Message: Hello all, public workshops will be held on April 11th and 12th in downtown Minneapolis for the purpose of gathering comments on the draft Downtown Transportation Action Plan (this is the downtown portion of the overall city plan). While this plan should be considered mostly complete, the comment period will be an opprtunity for this document to be improved through corrections and additions.

 

I am happy with a number of additions to this current draft.These include a new, and workable plan for free Nicollet Mall bus service; an action item regarding pedestrian improvements at freeway crossings; a focus on broader pedestrian improvements across downtown with an added program for the greening and cleaning of sidewalks; the addition of a small section on alternate-mode transit strategies (section called Travel Demand Management). This last section will be expanded on in the overall city plan.

 

There is one area in which I believe that this document is still sorely lacking. While a great deal of effort went into planning for commuter transit and Nicollet Mall Transit, far too little effort I believe was invested into plans for better serving the uniquely urban transit needs of the fast growing "near downtown neighborhoods". If we are to nurture the pedestrian lifestyle  of our neighborhoods then, along with improvements to the pedestrian enviornment, we need improvements to the pedestrian back-up support of transit. More can be added to the downtown plan. We should encourage the city and Metro Transit to consider expansion of the downtown bus fare zone and also to encourage other methods to improve service such providing downtown fare passes, icreasing service on Commercial corridors, adding streetcar lines, etc.

 

I know there are other concerns about downtown transportation that I have not touched upon here. I hope that you will do what you can to support a good turnout at the public workshops in April. I would also appreciate any work that you can do gather comments from your neighborhoods. Public input will make a differance. Thanks a lot, John VanHeel