I'll give you that - in that an express bus might adequately serve the River District. But what I would really love to see: a light rail spur traversing the River District, which terminates at the outlets. I would imagine that college students from UNC, and people around South End and Uptown, whose developments are becoming less and less auto dependant, would use the rail to shop at the outlets; students would use light rail to commute to their jobs at the outlets.
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If I seem overzealous over the development of rail, it's only because my former home of suburban NYC was a complete and utter mess: the roads couldn't keep up, to the extent where residents literally wouldn't go anywhere; planning trips outside of our immediate area became near prohibitive. There was simply no enjoyment taking a recreational daytrip, when a huge part of the daytrip was spent sitting in hours of traffic, therefore, many recreational activities were left undone. And because so much time was wasted by sitting in hours of traffic, the environment was one whereupon residents felt as though they didn't have enough hours in the day, thus the pace became very harried, and people were nasty - which affected the cohesion of the community.
Ultimately, what would be great is if CLT's rail system connected to major shopping attractions; the River District will have water access, and it would be great for residents to be able to seamlessly connect to the water, to Uptown, and to major shopping via rail. Conversely, if the River District follows a suburban sprawl model, we will have created another Atlanta.
It would be a blunder of epic proportions for the City, and River District planners, to not incorporate a fictitious rail trail throughout the yet unbuilt River District.