DENVER | Transportation Thread

[Cirrus]

Not 100% certain, but fairly sure they only started giving CU students transit passes in the mid-to-late 90s.

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

mid-to-late 90s.

Welp... I was still in elementary school...

[Wizened Variations]

Originally Posted by RyanD

I'm actually surprised they came out like that, and I'm very happy with them. Yes, my ecopass is the primary reason why I take so much transit. With my last job, who didn't pay for transit, I still put out the 20 dollars a week to take the bus. Now to get downtown sans ecopass, I would say cut the LRT miles in half.

With all that said, I would focus more on buying a new bike if I didn't have an ecopass and bike the hell out of my commute during the summer. When I do get a bike, I would also expect all of those numbers to go down and my bike mileage to skyrocket.

ECO passes are a very good deal for a downtown employer that pays much over minimum wages.

Per http://www.denvergov.org/EmployeeResources/Benefits/RTDValuPass/tabid/432488/Default.aspx

The Monthly pass is $39 (pretax). At ~173 hours of work per month (52 weeks x 40hr/wk divided by 12) the per hourly cost to the employee is about $.22 per hour pretax.

I am not sure what the employer share is. In addition, I don't know what the incremental costs would be- paying to get it set up internally with human resources, etc. I would guess that $.25/hour per employee for an office with 50 employees, excluding whatever RTD bills.

Any more info out there?

[Sam Hill]

I don't like this one bit:

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2...seeks-corporate-partners-for-naming.html

Corporations interested in having a rail line, bus or even an entire transit center named after them might soon get exactly that.

The Regional Transportation District Tuesday announced it's ready to sell naming rights...The program aims to give businesses the ability to obtain brand visibility on RTD assets, signage and digital properties.

"It could be anything from an individual bus route to a transit station, to an entire line, depending on the level of participation, said Scott Reed, assistant general manager of communications at RTD.

RTD's job is to make it easier to get around. Stations should be named after the neighborhoods they're in or the major intersections they're near. Lines should be named after the directions they travel or the destinations they reach.

[jubguy3]

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

I don't like this one bit:

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2...seeks-corporate-partners-for-naming.html



RTD's job is to make it easier to get around. Stations should be named after the neighborhoods they're in or the major intersections they're near. Lines should be named after the directions they travel or the destinations they reach.

Yeah, reading that is one thing I don't like about RTD.
In Salt Lake our agency doesn't even allow ads on the station, nor is there a single station or route named after a private company ( i.e. Energy solutions arena carries the generic name of arena, citycreek center carries the name of city center) and the closest we have to that is fashion place west named after the fashion place mall and gallivan plaza named after the gallivan center, and UTA is reaaaaly strict about it, there aren't even U signs at the stadium station...

[The Dirt]

I don't know, it would be kind of cool to ride the Starbucks line into downtown and get out at the Hooters exit. I'm sure we'd get something horrible like the CH2M Hill line and the Dick's exit, instead.

[jubguy3]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

I don't know, it would be kind of cool to ride the Starbucks line into downtown and get out at the Hooters exit. I'm sure we'd get something horrible like the CH2M Hill line and the Dick's exit, instead.

This is the Comcast-you-in-the-ass station. Thank you for comcasting today! All praise ye Comcast, ye leader of pixel transportation.

In slc we'd probably get some stupid names like Rio Tinto line and Wells Fargo line and (insert white soccer mom store here) line.

[bunt_q]

I'd love for them to brand the station names. Companies will demand some degree of brevity, which is a word RTD doesn't understand. So if instead of "Jefferson County Government Center Golden U.S. Highway 6 Sixth Avenue at Johnson Road Station" we get something like "Killians Irish Red Station," it can only be an improvement.

[Launch 12]

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

I don't like this one bit:

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2...seeks-corporate-partners-for-naming.html



RTD's job is to make it easier to get around. Stations should be named after the neighborhoods they're in or the major intersections they're near. Lines should be named after the directions they travel or the destinations they reach.

I agree. It shows a new low in RTD desperation. I'd rather see new billboard and advertising clutter at stations or on trains than have meaningless, unhelpful route and station names. Absurd.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

I'd love for them to brand the station names. Companies will demand some degree of brevity, which is a word RTD doesn't understand. So if instead of "Jefferson County Government Center Golden U.S. Highway 6 Sixth Avenue at Johnson Road Station" we get something like "Killians Irish Red Station," it can only be an improvement.

Agreed. If RTD was good at station names then this might be different, but RTD is terrible at station names, which harms the place-making potential (and thus development potential) of station areas. I'd rather we fix that problem with sensible neighborhood names, but if that's off the table and this is what it takes, so be it.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by Launch 12

I agree. It shows a new low in RTD desperation. I'd rather see new billboard and advertising clutter at stations or on trains than have meaningless, unhelpful route and station names. Absurd.

So if I have enough money, I could rename a CU Boulder stop, "Drunken Rape College"? Oh, the possibilities.

