American Dream

>>>>"We have a contract with the Federal Transit Administration, and a contract with our customers, to deliver service in the rush hour at seven-and-a-half minute frequency," Gibbons said. "We would be unable to satisfy the federal requirement and the needs of our customers if the trains stopped at the intersections south of downtown."<<<<<

I agree with Gibbons in that the contract with the Federal Transit administration should be honored. The situation at the highway intersection could be easily resolved by builing an elevated bridge so that traffic does not get blocked by changing lights.

The intersectons south of downtown may not be resolvable.
 

Have the Minnesota traffic engineers talked to the California traffic engineers who have worked on the traffic signal interfaces with LRT systems such as Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, L.A., and San Diego? In no case are there cases of congestion like that in Minneapolis.

I suspect a case of "not invented here" resistance to using "out of state" expertise." Or is it a case of MinnDOT insiders not wanting LRT to work?