The streetcar will increase the population downtown and encourage more people to come patronize downtown business. The economic impact study estimates an additional $17 million in retail spending from the new residents alone.

If someone driving downtown only has to park once for an entire evening, they are going to be more likely to the Reds game and then have a beer at Rock Bottom brewery, or see a show at Music Hall and eat at one of the new restaurants at Fountain Square.

The thousands of new residents downtown will do a large amount of shopping at Macys, Tower Place, and Findlay Market.

For those living downtown, the streetcar will allow them to go between all of Downtown, Clifton and Over-the-Rhine’s shops and boutiques, without having to lug their bags ten or twelve blocks back to their homes. Because streetcars have several large doors, they are much easier to get onto with a bag of groceries than a narrow bus.

Getting people out of their cars and onto the street will create hundreds of potential customers to stroll past downtown merchant’s windows every day.