Quote:
Originally Posted by PlanIt
The economic benefits of having a streetcar is an important consideration. Imagine one streetcar line replacing the 15 and the 16th street mall shuttle, running down Colfax onto the 16th street mall, down to Union Station, and back up. Now, imagine how developers and real estate agencies in the Fitzsimmons area would market new housing and office space. Over the course of a couple of decades, we would see a clustering of new retail, higher density housing, and some office space all along the line. Colfax would become an increasingly desirable place to live close to as a downtown commuter. It would also attract tourists on the 16th street mall (who are in abundance) to ride the line into the colfax corridor. You see now how much the 16th street mall is marketed in Denver promotional materials, it is obvious that this new line and its shopping/dining opportunities would be marketed as well. Magazines would include it in articles about Denver much the way they do about Portland. Nobody is promoting the joy of riding the 15 to Cafe Star, or the Bluebird, or Fitzsimmons. Streetcars DRAW peoples attention, buses REPEL it.
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Ok, now imagine the 16th street mall shuttle being replaced by a street car over its current route. Would it be a great boon for Denver. I don't really think so.
Imagine extending the Mall ride bus down Colfax in the median. Why would that be worse than a streetcar?
It might be . . . but to know, I think you'd have to do a careful study, like those done for selecting the modes of transport for fastracks. There was a very clear rationale for EMU over DMU over lightrail on the East Corridor for example. There was a clear rationale for having the SE line be able to connect to the SW line @ I-25 and Broadway.