What a bunch of horse manure! Hope you choke on it.

Socialism is alive and well, atleast in your own mind.

If you are hoping that everyone will abandon the car someday, you might as well be hoping that we all ride unicorns or magic carpets to work.

The U needs to give up before it wrecks this whole deal. Catering to cars is a losing scenario for Minnesota and the U should embrace the original design of its campus–a design without a four-lane motorway cutting through its heart.

I don’t think we can afford to carve up these major secondary roads (University Ave, Washington Ave) with LRT.

I would be for either burying the LRT or razing the buildings on one side of the road - in order to widen the road - for on grade

I’m not opposed to the Northern Alignment anymore… mostly because I see two things playing out:

Step 1. One day after Central Corridor opens with the Northern Alignment, Minnesota and the UofM give the finger to the Feds and build the &*&@#$! tunnel anyway - using state funds.

Step 2. the Northern Alignment is extended along the of U of M transitway to the St Paul campus, the State Fairgrounds and north-easterly points beyond.

Why do I think this would happen? Because the UofM doesn’t see the “transit mall” as a temporary solution. It’s (rightly or wrongly) an all or nothing situation in their opinion. If the traffic mitigation is successful, they would never get a tunnel under Wash Ave. But if they ‘redirect’ to the Northern Alignment - they can come back at any time and say - screw Uncle Sam - let’s build that tunnel now.

I have attended several major Universities. They all have their “college avenues”. It’s easy access for parents, visitors, out of state people, etc. Additionally the streets ajacent to the University are inadequate, confusing, don’t connect, poorly laid out, and abutt the Mississippi River.

To close Washington Ave to autos is just plain stupid.

David - experts almost inevitably conclude what you want them to conclude. I am willing to bet a significant amount of money that the U’s study will show that the northern route is the best.

As for Washington being a through street or not, I somewhat disagree. As a downtown resident, I’ve used Washington to get to places right there on campus or immediately to the east of it. Also, once the new stadium is up, you’ll see all sorts of increased traffic through there.

Furthermore, as the U has pointed out, creation of the transit mall will have a material negative impact on the businesses (such as the hospital) in the area. I hosted my wedding reception at Coffman Union and it was hard enough trying to get people there (most of whom were from outstate or another state). I can’t imagine having a transit mall muck it up worse.

I continue to think that the northern route is the best overall option and one that addresses the highest number of concerns.

Let’s not build it cheap because we can. Let’s build it right because we should.

I’m just sayin’ . . .