Carol-- You make a very good point as to whether it makes sense, road efficiency-wise, to mix bikes with cars.
> I think one of the biggest isssue with > balancing modes in the downtown is > that the City has taken a whole traffic lane > out of automobile service and > turned them into bike lanes on several major > streets, substantially reducing > the carrying capacity of the street system > overall. I think most bikers would be prefer to be on "car-less" streets rather than in heavy traffic. I can guess divers feel the same way, bringing us back to whether it makes sense to urge bicycles back to the mall. Personally, I don't mind either way. I don't want to push the point too far, but are we doing the best we can to move transit/traffic into, across, and out of downtown. I brought up the Nicollet issue because I think it is the most strollable and enjoyable street downtown. While it is very convenient to pick up busses there, the large, noisy, slow busses detract from these positive qualities. I also think long lines of busses are not moving riders effectively. How will the Nicollet busses interact most effectively with LRT? Other DT transit modes/patterns? I don't know what the best solutions are, but I suspect someone at the Metro Council or City probably has some answers. Have things like the following been studied? - A Nicollet Ave trolley-like vehicle, which could be quiet, enjoyable, and used to move passengers us and down Nicollet (free?). - Smaller busses on Nicollet. I believe many bus routes in DC have both large and small busses on the same route. Larger bus routes could end their route before they hit downtown, with smaller ones going thru. - Bus-only "transit malls", such as in Portland: Busses run primarily on 2 parallel streets (two-lane streets with all traffic in one direction, if I remember correctly). Being pretty inefficient myself, Zach Korb Stevens Square __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
