DTA to tourists: Take advantage of public transportation

Days like July 4 can cause heavy traffic in Duluth since many people choose to go out and celebrate on this special day. With all the people, cars and bikes on Duluth's roadways, the Duluth Transit Authority encourages tourists to take advantage of public transportation during the summer time.

“Advantages especially for tourists of taking buses include less cost of transportation, free from looking for parking lots, chance to plan their trip ahead of time and less trouble will be caused by the unfamiliarity with the city” said Jeffery Dahlgren, director of scheduling at DTA.

Besides the regular holiday-schedule buses, DTA provides two Port Town Trolleys starting from two years ago. The trolleys run from the first week of June until Labor Day each year. The two trolleys usually travel from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m between downtown, Canal Park and Bayfront every 15 minutes and on Fourth of July between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. A day pass for the Port Town Trolleys costs $4 for each person. Taking the old fashion styled trolleys has become one of the most popular events people like to experience during the summer time in Duluth.

Manas Minglani, s student from the University of Minnesota decided to visit Duluth on July 4th, on recommendations from some friends from the area.

“I’ve heard this is a nice and wonderful city with the beautiful scene around,” Minglani said.

Looking for parking lots at popular sites become a problem for many tourists like Minglani.

“Other places are fine, but at Canal Park we found it really hard to find a parking lot,” she said.

With the growing number of tourists, heavy traffic becomes an issue in this city on special holidays. Some people choose to take public transportation instead of driving, but there are also disadvantages of using public transportation for them to consider about.

Besides the advantages Dahlgren also mentioned disadvantages of using public transportation and recommend tourists to plan accordingly.

“Busy days like Fourth of July, all the buses might be a little behind schedule, and there might be less seats available on the buses,” Dahlgren said.

Other limitations of taking public transportation especially on days like Fourth of July can also bother tourists. At late night when buses stopped running on some streets this Friday people without personal vehicles had hard time waiting for taxies. It took them longer time to wait on this special day and cost around 10 times as experience as taking the buses.

This time Minglani did not choose public transportation due to the inflexibility of it. He thinks there are still many limitations of riding bus in Duluth. Like most tourists he thinks it will be fun to try buses but still hopes the public transportation can be improved more in the future.

During this weekend, DTA services are back on the regular holiday schedule. Find the schedule information at DTA’s office website.

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