01-28-2016, 07:48 PM
(01-28-2016, 04:51 PM)Markster Wrote: My druthers for station placement would have been: University, Columbia, Bearinger, Northfield. But yeah, politics ruled the day.
Route 9 really is going to need some updating in the post-ION world, but I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do with it. The road network and station placement really do not work well together.
I think part of what's just going to happen is that McCormick will be slightly less desirable for students, and after a few years, you'll see some of the buildings become less student focused. Back in 2004, before the iXpress and before the #9 extension to UW, the people who moved up there either had a car, or were willing to do the walk down the Laurel Trail.
You are right on all counts. That is the logical station placement because those are the major cross streets, allowing for good bus routes that actually connect with Ion. Connections are going to be hard with the current station placement, but the ship is sailed.
And that's exactly what is going to happen with McCormick. It's popular with students right now because of the iXpress stop, but without that it will naturally become less so except for folks willing to walk. I can't see what rerouting of the 9 would happen to serve it nearly as well as it is served now (I want to see a Weber express because it would be truly fast, but a lot less so with the detour chutten describes above). I think that residency choices will just change, and there's no population who can do that faster than students.
I do think that, even with the current station placements, an Ion station at the McCormick Centre would have been called for. But, again, what's done is done.