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Every gallon of gas you don't buy is a small cut into the rope holding up Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal war against Ukraine. When you don't buy gas, your neighbor doesn't buy gas and the folks living near and visiting Hennepin Avenue don't buy gas, Putin's rope starts looking pretty frayed.

Now, to be clear, it will take a lot of gas going unpurchased before the price of oil drops and the Russian war chest starts to feel it, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Every time you ride a reliable and traffic-skipping bus rapid transit line, you are putting one more cut in Putin's rope. Coincidently, you are also saving huge sums of money when gas is getting awfully close to $5 per gallon. I hope you decide to spend some of that money at a business on Hennepin Avenue.

Luckily for me, I don't really have to hope you will spend that money on Hennepin Avenue, because the data tell me you will. When people ride fast and effective transit, they have small walks on either side of their ride. That walk will take you past some businesses that have enticing windows and dedicated staff. It won't be long before you stop in one of them and make a purchase. But it won't just be you, it will be that same neighbor fighting Putin with their purchases. And it's all the people who love Hennepin Avenue and the thousands who live nearby. When vastly more people get funneled through Hennepin Avenue on a BRT line that never gets stuck in traffic, local businesses are going to be the first winner of all that money not spent on gas.

"But where will all the cars that were going to take Hennepin drive if the lanes are reduced," you ask? ("A looming mistake on Hennepin Avenue," Opinion Exchange, June 8.) Good question. Thankfully, the data show that those extra car trips — the ones that were going to clog up neighborhood streets — don't happen. Those trips turn into bike, transit and walk trips.

And when those aren't good options, there are plenty of other ways to quickly drive north-south in Minneapolis. The phenomenon of induced demand works in the opposite direction, too. If driving along a certain street is no longer efficient, then people will get down that street the best way possible. When there is a 24/7 bus lane for the new multimillion-dollar BRT line, a lot of people are going to be choosing that over driving and giving their money to local businesses, not Putin's war.

The Hennepin Avenue reconstruction with a 24/7 bus lane is the best thing that Minneapolis can do right now to support Ukraine. It's the best thing we can do to support our local businesses. And it is the best thing we can do to stem the tide of climate change that is ravaging our future. The only looming mistake is thinking that our addiction to oil can't be overcome. For the sake of Ukraine, our wallets and our futures, we need these bus lanes.

Soren Stevenson, of Minneapolis, is a co-op housing developer. He's at sorenstevenson@gmail.com. The Minneapolis City Council is expected to vote Thursday on the plan for dedicated bus lanes on Hennepin Avenue.