Why is the CBD circulator only going to run until 8pm? I guess the mall shuttle will suffice after that.

Question: Commute times (more truth)
 

If I am a commuter who will use the Taj Line, how long would it take me before 8 pm to travel west from the Knots or Perry Station to the Convention Center?

If I were a commuter who will use the Taj Line, how long would it take me to travel after 8 pm to the Civic Street Station?

For that matter, how long would it take a walking commuter (no take on bike) to travel from either of the same stations to the Kalamath and Colfax intersection.

What is being built right now, will take many millions of dollars to fix: take the Union Station light rail south from Union Station and look south around to soon to be replaced West Auraria Station.. you will see more 'great planning.'

I say this sincerely because I believe the near future will see a quantum leap in public transportation users- not due to 'Green' concerns but simply because they must. Many of you are highly intelligent thinkers, and, see the likelihood of dealing with the transportation needs of a poorer, larger population in Denver increasing daily.

Go take a look.

Why does Longmont want out of Boulder County? It can't just be RTD.

RTD just has not served Longmont well, I suppose.
 

I suspect that many Longmont citizens feel that a) their local RTD service is not up to snuff and b) that they will have to wait too long for their tail end of the commuter rail line to be built to Boulder.

Contrary to the opinion of many in Denver city, all RTD does not have to be spoke and wheel to feed downtown. I think many in the northern suburbs see RTD as a city of Denver institution first, and, a metro wide agency second.

Many in Longmont do NOT commute to downtown Denver to work, as it is almost equidistant to Ft. Collins and closer to Loveland than Lodo. A huge number commute to the East side of Boulder, and this keys in too, to their understandable angst about the date their RTD taxes will bear steel rail fruit.

Of course no one took my bait about the West light rail users are going to be hurt by how the Taj line ties in due north into the Union Station line.

A) No south bound no transfer light rail from the Taj line to Broadway Station. The room is there and they are building it NOW so any 'Y" put in place will be extremely expensive to build in the future. Go there yourself and look at the concrete walls on the West Line approach, how the catenary supports and track angle in, and, tell me fixing this would be cheap.

I happen to believe this is the result of well thought out deliberation by highly intelligent people, and, is simply another move by the Lodo bunch to make more people "head their way" north. The Union Station area, and it's backers, have little appreciation of future transportation needs: all they want is additional head count pouring into their "Grand Design."

B) No connection will be possible between the Taj line or for that matter the Union Station line to take the Colfax approach into downtown without either 1 transfer (Union Station line going south from the Osage Station) or 2 transfers (West line approaching from the West taking an E or C train to Osage, then catching an D, etc., train). No future option of 1 car street cars doing the 18th Street loop and then heading to Union Station via the Union Station line (which would be VERY nice for Metro and commuters who work south of Stout).

Sit down sometime and figure out the time this adds to commuting and look beyond theory. Imagine yourself doing the commute at 10p or on a weekend and calculate the additional time the routing we are building will add to many commuters.

We are going to live this this 'mess' and those that created it are trying like H*ll to convince the public that their greed was for public need.

If this were designed for even the remote possibity of a large increase in passengers over projections (and we know 'projections' are not 'political') this option would be built out correctly.

Ok ladies and gentlemen, let's give 'them' a round of applause.

Ooh good idea.

Except that it's $7+ (+$4/30 minutes - $15 for two hours!) for those of us who can't justify an annual membership. Which is why I don't use it just to go play around downtown on the weekend. It's really only a commuter/residents' errands tool. The access fees are dumb.

no. after the the initial $6 24-hour rental fee (which i think is waved for the first use? hard to remember because i started my account when it opened), as long as you don't have the bike out for more than 30 minutes at a time, there's no additional charge. $6 is all it would cost for him to go everywhere/see everything that is being suggested, as long as he stays within 30 minutes.

http://denver.bcycle.com/pricing.aspx

it's a shame that so many people don't understand how it works because it's usefulness is most definitely not for local commuters/residents, it's for visitors who want to see the city.