I'm wonder what the funding levels are for a name change. It took Apple $4M to rename a station in Chicago and I would hope that RTD would shoot for a similar, though not exact, level.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

So if I have enough money, I could rename a CU Boulder stop, "Drunken Rape College"? Oh, the possibilities.

RTD will probably have written standards for what's acceptable, and will surely retain the final decision-making authority. There's no automatic right to name stations anything you want. There's only the offer to negotiate a sponsored name, on RTD's terms. So no.

Sorry.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

RTD will probably have written standards for what's acceptable, and will surely retain the final decision-making authority. There's no automatic right to name stations anything you want. There's only the offer to negotiate a sponsored name, on RTD's terms. So no.

Sorry.

Boo.

It's purely hypothetical, but if there was an eccentric billionaire with an irrational hatred of CU-Boulder who offered $750M for the naming rights I could see RTD willing to play ball.

Money is money after all and trumps the pride of a single institution (especially if that money would give Boulder it's choo-choo). I, for one, applaud RTD's efforts to be in the forefront of supplicating our corporate overlords.

[Wizened Variations]

Originally Posted by RyanD

I wish this was a future Denver intercity rail station... Buuuuuutttt yeah.. Mind you this is post Rockies game traffic, I still like it!

Oh yeah, I'm also taking the train A LOT. It's probably the best thing that has happened to my Denver life because I love trains.

EDIT: I'll create the first stink on this thread. 30 minute headways on a Friday night piss me off. It's ridiculous. Also why is there no F or C line at night or weekends? That's horribly inconvenient.

Wait until the system REALLY gets busy. Far busier than safely planned for. The RTD elite will declare "We never saw this coming!" Real estate developers will have sold their properties by then, but, they too will feign ignorance.

Fixed rail transportation starts hitting capacity limits during certain special events, perhaps when multiple venues provide downtown entertainment at the same time, such an important Rockies game (we can wish) or a huge beer festival. When capacity limits are reached, there is a ripple effect throughout the system, as demand for equipment and "special" scheduling, crimps regular scheduling and car numbers.

The next capacity issue that hits fixed rail systems occurs during rush hours (remember this is addition to special events). Imagine the soon to arrive eventuality where the passenger load on the platform in these pictures routinely occurs during Monday through Friday evening rush hours. At this point, these capacity issues tend compound one another, and event scheduling is forced to work around steel rail capacity issues.

Even today, people waiting to go south at the 16th and Stout Station at 5p during the business week can stand as close as 4' apart on the full width of the sidewalk platform from 16th past the private parking garage.

As I and others have repeatedly warned, the capacity issue is coming sooner than many think. This will become more evident soon, and, questions concerning why more potential for easy expansion was not built into the downtown light rail feeds when the option was easily achievable will rise once again.

[Cirrus]

All mature and successful transportation systems face capacity issues. If we demanded every new piece of infrastructure be built to handle the capacity that will be required a century into its future, we'd never be able to afford to build anything at all, AND we'd get it wrong half the time (who, in 1914, would have foreseen DTC or DIA? And who, in 1960, would have foreseen anything but highways?).

No, you are wrong. Building for one generation of growth is the only practical way to build within the confines of the real world. After that, it's up to the next generation to figure out how to best expand. It's a problem everyone faces, and it's real, and it's expensive, but there's no practical alternative.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

It's purely hypothetical, but if there was an eccentric billionaire with an irrational hatred of CU-Boulder who offered $750M for the naming rights I could see RTD willing to play ball.

Not even then. Staff might be willing to play ball, but politics would enter the fold. Boulder would leave RTD to stop it from happening.

No community wants a name like that. Looking good is worth more to residents than money. Especially in wealthy communities like Boulder that are obsessed with their image.

[Sam Hill]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Agreed. If RTD was good at station names then this might be different, but RTD is terrible at station names, which harms the place-making potential (and thus development potential) of station areas. I'd rather we fix that problem with sensible neighborhood names, but if that's off the table and this is what it takes, so be it.

You've got to be kidding me. The current station names might be bad, but at least they don't completely tarnish the image of the city. Imagine just how humiliating it would be if you had to give visiting friends or family directions like, "take the Pepsi line to the Yahoo station."

What's next? Are we going to start selling the naming rights of streets and parks? "I live on 1463 Doritos Street - right across the street from Samsung Park." How about we start naming our highways after corporations? I'm sure CDOT could use the funding. It's the same damn thing.

[bunt_q]

Would all be fine with me. I'd live on Fritos Blvd.

[Sam Hill]

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

"take the Pepsi line to the Yahoo station."

It's like a scene from that movie Idiocracy.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

You've got to be kidding me. The current station names might be bad, but at least they don't completely tarnish the image of the city. Imagine just how humiliating it would be if you had to give visiting friends or family directions like, "take the Pepsi line to the Yahoo station."

Imagining is unnecessary. How humiliated are you to take visitors and family to events at the Pepsi Center, Sports Authority Field, Coors Field, or our Landry's-restaurant-owned aquarium?