November 22, 2016

Brian J. Lamb
General Manager
Metro Transit
305 W Diamond Lake Rd,
Minneapolis, MN 55419-1839
Dear Brian Lamb:
I am pleased to inform you that I have completed the research on the feasibility of building
express public transit routes that travel between the inner Twin Cities and the outer suburbs. I
want to thank you for your support in allowing me to conduct this research. The results of said
research are enclosed within these documents to which you may review and make any newlyinformed decisions if you were to choose to do so.
I firmly believed that conducting this research would positively benefit the Twin Cities and all of
its various inhabitants, including everyone from the major businesses to every worker of those
businesses. There were many benefits that could be seen on the surface, and the next step was to
find out if this possibility could become a reality.
After reviewing the information and data that I have found, I have determined that this express
route project is feasible. I would recommend surveying the suburban cities for current travel
tendencies to see if there is a need for transit as well as support to build said transit. The next
step would be to formulate bus routes that navigate in an optimal and linear fashion between the
major transit areas of both the suburban cities and the Twin Cities.
Throughout the researching process, I found the information to be insightful and fascinating.
There is enough useful information and data in this report that I am confident that decisions will
be made without any doubt. Once again, thank you for the opportunity to conduct this research. I
hope that what you find will benefit you in some way.
Sincerely,

Albert Danielson

Running head: BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

Building New Express Routes: A Feasibility Report

Albert Danielson
Hamline University
November 22, 2016

Abstract
The purpose of this report is to examine the feasibility of building express public transit routes
that travel between the inner sections of the Twin Cities and the outer suburbs. Research includes
surveys of students from Hamline University, as well as peer-reviewed research found via
resources from the Hamline Bush Library. It was determined that the project is feasible, although
the extent would depend on each suburban city. Recommendations included building new
express bus routes extending from an area near the center of the Twin Cities to all nearby
suburban cities that would receive positive net benefits from express bus routes. The cities would
be determined based on surveying the people who live in those cities.

BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Methods........................................................................................................................................... 6
First Criteria Question ................................................................................................................ 6
Second Criteria Question ............................................................................................................ 7
Third Criteria Question ............................................................................................................... 7
Results ............................................................................................................................................. 8
Financial Benefits ....................................................................................................................... 8
The Need for More Public Transit .............................................................................................. 9
Benefits of Public Transit ......................................................................................................... 10
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 11
Recommendations ......................................................................................................................... 12
References ..................................................................................................................................... 13

BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

4
Introduction

Public transportation use is on the rise in the Twin Cities (Padilla, 2016). With the
younger generation looking to lower their negative environmental impact while also saving
money, more and more people are turning to public transit for their new mode of transportation
(Editorial Board, 2015). The Minnesota Council (2015) has predicted that there will over
650,000 people inhabiting the Minneapolis and St. Paul area in 2020, with 30,000 more
forecasted for 2030. This means there more people trying to get to the same places, which leads
to congestion on the roadways when public transit is not being used. Taking into account events
that come along such as weekly Minnesota Vikings game and frequent events every week, with
almost 400,000 rides on the first of September, 2016 (Harlow, 2016), the need for more available
public transit routes becomes apparent.
In the best interest of the environment with regards to greenhouse gases and the economy
in terms of efficient use of time, more people need to be able to effectively use public
transportation. The Metro Transit system currently functions at a relatively sufficient level, but
there is room for improvement. For people traveling via public transit from the inner Twin-Cities
to the outer suburbs, such as Maple Plain, the system is set up where they would have to take a
bus at 4pm on a Friday to arrive in two hours later to be in town for work on Saturday. Working
on Monday creates an even worse scenario as no matter what time of arrival would have been
necessary, the only possible date of arrival would be Friday night on the same route as those
traveling to work for Saturday.
Due to the current formatting of public transit routes, these people who travel between
the inner cities and outer suburbs currently either have to drive or find a different job, redirecting
and limiting their opportunities. With a route that quickly navigates from the inner city to outer

BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

cities, there is more potential for economic and personal growth. An example of this is the new A
line, a bus that quickly navigates between Rosedale Center and 46th Street Station. While a still a
new route, there were 6,100 rides during the Minnesota State Fair (Harlow, 2015). Considering
that Metro Transit buses an average 276,408 times each weekday with 132 routes and multiple
buses on each route constantly running throughout the day, this shows the impact express route
lines have on the economy (Metro Transit, 2016).
There is a trend of more people using public transit along with a growth in population
throughout the state of Minnesota, especially in the Twin Cities (Metro Transit, 2015). The
creation of new express routes appears to be a financially responsible decision that would
become more profitable as more people are born in and migrate to the Twin Cities are. Express
routes will entice people who currently and initially plan on driving every day to be more
environmentally friendly and financially solvent. Siedler stated that with the currently expected
growth of drivers, the current infrastructure would not be sustainable (2014, p. 2).

BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

Methods
I located three articles and four books. In one of the articles, Siedler wrote that with the
currently expected growth of drivers, the current infrastructure would not be sustainable (2014).
Already, the question of if there is a need for the expansion of the public transit system is
answered. Siedler also brought up the feasibility of using rapid bus transit as a form of public
transportation, which is shown through data and testing that in comparison with light-rail transit,
is superior in terms of net value, and that any form of rapid transit is desirable dependent on the
initial costs.
Brands, Cook, de Romph, and Veitch (2014) used Amsterdam as a case study to for
multiple access and egress models. While explained in a complex manner, the focus is what
makes an optimal public transit route and how to optimize them, including factors such as
walking distance and types of routes, such as rail and bus, that are interacted with in each route.
The main use of all the algorithms is to find the best locations to place routes around the city,
creating a model network that operates at theoretically maximum efficiency.
Favre (2014) explained the basics of public transport, regarding topics such as optimal
speed and ways to encourage people to ride public transportation. This is a textbook, so
everything is explained extensively, but ideas can be extrapolated from here, including the
sections on urban logistics.
First Criteria Question
Does the Twin Cities need more express public transit routes? The results from the
survey distributed to the students at Hamline University showed that the current Twin Cities
public transit system is insufficient for the needs of those that previously have or would have

BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

used Twin Cities public transit. It can also be determined from the survey as well as data found
by Brands, Cook, de Romph, and Veitch that the one of the preferred mode of public transit, as
well as the most optimal in terms of costs and efficiency, is the express bus. As such, there is a
need to be more express public transit routes, and that mode of transportation should be express
busses.
Second Criteria Question
Would there be support from the people in the Twin Cities to build express public transit?
The conclusion that can be made from the results of the survey shows that with the positive
benefits that are produced from building the express routes, there is support for those routes to be
built.
Third Criteria Question
Would creating an express public transit routes convert drivers to use public transit more
often? Figure 3 shows that that between positively affecting traffic, boosting the economy, and
encouraging use of public transit, the third option was the one the people surveyed viewed as the
least likely to occur in the event of building express public transit routes.

BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

8
Results

Financial Benefits
I surveyed 36 people, with the demographic consisting mainly of students from Professor
Krista Sorias class at Hamline University, regarding their thoughts on building express public
transit in the Twin Cities. Figure 1 demonstrates the correlation between annual income and the
cost to ride public transit. A provided example was the price for a ride, including free transfers
for up to 2.5 hours, is $2.25/$1.75 during rush and non-rush hours respectively. As the annual
income of a person increases, there are fewer people considering the price to ride within the very
cheap and somewhat cheap categories, dropping from 30% to 0% and 44% to 43% respectively
from the $10,000 and below range to the $10,001-$20,000 range. This graphic shows that while
people with higher income do not consider the price to be worth the ride, lower income people
are more likely to take advantage of sufficiently low prices. These results display a potential
mentality of those with higher income that explains why some believe that public transit is not be
a good financial decision in terms of expansion.
9
8
7
6
Very Cheap

Somewhat Cheap

Somewhats Expensive

Very Expensive

2
1
0
$0-$5000

$5001-$10,000

$10,001-$15,000

$15,001-$20,000

$20,001+

BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

Figure 1. Change in opinion of price to ride transit in relation to annual income.

The Need for More Public Transit

The 36 people previously surveyed answered questions in relation to where they lived
and their thoughts on how effective the public transit system is currently. The further away from
the inner city a person is, the less likely they view the coverage of the Twin City transit as
sufficient (Figure 2). There were no people surveyed that believed the current system is
completely sufficient for the needs of the city. This graphic shows that there is at least a need for
there to be new transit routes implemented in the Twin Cities, which can be alleviated by
creating new bus and rail routes.
14

12

10

Insufficient

Somewhat Insufficient
Somewhat Sufficient

Sufficient
4

0
Inner City

Suburb

Rural/Countryside

Unsure

Figure 2. Correlation between home location and current coverage of Twin City transit.

