[Downtown Amphitheater]

6 hours ago, droonus2000 said:

I’ve been wondering why there are a few construction vehicles parked next to the 131 north on-ramp for the last week. I can’t tell if they are doing something or just parked on vacant land. I thought maybe preparation for a groundbreaking announcement. Who doesn’t want to hope this is getting started?

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

[Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids]

1 hour ago, ZAP! said:

Anyone know anything about the permanent shuttering of the long-dormant retail space at Central Station?

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.

[Studio Park - $140 Million Celebration Cinema/mixed use project]

57 minutes ago, mpchicago said:

Have they finished the Ottawa Avenue extension?

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.

[Highway and Road Construction Updates]

40 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Update on the "flip at I-196/E Beltline." They've switched Westbound traffic now over to share the road with Eastbound traffic with a concrete barrier in between. They've already started going to town tearing down the Westbound I-196 bridge that goes over Eastbound 96, and ripping up Westbound I-196 to expand to 3 lanes going West. Does Maryland get torn down and rebuilt in all of this? I can't recall. 

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.

[Highway and Road Construction Updates]

6 hours ago, Khorasaurus1 said:

Anyone else think we need some new traffic lights in Heartside, especially once Studio Park opens? Those four way stops are already becoming problematic,  including for pedestrians.

I'm thinking:

• Grandville/Oakes
• Grandville/Cherry
• Commerce/Oakes
• Commerce/Cherry
• Ionia/Oakes
• Ottawa/Oakes (once Ottawa becomes a through street)

North of Fulton in the downtown area, we have traffic lights at basically every intersection. Heartside is now vibrant enough (more vibrant than "Center City" in some places) that it needs the same treatment. 

 

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

[Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids]

1 hour ago, MJLO said:

There's no mention as to whether or not the antiquated buses will have  restricted diamond lanes during rush periods.  Can anyone confirm if LMD will have lane restrictions?  If it does not, using the term BRT for the Laker Line will be a bit fraudulent.  I would hate to see them spend all this money on antiquated buses, only to have them function as a regular bus.  (Also can we please only refer to articulated buses as antiquated buses from now on?)

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.

[Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids]

43 minutes ago, JoeSchmo said:

Are they keeping Bus Route 12 the same.  Or is the plan for this route to still directly overlay Bus Route 50?

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

[Predictions for the coming year]

1 hour ago, Floyd_Z said:

A few people (myself included) have predicted a consolidation of Spectrum's offices.  Does anyone see this happening anytime soon?  They have a lot of smaller offices up and down Michigan and around the city.  It seems like it would be easier logistically to build one larger building to accommodate all these offices.  They could also add more parking below the building.  Michigan and Lafayette would be an ideal location.

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.

 

[Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

They show this image for GVSU Pew Campus. Do you know what it's illustrating? 

 

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

[Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids]

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:

 

[Highway and Road Construction Updates]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

They even ran shuttle buses from South of downtown during the s-curve shutdown (not sure why they discontinued those).
 

 

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.

 

[GVSU Downtown Development]

3 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

OK this might be slightly off topic but....  Does anyone else find it slightly annoying that all of the students try to cross Fulton near Eberhard/under 131 instead of using the crosswalk?  It's like a real life frogger sometimes, especially when class is about to start or gets out.  I feel like it became more of a problem when they moved on of the Route 50 stops further East down Front.  I get it, it's a straight line to the Business building, but I have seen people almost get hit not paying attention.  Pedestrians are already bad enough completely ignoring crosswalk signals downtown.  I guess the only solution would be to put an actual crosswalk there or put up pedestrian barriers to corral everyone further west to the existing crosswalk.

 

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.

[Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids]

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.

[Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids]

10 hours ago, LaMas said:

I noticed the new Hudsonville/Jamestown Meijer has a bus shelter (no signage). Is there a bus service that stops there or is it progressive, or wishful, thinking?

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.

[Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmo said:

Since the beginning of the year I happened to notice theres about 10+ Rapid buses sitting in the back of the Grand Rapids Auto Auction lot in Hudsonville (visible from Chicago Dr).  I believe they were all the hybrid buses.  Were the hybrid buses a fail?

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.