Agenda - Council - 01/24/2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Transportation Metro Cities supports state funding for state highway projects, including congestion and safety improvements. Metro Cities also supports state financial assistance, as well as innovations in design and construction, to offset the impacts of regional transportation construction projects on businesses. 5-13 Regional Transit System The Twin Cities Metropolitan Area needs a multi-modal regional transit system as part of a comprehensive transportation strategy that serves both commuters and the transit dependent. The transit system should be composed of a mix of HOV lanes, a network of bike and pedestrian trails, Bus Rapid Transit, express and regular route bus service, exclusive transit ways, light rail transit, streetcars and commuter rail corridors designed to connect residential, employment, retail and entertainment centers. The system should be regularly monitored and adjusted to ensure that routes of service correspond to the region's changing travel patterns. Current congestion levels and forecasted population growth require a stable, reliable and growing source of revenue for transit construction and operations so that our metropolitan region can adequately and strategically meet its transportation needs to remain economically competitive. Metro Cities supports an effective, efficient and comprehensive regional transit system as an invaluable component in meeting the multimodal transportation needs of the metropolitan region and to the region's economic vibrancy and quality of life. Metro Cities supports strategic expansion of the regional transit system. Metro Cities is opposed to legislative or Metropolitan Council directives that constrain the ability of metropolitan transit providers to provide a full range of transit services, including reverse commute routes, suburb-to-suburb routes, transit hub feeder services or new, experimental services that may show a low rate of operating cost recovery from the fare box. Metro Cities supports a regional governance structure that can ensure a measurably reliable and efficient system that recognizes the diverse transit needs of our region and addresses the funding needs for all components of the system. Metro Cities recognizes the need for flexibility in transit systems for cities that border the edges of the seven county metropolitan area to ensure users can get to points outside of the seven county area. Metro Cities encourages the Met Council to work with border counties to help coordinate planning so riders can get to and from destinations beyond the boundaries of the region. In the interest of including all potential options in the pursuit of a regionally balanced transit system, Metro Cities supports the repeal of the law passed in 2002 which imposed a gag order on the Dan Patch Commuter Rail Line and opposes the imposition of legislative moratoriums on the study, planning, design, or construction of specific transit projects. 2017 Legislative Policies 52