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10

Benefits of Public Transit

The surveyors were asked to predict the potential effects of building public transit,
beginning with their opinion regarding whether more express public transit routes should be
built. As shown in Figure 3, the 69% of those that had taken the surveyed believed that new
routes should be built, and that the routes would positively affect the traffic, the Twin City
economy, and the number of drivers on the road, with traffic being helped as the area most
agreed as a likely outcome. This shows that there is support for the building of new express
transit routes. Some people who rejected the notion to build the routes still believed there were
some positive effects to be had from building them. The lowest accepted result was that there
would be fewer drivers on the road in spite of having more express public transit available,
which shows that there are other factors that decide if a person will choose driving a personal
vehicle as their main mode of transportation.
30
25
20
Help Traffic

15

Benefit Economy
10

Encourage Less Driving

5
0
Yes

No
Build

Yes

No
Do Not Build

Figure 3. Separated by whether to build more express public transit routes, the effects of future
routes.

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11

Conclusions
This study determined the building of express public transit routes between the inner
Twin Cities and the outer suburbs. Based on analysis of the information gather from the study,
the following conclusions can be made:

Express bus routes are the most preferred and optimal mode of public transportation.

The current number of public transit routes is insufficient.

Building more public transit routes positively affects the Twin Cities economy and traffic
situation.

There is support from people within the twin cities to build more public transit routes.

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12

Recommendations
Based upon further review on the data and information found throughout this study, the
following recommendations are being made with regards to building express public transit routes
between the Twin Cities and the outer suburbs:

Conduct surveys of suburban cities near the Twin Cities to determine the need and
support of public transit routes for each individual city.

Formulate optimal express bus routes that travel between major areas in the suburban city
and major points of interests within the Twin Cities.

Build transit centers in the suburban cities that will participate in the new transit project.

BUILDING NEW EXPRESS ROUTES

13
References

Badami, M. G., Diab, E. I., & El-Geneidy, A. M. (2014). Bus transit service reliability and
improvement strategies: Integrating the perspectives of passengers and transit agencies
in North America. Transport Reviews 35(3), 292-328.
Brands, T., Cook, J., de Romph, E., & Veitch, T. (2014). Modelling public transport route
choice, with multiple access and egress modes. Transportation Research Procedia, 1(1),
12-23.
Editorial Board. (2015, August 3). Numbers tell the story of light-rails steady growth in Twin
Cities. Star Tribune. Retrieved from
http://www.startribune.com/numbers-tell-the-story-of-light-rail-s-steady-growth-in-twin
-cities/320534392/
Favre, B. (2014). Introduction to sustainable transports. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Harlow, T. (2016, September 9). Vikings, Twins, traffic fears help Metro Transit shatter single
day ridership record. Star Tribune. Retrieved from
http://www.startribune.com/vikings-twins-traffic-fears-help-metro-transit-shatter-singleday-ridership-record/392920421/
Metro Transit. (2016). Metro Transit 2015 Facts. [Graphs display statistics on ridership using
Metro Transit services]. Retrieved from
http://www.metrotransit.org/facts
Metro Transit (2015). Metro Transit 2014 ridership is highest in more than three decades [Press
release]. Retrieved from
http://www.metrotransit.org/metro-transit-2014-ridership-is-highest-in-more-than-threedecades

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14

Metropolitan Council. (2015). Demographics and economic forecast, July 2015. [Data File].
Retrieved from
https://metrocouncil.org/Data-and-Maps/Data/Census-Forecasts-Estimates.aspx
Minnesota Revenue, Sales and Use Tax Division. (2016). Transit Improvement Tax Area Guide.
Retrieved from
http://www.revenue.state.mn.us/businesses/sut/Documents/TransitImprovement_Zip_C
ode_Guide.pdf
Padilla, H. (2016). Metro Transit ridership tops 85.8 million in 2015. Retrieved from
https://www.metrotransit.org/metro-transit-ridership-tops-858-million-in-2015
Siedler, C. E. (2014). Can bus rapid transit be a sustainable means of public transport in fast
growing cities? Empirical evidence in the case of Oslo. Transportation Research
Procedia, 1(1), 109-120.