DENVER | Transportation Thread

[TakeFive]

Better news is better than bad news

APTA's 4th quarter and annual ridership report is now available. Following a disappointing 3rd quarter the 4th quarter was a breath of fresh air.

Light Rail
4th quarter ridership was up a tad over 8% - that's moving the needle.
2018 - Ridership up 3.21% (total average agency change was -3%)

Commuter Rail
4th quarter was essentially flat up .64%
2018 - up 7.18%

Bus Ridership
4th quarter down 4.06%
2018 - down 4.55% (total average agency change was down 1.88%)

Don't ask (me) why but numbers can do strange things. Using my trusty mechanical calculator and taking the annual total passenger counts.

Total annual passenger counts

• Rail for 2017 - 28.902 million
• Rail for 2018 - 31.977 million
• Change from 2017 to 2018 - up 10.6%

• Bus for 2017 - 70.332 million
• Bus for 2018 - 65.781 million
• Change from 2017 to 2018 - down 6.5%

An overall increase of rail passengers for 2018 of over 10% is very respectable given no new rail corridors opened in 2018. For 2019 we'll start to see passenger counts for the G Line added in.

[TakeFive]

Double dip Friday

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/02/rtd-a-line-20-million-passengers/

A-Line marks 20 million passengers since train to Denver International Airport opened in 2016

Just over three years after the University of Colorado A-Line opened for service, the 23-mile train line to Denver International Airport registered its 20 millionth passenger this week.

The Regional Transportation District will mark the milestone with a rider appreciation ceremony, featuring free coffee and light refreshments, at Central Park station from 6 to 9 a.m. Friday.

RTD says the A-Line has traversed more than 8 million miles between Union Station and DIA since its opening in April 2016.

The A-Line carries an average of 20,600 passengers a day, the agency said. In January, RTD placed four-car trains on the corridor a full year ahead of schedule, doubling the line’s capacity.

https://gizmodo.com/uber-users-in-denver-can-now-buy-train-and-bus-tickets-1834490530

Love it or hate it, Denver is turning to Uber to make navigating public transit a little smoother for anyone with a smartphone.

Uber on Thursday announced that its users in Denver can book and redeem public transit tickets directly through its own app via Uber Transit, which officially launched earlier this year and allows residents of the Colorado city to view real-time public transit routes, including departures and travel times.

“For the first time ever, taking an Uber trip can mean taking public transit,” Reich said in a statement this week. “We are excited to expand our collaboration with [the Regional Transportation District] and Masabi to make Denver the first city in the world where riders can purchase transit tickets and ride public transit seamlessly through the Uber app.

Pretty exciting (or not)?

To which JZ71 mused: Why would you use the Uber app to buy RTD bus and train tickets in any other city?! ;-)

Which got me thinking of an answer:
Since you asked the question the thought that popped was maybe sports fans? Denver certainly has lots of those and if they're not regular transit users this might have appeal. Not counting soccer all of the major sports venues are reachable by light rail. For a family, Uber is a great value since you pay for the trip and not per passenger.

But to make this work well, RTD should come up with a "sports package" applicable on game days. Usage would be at non-peak hours (considering the direction of travel).

[TakeFive]

Colorado wins Platinum and Gold; Oregon settles for Silver

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/05/06/best-bike-friendly-cities-look-to-the-northwest/

The top three “most bikeable places” in America this year are Boulder, Colo.; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Eugene, Ore., according to the bicycle advocacy group PeopleForBikes — which also reported that six of the top 24 bike-friendly municipalities are in those two states as well.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Bumpkin is sitting somewhere on a camel's back.

[TakeFive]

US construction costs rose 5.7% in 2018
May 7, 2019 by Kim Slowey - Construction Dive

Construction costs in the U.S. rose 5.7% in 2018, according to Rider Levett Bucknall...

Of the 12 U.S. metros in RLB’s report, those experiencing the biggest cost increases were Chicago (7.6%); Portland, Oregon (7.1%); San Francisco (6.7%); Phoenix (6.7%); Washington, D.C. (6.5%); and Seattle (6.4%).

What about Denver?

Las Vegas (5.4%); Honolulu (4.8%); New York (4.5%); Boston (4.4%); Los Angeles (4.4%); and Denver (4%) each had cost increases lower than the national average.

What about infrastructure?

For infrastructure projects, which typically take longer to plan and budget ... the larger price tags sometime translate to delays or even cancellations.

