Downtown Transportation

Spokane and Coeur d' Alene are very car driven areas but our area is slowly changing those habits with a large network of trails and 2 city bus systems which are reporting higher and higher rider counts.And while I personally view light rail throughout the Spokane Coeur d Alene metro area as an answer for the long term,many including the tightly budgeted,Spokane Transit do not seem to see it that way.But they are taking a step in the right direction with a perposal to put in a system of streetcars thru Downtown Spokane,which would help improve pedestrian flow thru Downtown.STA right now operates a shuttle route (STA route number 1) thru the downtown core and the Arena area and the medical shuttle(route number 2) thru south Downtown and the lower South Hill neighborhood which is home to both Deconess Medical Center and Sacred Heart Medical Center as well many medical office buildings.So while STA does serve Downtown well from a personal stand point these streetcars will be a great addition. The bad news is that while STA is looking into this now they don't expect it to go to a public vote till 2013.

For more on this...

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/article-16763-a-spokane-trolley.html

http://www.downtownspokane.org/streetcar-feasibility-study.php

http://www.connectspokane.org/

And for a interesting map of the Spokane's streetcar system back in 1923....

http://metrospokane.typepad.com/Highlights/metrospokane-streetcar-map.pdf