DENVER | Transportation Thread

[TakeFive]

^ Thanks... I do recall reading a bit about Sacramento now that you mention it. Delving into Measure M in Los Angeles after previously writing about San Diego is when I realized that the two-thirds voter approval requirement must apply to all of California. That's bizarre, byzantine even.

[CastleScott]

^ Thanks bud, yes it takes ton of extra campaign work around here to get stuff passed-if your just a bit vague as to details your done (the voter feels its a blank check).

[TakeFive]

Let's plan a Streetcar Line or two; I mean, why not?

Stantec wins Tempe Streetcar design contract
Dec 15, 2016 by Eric Jay Toll - Phoenix Business Journal

Valley Metro’s board approved the contract at the Dec. 15 meeting. It also selected artists for the public art elements for each of the 14 streetcar stops.

The $177 million project, which runs through downtown Tempe on Mill and Ash avenues ... will break ground late next year. The the three-mile streetcar route runs from Marina Heights-State Farm development on Rio Salado Parkway west to Ash Avenue...

Image courtesy: Valley Metro

According to the Valley Metro website:

On February 9, 2016, planning for the Valley’s first streetcar reached a significant funding milestone. Tempe Streetcar is included in President Obama’s budget for Fiscal Year 2017, for $75 million. The Tempe Streetcar project capital costs are estimated at $186 million and will be funded using regional Proposition 400 funds, local funds, and federal grant dollars.

As you can see from the map, the streetcar will interconnect with Metro Light Rail at three different stops. One thing I give this area credit for is once they decide to do something they get busy doing it. It's been a 3-year process to this point which is moving at a good pace.

Using the higher cost number listed of $186 million yields $62 million per mile. Given that RTD, I believe, figured East Colfax in the $45 million per mile neighborhood for a streetcar, $62 million sounds very realistic.

The Takeaway
I know Denver/RTD has been spoiled by building out FasTracks for about $57 million per mile but if Denver wants Cirrus/PLANSIT textbook-approved urban routes the costs will necessarily be higher. Still, at $62 million per mile that's half of what I estimated the Urban Signature Line will cost. At ONLY $62 million per mile, Denver should have at least a couple of streetcar lines.

Where streetcars should run in Denver, I leave to the urban experts.

[TakeFive]

D-MET Transport
short for Denver Metro Transportation Plan

Comment: I've rearranged the deck chairs for reasons. Looking at different cities and what they've done is both helpful and confusing. There's no way of knowing what assumptions like escalators they've used when they throw out all these crazy numbers.

Assuming voter approval in November of 2018 and to be more realistic, relevant and understandable I'm using estimated 2019 dollars as a constant. Any increases in revenue over time are likely to be matched by comparable increases in population, construction and operating costs anyway.

Sales Tax
A five-tenths increase in sales tax should raise about $320 million per year or $8 billion over 25 years. Sales tax revenue to be divided equally by DRCOG and RTD or $4 billion each over 25 years.

Property Tax
Taking the easy way here. A property tax increase as needed to raise $7.5 billion over 25 years or $300 million per year. This revenue will be split into three equal shares: one-third to DRCOG, one-third to RTD and one-third to the respective counties (on behalf of municipalities).

Over 25 years RTD and DRCOG will each get $6.5 billion while $2.5 billion will go to the counties. The total tax revenue generated over 25 years will be $15.5 billion. It's hard to know how much Federal funding can be added but I'm now thinking something in the neighborhood of 75-80 percent or ~$12 billion which would create a grand total of $27.5 billion. There's also the potential for additional funding from utilizing P3's.

That's a start and I'll define the role of DRCOG next.

[TakeFive]

Is anybody a Denver Business Journal subscriber? It turns out that Cathy Proctor is one of the volunteers for CDOT's road useage (per mile) charge and reports on her experience but it's behind their paywall.

[TakeFive]

Photo credit: Unknown via Cherry Creek Area Business Alliance

Denver is rethinking Cherry Creek and the greenway near Cherry Creek Mall. What would you change?
December 19, 2016 by Andrew Kenney - Denverite

People have been biking and walking the Cherry Creek Trail for nearly 40 years, and the city has decided at least one part may be due for an update.

Denver currently is in the middle of a $125,000 planning process that could result in changes to a mile-long stretch of the greenway near Cherry Creek Mall, from Colorado Boulevard north to University Boulevard.

