Promenade plan raises a range of questions

Re “As Gaslamp Promenade plans pick up, a controversy brews over impacts to bus service” (March 5): I applauded the San Diego City Council’s decision to transform Fifth Avenue into a pedestrian-friendly promenade. This would be a significant benefit to Downtown residents and tourists.

I question the complaints by the Metropolitan Transit System regarding the impacts to bus service in this area. Living Downtown and walking from the Gaslamp Quarter to Little Italy, I see empty buses running all day long. If passengers are taking these routes, they are not getting on or off in the Downtown area.

I would suggest the city send out staff to verify the numbers presented by MTS. I am supportive of mass transportation, but I am not supportive of running empty buses.

Sadly, the city buses I see mostly run empty or with just two or three people on board all day throughout the Downtown area. Let’s not compromise the proposed improvements to allow empty buses to run through the Gaslamp area.

As a longtime San Diego city resident supporting multimodal transportation, I commend the U-T for bringing attention to the bus situation in the Gaslamp Quarter. Accessing public transit is integral to places of interest is integral for all types of people; continued routes could also increase the number of bus riders who want to get to the heart of Downtown if marketed well in targeted areas.

A $30,000 price tag for retractable bollards versus $500 for manually installed ones is a significant difference. Could the U-T follow up with a story on the actual cost, including the labor and planning and other peripheral costs of moving the manual bollards daily, and the estimated costs of removing bollards for emergency or off-hour usage for emergency vehicles? Do all bollards need to be the same material?

Jamie Herrera University City