Many shops and stores in downtown St. Paul said the GOP conventioneers didn't buy or eat as much as expected last fall, but a report on pedestrian traffic indicates it was much busier than usual on the streets of downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis Sept. 1-4, when the Republicans were in town.

A report released this week by Pedestrian Studies, a company that measures foot traffic in downtowns across the country, shows that more than three times as many people were walking the streets around the Xcel Energy Center during the convention. And that wouldn't appear to include the protest marchers, who, for the most part, were kept herded together.

Said the report:

"It probably comes as no great surprise that sidewalk traffic tripled in areas around the Xcel Center in Saint Paul during the RNC. Volumes on Market Street in downtown Saint Paul as measured from noon to 1 p.m. between Landmark Center and the Hamm Plaza were estimated at 1,300 trips per hour compared to a typical weekday volume of 300 trips per hour. Retail core storefronts on the St. Peter Street sidewalk of the Hamm Building between 7th Place and 6th Street enjoyed 1,800 trips instead of the usual 500."

More surprising: Minneapolis downtown foot traffic was way up, too, 10 miles away from the official proceedings. (But keep in mind, most of the delegates stayed in hotels in Minneapolis, Bloomington and other suburbs.)

"The count found that Nicollet Mall foot traffic jumped to between 26 to 60 percent more trips per house during the convention. In the retail core, the 8th–9th Street Midwest Plaza block of Nicollet Mall climbed 26 percent from a typical 2,700 trips to a Convention Day volume of 3,400 trips between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.  On the Nicollet Mall 11th–12th block, the 10-11 a.m. volume was 500 during a normal day and 800 during the convention."

The report also lists the busiest skyway locations in downtown Minneapolis:

1) IDS Center - Baker Center (16,878 daily trips).
2) Retek on the Mall – Target Store-U.S. Bancorp Center (16,123 trips).
3) City Center - Gaviidae Common (14,778 trips).
4) City Center - Macy’s  (14,300 trips).    
5) IDS Center escalator – (13,495 trips).

6) Northstar Center West skyway junction with escalator (12,905 trips).