The Maine DOT has slashed tens of millions of dollars' worth of projects from its 2019 infrastructure plan ... because contractors have been submitting bids much higher than the DOT estimated. The agency even added 10% to its own projections to make up for cost increases, but that add-on turned out to be too low.

Maine by itself is a small sample size but it's never-the-less indicative of national infrastructure cost trends.

Opinion One
The Republican anti-tax crowd including AFP (Americans for Prosperity) have cost themselves a boatload of money. If CDOT had been more timely funded current projects (like Central 70) could have been done for much less. My guess is the I-25/I-70 projects will cost a minimum 35% more than if not for all the delay.

As for the Streetsblog crowd which obsesses over ideology and never mind what the costs might be, they could be the biggest losers.

Opinion Two
At least CDOT is now moving forward on long-needed projects. A few more years and it would cost another 35% more.

I'm waiting to see how Elevate Denver Bond projects play out. Hopefully the contingency $'s included prove to be sufficient. They did quickly contract for major pieces so that's a plus.

With respect to RTD, fortunately even the N Line is now in wrap-up mode so that all major projects are virtually banked. As well-funded as RTD is compared to many, many transit agencies, even they are constrained by rising operating costs.

[twister244]

Personally, I feel like if RTD is going to try to invest into any additional rail, it should be trying to get the B line complete to Boulder, since that was promised to folks. Beyond that (given rising costs), I think there is way more bang for the buck on shifting attention from regional RTD projects to integrating freshly completed rail into local transit access. Fortunately, this is one thing I did see several candidates in district 1 rooting for. With significant investments pushing for autonomous vehicles, folks should start planning for that now, and how it can integrate between local/regional transit lines. Lots of potential here.....

[TakeFive]

University, RTD exploring transfer of Stampede bus route operation
May 8, 2019

CU Boulder and the Regional Transportation District (RTD) are partnering to explore a shift that would see the university assume operation of the Stampede bus route that connects Main Campus to the Discovery Drive area of East Campus.

If approved, the change would take place effective Monday, Aug. 12, with CU Boulder’s Transportation Services division operating Buff Buses along the route from that day forward. RTD’s final day of serving the Monday-through-Friday route would be Friday, Aug. 9.

Sounds like a smart way to go.

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by twister244

Personally, I feel like if RTD is going to try to invest into any additional rail, it should be trying to get the B line complete to Boulder, since that was promised to folks. .

And I feel like not another penny ever, anywhere, should be spent on the B line. RTD needs to stop wasting money if terrible capital investments and refocus on improvements that actually move people. The B line was always I’ll conceived - it’s slower than the bus, and the ridership projections are pathetically low. “Promised”? Give me a goddamn break. It was a line in a map for a program that was never fully funded when we voted on it. Boulder being Boulder - whiney and entitled - is the only reason Fastracks included TWO lines for them. They can live with one; they should’ve made the hard decisions in 2001, like other corridors, and picked a single solution they liked, rather than checking “all of the above” because they knew, at the time, they could get away with it. Not anymore - we don’t need Boulder’s 70,000 votes to pass things anymore.

My view is - NOT ANOTHER PENNY to RTD until they muster the courage to make the hard choices and actually tell people the truth - that line does not make sense, it will never make sense, and they are never going to do it; there are higher priorities.

[mishko27]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

And I feel like not another penny ever, anywhere, should be spent on the B line. RTD needs to stop wasting money if terrible capital investments and refocus on improvements that actually move people. The B line was always I’ll conceived - it’s slower than the bus, and the ridership projections are pathetically low. “Promised”? Give me a goddamn break. It was a line in a map for a program that was never fully funded when we voted on it. Boulder being Boulder - whiney and entitled - is the only reason Fastracks included TWO lines for them. They can live with one; they should’ve made the hard decisions in 2001, like other corridors, and picked a single solution they liked, rather than checking “all of the above” because they knew, at the time, they could get away with it. Not anymore - we don’t need Boulder’s 70,000 votes to pass things anymore.

My view is - NOT ANOTHER PENNY to RTD until they muster the courage to make the hard choices and actually tell people the truth - that line does not make sense, it will never make sense, and they are never going to do it; there are higher priorities.

I honestly don't think RTD will ever get there - it has to live with the curse of trying to make however many municipalities happy. Does the R line section through Aurora City Center make any sense? Absolutely not. Would the line be better had it just follow 225? Absolutely. But Aurora has an inferiority complex and it wanted a "downtown" rail (and I say that as an Aurora resident).

RTD will always want to make everyone happy, especially due to its structure and how the board is run.

