Bloomington to close two downtown streets for taxis, shuttles on weekend nights

Posted on January 10, 2017
Downtown Bloomington
The 500 block of North Main Street will be closed expect for taxis between the hours of 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. (WJBC file photo)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington city officials plan to alter traffic on two busy downtown streets on weekends when people spill out of the bars looking for a ride home.

The 500 block of North Main will be open normal traffic, except will be a loading zone for taxis and other vehicles for hire from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m each Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, while the 500 block of North Center Street will be closed to all traffic except for downtown shuttle buses during those same hours.

“Right now it’s kind of chaos because you’ll have big buses, small taxis all on the same street, so we are trying to create a safer staging area for those vehicles whose primary mission is to get people home safely,” city manager David Hales said.

The changes will take effect on Thursday.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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