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Photo credit: Unknown via Cherry Creek Area Business Alliance

Denver is rethinking Cherry Creek and the greenway near Cherry Creek Mall. What would you change?
December 19, 2016 by Andrew Kenney - Denverite

I'd add a ferry system to get between CC and downtown. And more swans, less geese.

In other news, they have signs up along the R line in Aurora that say "live testing" or something like that. Hopefully that means an opening in the next couple months.

[TakeFive]

What can metro Denver/DRCOG learn from its sister MAG?

From all appearances both entities seem to have a similar structure. The biggest difference seems to be the funding or lack thereof. According to the MAG annual report the current MAG funding for FY2016 is $863.8 million while I assume that DRCOG funding is primarily whatever Federal pass-throughs there are. Slightly less than half of MAG's funding comes from Prop 400's half cent sales tax. Most of the balance is from Federal grants and ADOT which itself gets Federal grants.

Similar to CDOT, ADOT is also poorly funded. The huge difference is that metro voters have assumed the responsibility to fund metro transportation. MAG is now in their 4th decade of having a dedicated funding source that has grown exponentially with the population other than for a blip here and there.

It's amazing what can be accomplished with dedicated funding. As indicated in MAG's annual report:

MAG matters to transportation. No other organization brings together elected officials, business leaders and community members as effectively to create one of the strongest transportation systems in the country.

Transportation for America cited MAG as an innovative metropolitan planning organization. The Waze traffic app recently recognized greater Phoenix as the best driving experience in the world. And MAG was named in numerous national and international arenas for its advances in transportation modeling and performance measurement.

D-MET Transport would generate about $260 million in dedicated revenue for DRCOG. Considering that MAG assumes responsibility for supporting transit (such as it is) if you add in RTD's equal pot of $260 million that brings the total to $520 million which compares reasonably well to MAG's $863.8 million (and growing) in annual funding.

[TakeFive]

What can DRCOG do with D-MET revenues?

Photo courtesy of Great Outdoors Colorado photographer unknown

I'm recommending that DRCOG allocate up to 10-15 percent of its annual revenue for the preservation and enhancement of riparian corridors and bike/ped trails. The roughly $26-39 million could be used as matching funds for various projects with other public entities whether GOCO, cities, counties or non-profit organizations. Two corridors that come quickly to mind are the South Platte River Greenway and the Highline Canal.

[TakeFive]

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas
Children laughing, people passing
Meeting smile after smile
....
Silver Bells composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans; first performed by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in the motion picture The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)


Courtesy of Bonjour Colorado by maribeth

Speaking of sidewalks, creating them in Denver has become a cause célèbre and David Sachs writes about the latest progress at Streetsblog. Recognizing a good cause when they see it even the Denver Post Editorial Board jumps on the sidewalk frenzy.

It got me to thinking and from the Midwest to the Southwest I can't recall having lived in a single-family home or duplex with sidewalks (other than the standard walk from the door to the street); apartments, condos or townhomes, sure. I'm aware of neighborhoods that do have sidewalks of course and I've got nothing against sidewalks. They can be nice in fact. When it comes to walking/jogging I've always preferred the more forgiving asphalt street but I've never lived on a arterial street. Actually when jogging or walking I've generally utilized trails or parks.

[transistor]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas
Children laughing, people passing
Meeting smile after smile
....
Silver Bells composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans; first performed by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in the motion picture The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)


Courtesy of Bonjour Colorado by maribeth

Speaking of sidewalks, creating them in Denver has become a cause célèbre and David Sachs writes about the latest progress at Streetsblog. Recognizing a good cause when they see it even the Denver Post Editorial Board jumps on the sidewalk frenzy.

It got me to thinking and from the Midwest to the Southwest I can't recall having lived in a single-family home or duplex with sidewalks (other than the standard walk from the door to the street); apartments, condos or townhomes, sure. I'm aware of neighborhoods that do have sidewalks of course and I've got nothing against sidewalks. They can be nice in fact. When it comes to walking/jogging I've always preferred the more forgiving asphalt street but I've never lived on a arterial street. Actually when jogging or walking I've generally utilized trails or parks.

The Cricket had a fire recently, and is closed for an indeterminate time. It is a tragedy of incalculable proportions.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by transistor

The Cricket had a fire recently, and is closed for an indeterminate time. It is a tragedy of incalculable proportions.

Meh. They're opening a satellite location in the Ballpark neighborhood.

