Apparently it doesn't work that way in Sacramento, CA.

Local News - updated 3:10 AM ET Jan 8 Add to My Yahoo! KCRA TheKCRAChannel.com Friday January 05 09:15 PM EST City Considers Opening Mall To Cars Plan Offered As Way To Revitalize Downtown There's a not-so-new idea being kicking around Sacramento on a way to revitalize a key stretch of downtown real estate. The K Street Mall, east of Downtown Plaza, will play a vital part in boosting business at the heart of downtown, where this bright new idea is actually part of the area's past. If you were around here before 1970, then you will know exactly what officials are talking about. That's when shoppers had the convenience of being able to drive right up to any store along K Street. It's something that a lot of shop owners hope to see again. It wasn't too long ago when shoppers and cars shared the K Street corridor. Business was booming, but in came competition. Mike Matosevich owns Mike's Tailoring and Clothing on K Street Mall. "It was an era when people started to go to shopping centers. Moving out from downtown," Matosevich said. So in 1969, K Street was torn apart, and converted into a pedestrian mall, a competitive move which meant no cars allowed. "It didn't work," Matosevich said. Matosevich witnessed the before and after. Now, more than 30 years later, he's longing for the K Street that allowed vehicles to pull up right in front of shops. "That will bring tremendous business back to downtown," Matosevich said. "Without traffic on the street you really get kind of a deserted feeling," Crest Co-Owner Sid Garcia-Heberger said. Most merchants along K Street agree. Without cars, there is less exposure less business. "There's a whole lot of exposure, that we're not getting because there's not daily vehicle traffic on the mall," Garcia-Heberger said. For the last six months, city officials have been kicking around the idea of re-opening K Street to cars. "Every time we talk to retail consultants about how we can improve the environment for retail on K Street, they say cars are pretty important because they bring a lot more life to the street," Downtown Development manager Wendy Saunders said. There is already plenty of life along K Street, but mostly during the day. Merchants say that come nightfall, and the end of the week, the mall turns into a ghost town. But not everyone wants change. "I like the K Street Mall where I can walk around, check it out, and there aren't any cars," K street patron Dawn Mayer said. City officials say that they will continue to analyze the possibility of bringing cars back to K Street. One item that official have to consider is that light rail currently occupies a big portion of K street, making things a little tricky.

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), January 08, 2001

Answers

One other historical note regarding Sacramento's venture into light rail in which Seattle is sure to repeat: building light rail lines with only one set of tracks to service both directions. In order to "save" money, Sacramento only built one set of tracks to handle light rail traffic in both directions. They assumed opposing trains could easily share one set of tracks. They soon discovered this plan to be unpractical and subsequently added the necessary tracks at twice the cost than if they had been built with the original system. This is the type of oversight Seattle has consistently demonstrated in all previous transportation plans, which is why no major transportation systems have been built in Seattle since Interstate 5 was completed in the 1960's.

-- James Andrews (jimfive@hotmail.com), January 08, 2001.

James, Where is ST going to have the 1 track section?

-- Jim Cusick (jc.cusick@gte.net), January 09, 2001.