Weekday biking, free shuttles coming to Nicollet Mall

Two long-awaited transportation changes are getting rolling on the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis:

Starting Saturday, buses will offer a free shuttle service along 12 blocks of the pedestrian-friendly street, and starting Monday, bicyclists will be able to ride along it on weekdays for the first time in 12 years.

In 1997, the city banned bicycles from the mall between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays, after Metro Transit drivers complained of close calls between their buses and bikes.

But bus traffic on the mall will drop 21 percent next week as 13 express routes shift to newly completed dual bus lanes on Marquette and 2nd Avenues. The City Council encouraged allowing bikes back during weekdays when it approved a 10-year transportation plan in 2007.

The plan also endorsed a free circulator shuttle service that business interests have sought for at least 20 years to ferry workers, shoppers and visitors along the mall. It will use Metro Transit buses marked as free. They'll run between Washington Avenue and Grant Street.

"Hooray," said Kent Warden, executive director of the Greater Minneapolis Building Owners & Managers Association. He has long advocated for such a service, which can carry conventioneers between the city-owned Convention Center and hotels and stores farther up the Mall.

The free buses will run every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 to 30 minutes on nights and weekends. The service will be offered on buses that stay downtown, while through buses will continue to offer Metro Transit's 50-cent downtown fare. Metro Transit is absorbing the free service in its operating budget, according to spokesman Bob Gibbons.

Gibbons said bike riders and bus drivers still will need to be vigilant on the curving, narrow street; speed will be limited to 10 miles per hour, and passing will be prohibited.

The changes are part of a shift in bike routes through downtown caused by larger street changes. Bike lanes were added on Hennepin and 1st Avenues when they were changed to two-way streets. Bike lanes were removed from Marquette and 2nd Avenues as part of a reconstruction of those commuter bus-heavy streets, to which were added a second transit lane.

However, bikes are permitted in the transit lanes of those two streets outside of the 6-9 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. weekday peak periods. An extra-wide lane intended to accommodate bikes also was constructed in one of the traffic lanes running in the opposite direction of the bus lanes.

With the shift of express buses off Nicollet, 71 percent of the buses that remain will be quieter, cleaner, gas-electric hybrids, according to Gibbons. He said Metro Transit hopes to go all-hybrid on the mall by the end of the year, after 30 more of those vehicles are delivered. Bus traffic will be down 35 percent during the evening peak time, when cafes are busy, Gibbons said.

Lisa Goodman, the City Council member for that area, pushed for the hybrid conversion, arguing that it would make the mall more hospitable to diners and pedestrians.