Map by Dana Croatt

By Michelle Bruch

New pedestrian counts of Downtown streets and skyways are out, and the traffic in private skyways is estimated to number 190,000 per day.

To look at an unfair comparison, single blocks on Times Square can see as many as 134,711 people pass by on a typical weekday, and those volumes have grown by 53 percent since 1999.

Our traffic hasn’t changed nearly as much over the past two decades — a negligible 1 percent. However, some locations are much busier than they have been in the past. The number of rush-hour walkers on a section of Nicollet Mall closest to the light rail station, between 5th and 6th streets, has become nearly as crowded as Downtown’s busiest block, which is located on the mall between 8th and 9th streets and sees 21,000 passersby per day. Traffic in parts of the City Center has also gone up by 20 percent over historical averages.

Peter Bruce, the man who tallies these figures as owner of Pedestrian Studies, chalks that up to higher occupancy of the City Center. He’s seen this trend before. As buildings in the financial district filled up over a four- or five-year period, skyway traffic volumes there also jumped up to 25 percent.

Bruce hasn’t yet measured the impact of Downtown’s high-profile layoffs on skyway traffic. Pedestrian counts were compiled back in October. But when Target Corp. eliminated 1,000 positions early this year, Bruce estimated that traffic on blocks near the headquarters would dip by 5 percent.

Bruce has already seen a drop in lunchtime traffic. He blames that drop on the economy, because the number of people commuting to and from work is still about the same.

Lunchtime walkers should be out in full force by the first Thursday in May, however. That’s when the Farmers’ Market starts, and Bruce has found that the market boosts the number of people out on the mall by 50 percent.

If you spend much time in the Warehouse District, don’t be surprised to see a stranger click a counter as you pass by this spring. Bruce wants to get a baseline idea of pedestrian traffic levels before the ballpark opens in 2010.

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Hennepin County is asking the U.S. Congress to authorize up to $130 million for an intermodal transit station in the North Loop.

Plans for the station aren’t finalized — even the precise location isn’t determined — but the money is estimated to cover the first phase of construction for the station’s public areas. Phil Eckhert, director of Hennepin County’s housing, community works and transit department, said it is unclear whether the authorization would pass in a transportation bill this year or next.

In addition, county staff said federal stimulus dollars could be used for the station. The stimulus money could pay for site preparation or ground-level construction of the foundation.

“That gets a little riskier if you don’t know what the final development is like,” Eckhert said.

Stimulus money could also pay for demolition of the Environmental Services Center at 417 N. 5th St. Eckhert said the building might be redeveloped to make way for a Central Corridor platform and additional passenger queuing space. Platforms for the Hiawatha and Northstar lines will converge next to the ballpark, but county staff think that space might not accommodate the estimated 12,000 daily passengers that could arrive from several lines by 2030.

Reach Michelle Bruch at 436-4372 or mbruch@mnpubs.com.