VectorPrime

Those are for the Market/Fulton reconstruction project that starts tomorrow.

The Rapid's in the process of moving the majority of their Admin staff from the building next door to the unused 2nd and 3rd floors of Central Station to cut down on expenses. I believe that is part of the major renovations required for the move.

It's all paved and the street amenities are in place, but it isn't open to traffic yet. They're still using it as a staging area for the construction.

Unless they've changed plans, the Maryland bridge is going untouched as there is enough ROW for 3 lanes under the existing bridge. You're probably thinking of the I-196 bridges over Plymouth, which will be rebuilt to accommodate the third lane.

Grandville and Cherry is finally getting a traffic light this fall. Cherry and Ottawa will also be signalized once it is extended south.

There are no plans for lane restrictions on LMD for the Laker Line due to the high volumes of traffic and the relative steadiness at which it flows. That said, the buses will be equipped with traffic signal priority. Not that designating bus only lanes would make any difference with the existing lack of enforcement. If you've ever been on Monroe or Division during rush hour, there's just as many cars in the Silver Line lanes as there are in the regular travel lane.

Route 12 will remain unaltered providing local service similar to route 1 on Division and the Silver Line.

There have been plenty of talks lately for one consolidated building..... except that Spectrum wants to build it on their property on Leffingwell and Bradford. I don't think anything has officially been announced because the city, as to be expected, is adamantly opposed to it.

Huh, how strange. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that's the eastbound Fulton/Valley stop at the zoo.

Laker Line construction officially starts Monday! The website has been updated with station renderings and construction start dates. This one illustrates the median and signalized crosswalk that should alleviate complaints about students crossing under the overpass:

Those shuttles were funded by MDOT as part of the S-curve construction budget, so once the project was completed the shuttles were discontinued due to lack of funding. Early on for this project, The Rapid reached out to MDOT about doing that again for the bridge closure, but it wasn't included in the project's budget.

That's one of the things that will be addressed with the construction of the Pew Campus Laker Line station this summer. (I know there's a rendering floating around somewhere, but I can't seem to find it, so hopefully, this will do the trick.) The actual stations will be built under the underpass (in red) while a signalized crosswalk will be installed on the east side (the white line), and the median lane will be converted into a barrier of sorts (the orange line) to prevent any pedestrian crossing other than at the two crosswalks.

There appears to be some serious confusion regarding the origin of the funding for the study. The bulk of the money comes from the FTA’s Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development Planning https://www.transit.dot.gov/TODPilot , which is a competitive funding source for implementing TOD across the country. The rest of it comes from the required state and local matches for projects like these. Thus, the money being invested is for the sole purpose of studying TOD, and the idea as some have suggested that the money could be used on other things in the region is akin to a child being sent to the store with money to buy milk and thinking it would be okay to spend it on candy instead. This is a situation where you either get $1 million to spend on one particular thing or you don’t get the money at all, so The Rapid saw an opportunity to gain some additional funding and went for it. Now granted, it does raise the question at the national level if this program is a wise use of FTA funds, but that’s another discussion for another day.

Nope, the shelter is just for Meijer employees to take their smoke breaks. Pretty much all of the Meijer's around have them. The one in Standale is especially confusing as the employee shelter is right next to the actual bus stop.

No, the buses there are just regular old diesels that have long outlive their useful life. But yes the hybrids themselves were a failure in the sense that at best they only got about a mile more to the gallon than the regular buses. In fact, (excluding the Silver Line) there are only the five hybrids that were purchased in 2007 in the fleet. Every bus purchased between then and the CNG order have been diesel-powered.