Business First wrote Traffic, parking top streetcar questions
Friday, April 18, 2008
by Jeff Bell
A big believer in mass transit, PM Gallery owner Maria Galloway doesn’t have a problem with the idea that streetcars may someday hum just yards from her Short North shop’s front door. She hopes the electric streetcar line proposed for High Street will be the precursor for a light rail system she thinks is overdue in Columbus.
But Galloway, who has operated her art and fine crafts gallery for 28 years, isn’t ready to jump on the bandwagon for the 2.8-mile line that would connect downtown Columbus with Ohio State University. Like other business operators along High Street, she needs answers about the project’s effects on parking and traffic before offering her endorsement.
“The consensus,” she said, “is we like the idea but … questions, questions, questions.”
City officials are working on answers, including whether the streetcar line would run down the center of High Street or in the curb lanes headed north and south, said Mark Kelsey, Columbus’ public service director. An engineering study needs to be completed to address that issue and others involving traffic flow, he said.
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