for the sweet ride” piece a few weeks later?

Thanks for reading,
(my real name)

=====================================================

[font color=brown]I'm sure Metro Transit told him that, but well, being a right-winger, he decided not to pass it on. And even the most cursory reading of the local papers would have seen the off-cited statistic, or a bit of quick research. But greed-bangers are more into polemics than truth[/font]

[progree]

1. I should add that it is 11 miles, with 23 stops, for a 0.5 mi average distance between stops

The 23 stops includes the end-points, so you have 22 segments. 11 miles / 22 segments = 0.5 mi per segment. Its supposedly 48 minutes from end-to-end, but might be more like an hour, so it averages between 11 and 14 mph depending on which figure is more correct.

So yeah, its a bit slow.

But it wouldn't be all that much faster by car during peak times -- not that particular stretch.

[geardaddy]

2. I believe he changed his name.

It used to start with a "D".

[progree]

4. "It used to start with a 'D'" - LOL! I got it but it took awhile! I agree. n/t

[geardaddy]

3. The Green Line is certainly faster than the 21 bus.

That's for sure.

[the_sly_pig]

5. 1500 am idiots and most morons on KFAN

"Garage Logic" etc is for mouth breathers and knuckle draggers....