Politics & Government

Humphrey School Students Gather Gateway Corridor Information

Bob Streetar, Oakdale community development director, is involved in the program.

The best decisions are those made based on as much information as possible, but gathering information can be an expensive proposition.

To help with the cost and add to the value, students from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs are gathering information to help inform decisions on the Gateway Corridor, a transit corridor from St. Paul to the Wisconsin border along Interstate 94.

Since the fall of 2010, the Gateway Corridor Commission has been leading an Alternatives Analysis Study to determine the best mode of transit, estimated ridership, potential routes and estimated costs for construction and operation. Depending upon federal and local funding, a new transitway in the Gateway Corridor could be operational by 2022.

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Before then, many decisions must be made, which is where the Humphrey students come in.

The students took on the topic “Station Area Development and Community Connections along the Gateway Corridor.” They have each taken on a client in the community, and are gathering information on proposed stations at St. Paul’s Mounds Boulevard, Maplewood/3M, and Oakdale/Oaks.

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A fourth group is gathering information from throughout the corridor, to determine how people will get to and use the transit corridor, especially if they are walkers or bicycle riders.

Jeremy Jenkins, a Woodbury resident and a Humphrey student completing a master’s of public affairs degree, is part of the fourth group. He has been researching the corridor-wide questions: How to connect people to the transit station, and how to help them negotiate the last half mile or mile from the transitway to home, school or workplace?

The group has interviewed business and civic leaders, while reviewing best practices from other transitways and gathering data from geographic information systems. The students are also talking with planners in the transit field, such as those from the Metropolitan Council and other transit lines, Jenkins said.

“Our hope is to be as useful as we can,” Jenkins said.

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The project is “a chance to do something tangible and something that I could do that definitely affected my community,” Jenkins said, rather than the more theoretical study in other coursework.

Bob Streetar, Oakdale community development director, has participated in a number of student projects at the Humphrey.

“It is very common, and it is very valuable to have students who are knowledgeable to work on a particular project,” he said.

The students act as consultants, defining the problem, gathering information, and creating a vision, Streetar said.

“It’s very helpful for the city, because it is our first look at what some of the issues should be. What they’ve looked at has been one of the big ones, (which is) reverse commuters.”

Another question to ask regarding the Maplewood stop is how to make it accessible to all residents, not just 3M employees.

County Commissioner Lisa Weik, District 5, is also interested in the distance to and from the transit stops, what she calls “the first leg and the last leg” of the journey.

Weik, chair of Gateway Corridor Commission, said she’s excited about the contributions that the students will make to the project.

“This was new to me. I think it will bring a lot of value to the Gateway study. I think it will be a ‘deeper dive,’” she said.

While a study is underway to meet federal standards, the students will bring additional data to the process, Weik said. “I think that just makes it more robust.”

For example, the students are asking about placing a library facility at the park and ride as an amenity of the transit station. And when students envision such an amenity, they also research how to fund it.

Streetar noted that the students are encouraged to be creative, telling them to “talk about what could be. We get a better product” with the students, he said.

“Once we do formal planning, I always use what the students did as a piece of the overall plan,” Streetar said. “I think students like that, because it is real world stuff.”

The students will report findings to their clients, and may present to the Gateway Corridor Commission, which will be another lesson for them.

 


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