Driver2165

Recently Is Kirby Pucket Overrated? I'm arguing yes. Nobody else is, apparantly.

One last note: I apologize if anybody's comments didn't go through. I turned off the comment moderating system, so it should go through now if you put the 'D' in there.

Honestly, the paper makes it sound like a complete reform. Really, however, it's not. Sure, let's make downtown streets two-way. It will slow down traffic, as they wish. Interestingly, the reason they (I keep saying 'they': it's obviously not Rybak's plan, but he's taking credit for some consultant's plan) want to limit the streets that buses are on is because, they say, buses slow down traffic. But what doesn't the plan do?

Well, it doesn't take buses off Nicollet Mall, like it should, like it pretends to. The main reason in the plan for limiting Mall buses is because the people that eat on the sidewalks don't like the exhaust from bumper to bumper buses in rush hour. We're changing the entire traffic plan of downtown Minneapolis because of people who eat out at 5 pm during the six warm months. They're still going to keep local bus service on the mall with this plan, which is the bulk of Mall transit traffic. That includes two buses that run every 10 minutes and one that comes every 15, and a couple other less frequent lines. Add each direction and you've got a bus coming from one direction every 90 seconds on average. That's during the time that people actually do eat out (6:30 to 09:30:00 PM).

The other thing is doesn't do is take buses off Hennepin, so the sky is not falling (I'm looking at you, Star Tribune). It also doesn't really change the routing. If they're going to make all the streets two-way, it stands to reason that they'll make the routes operate on the same street both ways.

It's really just a lot of excuses to change the traffic flow back to two-way traffic. The best part is that in the official language of the plan, they're patting themselves on the back for having "small walkable blocks" in Minneapolis [Giggle].

Maybe next they can focus on the four lane freeways that speed through the Wedge neighborhood called Hennepin and Lyndale. Yesterday, I was crossing Lyndale at 27th with the kid in a stroller, and a car saw us and sped up, then gestured and honked when we didn't run. It's not a goddamn highway, it's an inner city street, albeit with crosswalks every quarter mile (not an exaggeration). At 27th, there's no crosswalk. It's a major intersection with bike shop, an apartment building, three restaurants, two art galleries, a boutique toy store that specializes in japanese dolls, an award-winning tattoo shop, a hair salon, and a coffee shop. It sounds like a pretty nice corner when you list it off like that, but there's no way to cross the ridiculous 45 mph four-lane "interstate".

For the uninitiated, Lyndale is one of the two or three main retail corridors in the city, where you're most likely to find the cafes and restaurants, the boutique stores, and, theoretically, a lot of yuppies walking around. But this city is a strip mall with an out of touch mayor and city council.

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