It was nice to get some facts on how many routes/trips/people bus the Nicollet Mall from Mr. Gibbons. Lets not forget the taxi cabs and "lost drivers" also! It does astound me that the City would spend millions of dollars to build something that attracts thousands of people, especially in the Summer months, then run 930 busses through the middle of it all every day! While I can certainly understand the convenience of this for bus riders, there seems to me to be a bigger issue of creating a truly unique environment downtown that does not need to put human beings second to "General Motors". One only need walk down the Loring Greenway from Nicollet to Loring Park to see what the Mall could be. Unfortunately the Greenway is not lined with sidewalk cafes and shops, although original designs included them. I realize it would be an uphill battle to totally eliminate bus traffic on the Mall. I do think however that the City, Metro Transit and the Downtown Council could explore moving buses off the mall on weekends and evenings throughout the summer months. An exception could be the trolley bus that runs on clean natural gas. By the way, whatever happened to the plan to run ONLY "clean" buses on the mall? Richard Anderson Loring Park
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