[Novacek]

To add more thoughts:

South 1st today doesn't even have a middle lane. Honestly, they really should just bite the bullet and do a 4-to-3 conversion. The left lanes are always getting blocked by people trying to pull lefts into businesses or at intersections.

With light rail in the median you can't even do that. On other corridors, this is accomododated by adding left turn or u turn lanes/bays and telling people to turn around at intersections. Adding these on 1st would mean even higher RoW requirements.

By the time you added rail to 1st you'll probably spend almost as much as SoCo and end up with a worse result. 1st just isn't the right spot in the city for major transit investment. One of the ways you could always tell those gondola guys were pure bullshit artists.