In other news, RTD is getting ready to implement the L Line light rail/streetcar from 30th & Downing through the downtown loop. At the same time, the D Line will discontinue through-service to 30 & Downing and additional C Line trains will be added.

[transistor]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Meh. They're opening a satellite location in the Ballpark neighborhood.

In other news, RTD is getting ready to implement the L Line light rail/streetcar from 30th & Downing through the downtown loop. At the same time, the D Line will discontinue through-service to 30 & Downing and additional C Line trains will be added.

Really? That makes me feel a bit better. Stellas Coffee Shop is also opening up in the Triangle building so that makes another Denver company making its foray into downtown.

Im glad the D line is going to get changed. It seems like a waste to run 2 separate lines from the same place to essentially the same place.

[COS]

While the Cherry Cricket is closed just go a couple blocks over to Choppers Sports Grill. We actually preferred that over the Cricket when we lived in Cherry Creek.

[CastleScott]

^ Speaking of the Cherry Cricket a guy I once worked with left the Cricket quite loaded one time got into his Ford pickup with a camper shell on the back along with a trailer hitch. When he backed up he bumped a yellow Volkswagen Beadle, the Beadle's front bumper got stuck on the trailer hitch and my old work buddy drove all the way home to far SW Denver in Bow Mar with the attached car (how he got all the way there without a cop seeing this or someone reporting it is beyond me). He told me that him, his son and two neighbors jacked it up enough so he could pull away from the car. He also said it sat near his house for almost two weeks before someone came and got it or it was towed away.

[CastleScott]

On to more transit for inside Denver proper:
How about doing some limited or semi-BRT from downtown's civic center to Cherry Creek via Broadway and Speer, limited BRT on Colorado Blvd from the Colorado Blvd station of the Univ of Colorado A train all the way down to the light rail station near I-25 and Colorado Blvd. Cherry Creek its self could have bus service similar to Boulder's Hop, Skip and Jump which could go into Glendale and even over to the I-25 light rail station at Colorado. It sure seems weird that Denver continues to build all this high density residential away from good transit options.

Over on the westside Federal Blvd could use some limited BRT as well. BRT could be run west from civic center out to Lakewood and beyond. I believe Denver and DRCOG could come up with some funds for some of this. Any thoughts on this?

[TakeFive]

CastleScott... Thanks for waiting.

I've been on a mini crash course for Bus Rapid Transit; been to a few cities with a few more to go.

BRT can absolutely be a good choice but it's tricky. Back in August of 2012 "our own Dan" had some thoughts about BRT at least according to a Ryan Holeywell piece in Governing.

Dan Malouff, a transportation planner for the Arlington County, Va., transportation department, recently posted a piece on his influential blog that eviscerated BRT, saying cities generally pursue it in order to “cut a corner” by avoiding rail, making the service susceptible to failure. “[A]s long as U.S. planners think of BRT as a cheap replacement for rail, then the U.S. will be very unlikely to ever produce BRT that is actually rail-like...

Dan has also written about "The problem of BRT creep."


It looks like Seattle is doing a nice job with BRT as well as transit in general.

Video Link

As always, more to come...

[Cirrus]

I'm 100% in favor of BRT when it's properly seen as the good end of the bus spectrum. That is to say, when it's buses done well. To that end, all large cities (including Denver) should have BRT on their major bus lines. Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle are all doing great things in that regard.

My problems with BRT come about when people propose it as a substitute for rail. BRT and rail have different strengths and do not accomplish the same things.

[Denver Dweller]

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/01/07/col...wide-semifinalists-to-build-a-hyperloop/

[CastleScott]

^ Thanks for the thoughts guys, things like this will take awhile as we all know however some of this BRT could be accomplished in incremental phases. Like has been mentioned time after time TABOR is a big crippling factor here-I remember when TABOR author Douglas Bruce first tried to get it on the ballot way back in 1990-state and local officials said then that it pretty much would cripple transportation and school funding. Then in the 1992 TABOR passed with a small but powerful margin (Doug Bruce who was a real estate investor moved to Colorado from southern California sometime back in the mid 80s and feared that the state would become and overtaxed liberal place the he left from). Over the years some politicians have tried to totally De-Bruce most transportation and school funding but in the end failed.

Oh btw when FasTracks was first proposed-it was figured that the busses used in express service to park and rides that are now served by rail would be redeployed-refocused to use in Denver proper as well as some new beefed up service around town. Anyway that idea still seems to be a work in progress..