But it's kind of dumb to have to hop from station to station - that's an unnecessary amount of thinking. I want to get a bike, use it until I'm done, and then return it. Otherwise, what's the point? Our sights aren't that spread out that I'd want to stop and go all the time. And I don't want to get dinged if I stop for a cup of coffee that's not right next to a station.

Funny I was just chatting with the bcycle folks at the S Pearl farmers market...was curious what they'd do in my shoes. The answer - buy a membership. It definitely seems catered toward regular users.

The reason its like this is precisely so that people don't hog the bikes for the whole day. If you're not using the bike, to let someone else use it.

exactly. hence it being a bike SHARING program :)

and don't even get me started on what goes through my mind when i see people locking them up, next to a station, just so they'll have it when they come out from wherever they are.

don't get me wrong, i'm glad that there are so many local residents that purchase annual memberships...i just don't understand why they do. if they enjoy riding bikes and are local, why wouldn't they already own their own bike?

all of the sites you listed are well under 30 minutes from each other and not more than a block or two from a station. when you go check out wynkoop or REI you can just leave the bike at the station and not worry about it being stolen or vandalized. also bike rentals cost $40+ per day, so this is far more economical.

I see TONS of tourists using the B-Cycles.

I'm sure tourists do, tourists aren't cost conscious. For a local who can't justify a membership, it's a waste of money. Unless you're in a hurry, just walk. If you're touring about, you're not in a hurry.

Besides, getting from, say, Wynkoop to REI by bike is what I consider to be a pain. We have sidewalks for peds, streets for cars, and nothing for bikes. No bike lanes there. The "suggested bike routes" (in b-cycle terminology) are nonsense. I value life too much to ride those things in mixed traffic.

Just saying. Transportation options for me need to be cheap or convenient. At least one of those. B-cycle doesn't meet either for a day out on the town.

I'm so confused cause none of this bcycle commentary lines up with my experience at all. I use it everyday to get to work. I know a ton of people that do. It's a particularly popular option for people who want to avoid a bus transfer...

Its only $65 for the year, although they ran a special for quite some time for something like $45.

How to move Bcycles around Denver:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5195/...cac7dca1_z.jpg

Hop on the cherry creek bike path at confluence and get off at wynkoop st, then follow the bike lane to 18th st. easy and safe, although I admit, a tourist may have trouble figuring this out (unless they use my iphone app of course). I've heard the city is going to be adding improved signage for bikes which direct riders to certain destinations rather than using cryptic bike route letters and numbers.

For a day out on the town $6 certainly beats a cab ride or parking in a lot and is less than round trip on the light rail. Not sure how you can beat that unless you don't go far from the free mall shuttle.

just out of curiosity, why don't you use your own bike if you're riding into work everyday?

I take the bus into Downtown. We moved our office to 11th/Broadway... so instead of waiting for a transfer I just grab a bike.

Not going to be $6... I am not going to go searching out those stations every 20 minutes, then walk to where I need to be and back. Call me a hog, whatever, it seems damned inconvenient. Whereas bike racks are on every street corner, and it'd be easy to bounce around that way, apparently that doesn't fit the model of usage. Which is why the price escalates so quickly after an hour or so, to keep folks who'd use it the way I would out. I understand it, I just disagree. Car sharing that makes sense to me, I guess, but bikes, I don't see it. It's seems a lot cheaper to add more bikes to the system than cars - the pricing model should reflect that.

Don't think anybody questioned it for commuters, that's seems like the intended user. With a membership and one stop, it's great.

Hey, does anybody (I'm sure the answer is yes) have a revenue model and/or usage data for one of these? If not Denver, another city? I'd be curious to see how much revenue (and usage) is from memberships versus day users. And then what the "typical" time out is for a bike. We collect info like that for transit, and that's way more complicated than a system that inherently tracks individuals by their credit cards. That'd be interesting info to sift through.

EDIT: Enjo, why don't you take your bike on the bus? Does the rack fill up?

Cause with the bike-share I don't have to deal with putting in the rack, making sure its locked, and otherwise being responsible for the thing. At the end of the day I don't have to worry about getting my bike home if I end up in a different place than I started (which for me isn't terribly uncommon).