Skyways and Streetcars

Minneapolis plans to reintroduce streetcars in some high-transit corridors downtown in the coming years. The first route sounds like it will be on Nicollet Mall and replace most of the buses crawling along the Mall. I like streetcars because I find them more comfortable than buses, and besides walking and biking I think they have the best "lets stop here and look around" appeal. You get a bit of that sensation taking the LRT through downtown now, but the LRT is still more geared for throughput. The streetcar is more of a moving sidewalk.



But I believe there's one obstacle to the streetcar really taking back off - our skyway system. The streetcar relies on people walking and biking around at street level, but most of the daily downtown population is up on the 2nd floor in the skyways. A lot of downtown streets, particularly Nicollet Mall, have very few storefronts that open onto the sidewalk itself. Instead you enter a plaza and hunt around for the business entrance. But the plazas make sense if you're already in the skyway.



There is a big disconnect. Out on the sidewalk you can use the streetcar, but the businesses you want to get to are locked away a story above your head. Right now trying to get from the sidewalk to the skyway can be daunting in itself. I think if it was easier to move from the sidewalk to the skyway and back it would help both areas.

How do we connect the sidewalk to the skyway?