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Commuter potholes (2/20/1999) Page [ of 2 ERftANE- T spitiss tiss tiss « 10 ,;,, e d.j. fice editorial writer Commuter potholes Published Friday, February 20, 1998, in the Pioneer Press. Distressed by the latest price hike at my downtown St. Paul parking ramp, I recently decided to explore mass transit options for my daily This material i commute. I sought advice from the Metropolitan Council, which runs copyrighted and may not the bus system and other commuter services. Their friendly reply be republished without demonstrated the almost comical inadequacy of transit in the Twin permission of the Cities. originating newspaper or wire service. I hadn't previously known that I lived on the dark side of the moon. within a couple of miles of Rosedale,- my car commute is a 25-minute PioneerPlanet affair. Yet the Council reported they were unable to identify any car- is a service of`the Pioneer p ool options for me. Press. Hove about a bus? I was prepared for the need to drive to Rosedale to For more information., catch a convenient bus downtown. I wasn't prepared for there to be click here. exactly one bus making the trip from Rosedale to downtown between 8 and 9 a.m. Nor was I prepared for there to be exactly one bus making the return trip after 5:30 p.rn, If work ran tong, as it often does} my only options would be to wait until 9-15 or embark on a complex voyage involving a transfer and a long wait. This isn't close to an acceptable alternative to car commuting. And mine, mind you, is a route between two prominent destinations on a fairly ordinary schedule. Given this wholly unseriou s level of bus service, there can't be the slightest hope of persuading significant additional gal numbers of Twin Cities commuters to trade their cars for transit. Pity hapless Twin Citians who don't own cars or can't drive. h, but policymakers are working on the transit problem} or at least on ways to spend money on it, A proposal is advancing at the Legislature to invest some 400 million in state, local and federal funds to build a light rail transit line along the Hiawatha corridor between downtown Minneapolis and the airport. This will not notably expand nay alternatives -- or those, I presume, of hundreds of thousands of local commuters. No doubt the larger plan to establish key transit corridors throughout the metro area, for use as designated busways or rail lines, might help make possible a more effective future transit system. But incurring the huge costs of grand transit plans, especially for rail, seems a peculiar http:H ww.pioneerplanet.com/opinion/ocl_do cs/o 103 8'3.htm 3/12/98