Having said that, they built a whole lot of infrastructure significantly cheaper than any other transit agency in the nation. I would absolutely throw another FasTracks kinda bag of money at the agency and let them run with it. Although I would prefer if Denver itself finally created its own transit authority that would get couple billion dollars to build the light rail / streetcars that Denver desperately needs.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by mishko27

I honestly don't think RTD will ever get there - it has to live with the curse of trying to make however many municipalities happy. Does the R line section through Aurora City Center make any sense? Absolutely not. Would the line be better had it just follow 225? Absolutely. But Aurora has an inferiority complex and it wanted a "downtown" rail (and I say that as an Aurora resident).

RTD will always want to make everyone happy, especially due to its structure and how the board is run.

Having said that, they built a whole lot of infrastructure significantly cheaper than any other transit agency in the nation. I would absolutely throw another FasTracks kinda bag of money at the agency and let them run with it. Although I would prefer if Denver itself finally created its own transit authority that would get couple billion dollars to build the light rail / streetcars that Denver desperately needs.

Totally agreed 100% with both you and Bunt.... I don't think RTD has done that bad of a job given what they were tasked with. The A line has proven to be quite the success (despite how much the local press wanted to hammer on it in the beginning). It's ridership has surpassed expectations. The G line was horribly delayed, but I suspect that's another line that may surpass ridership numbers given it's route through Old Towne. I don't ride the light rail that goes down 25, but I suspect it has decent ridership as well given its route. It's all about the route these lines take.

For the B line.... it's proposed route never made sense to me, and I can see how RTD backed off given the projected poor ridership. It doesn't go along 36, and doesn't hit CU or downtown Boulder. The FF buses do all of this, AND they run more frequently than the train would ever run even if it was built tomorrow.
Whenever I bring up RTD around Boulder people, yeah, the kinda are whiney about it. To which, I always respond with a "Well, if the train was built tomorrow, how often would you ride it?". That's the part where they realize they don't really need the train. There are tons of folks who commute to Boulder everyday, and I bet that train would not serve any of them that well. Hell, I live in Denver, commute to Boulder, and the train wouldn't change any of my commuting habits as I already take the bus, which RTD really should be doing more of those lines if they want to expand metro-wide services. Otherwise, yeah, I am in support more money invested into beefing up Denver's city transit options.

[EngiNerd]

Originally Posted by twister244

Totally agreed 100% with both you and Bunt.... I don't think RTD has done that bad of a job given what they were tasked with. The A line has proven to be quite the success (despite how much the local press wanted to hammer on it in the beginning). It's ridership has surpassed expectations. The G line was horribly delayed, but I suspect that's another line that may surpass ridership numbers given it's route through Old Towne. I don't ride the light rail that goes down 25, but I suspect it has decent ridership as well given its route. It's all about the route these lines take.

For the B line.... it's proposed route never made sense to me, and I can see how RTD backed off given the projected poor ridership. It doesn't go along 36, and doesn't hit CU or downtown Boulder. The FF buses do all of this, AND they run more frequently than the train would ever run even if it was built tomorrow.
Whenever I bring up RTD around Boulder people, yeah, the kinda are whiney about it. To which, I always respond with a "Well, if the train was built tomorrow, how often would you ride it?". That's the part where they realize they don't really need the train. There are tons of folks who commute to Boulder everyday, and I bet that train would not serve any of them that well. Hell, I live in Denver, commute to Boulder, and the train wouldn't change any of my commuting habits as I already take the bus, which RTD really should be doing more of those lines if they want to expand metro-wide services. Otherwise, yeah, I am in support more money invested into beefing up Denver's city transit options.

I was going to say I don't believe that you actually live in Boulder because you sound much too rational...and then I saw you only commute in Boulder but live in Denver...and that made much more sense.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by EngiNerd

I was going to say I don't believe that you actually live in Boulder because you sound much too rational...and then I saw you only commute in Boulder but live in Denver...and that made much more sense.

That was indeed a very sensible comment.

bunt... I agree with respect to Boulder. The original plan relied on BNSF which ended up being a no-go.

But you act like it's 2019
Understandable and hindsight is always 20-20. I won't replay the 1990's and early 2000's, the time frame for the SW Corridor which then lit a fire under the metro population and especially the Mayors for getting in on the action. That corridor deserves an 'A' for ROI if only for the fact that it cost RTD a handful of shekels as most all the funding was provided by Federal grants (including through CDOT).

The SE Corridor deserves a 'B' for ROI since it was a natural and cost a measly $42 million per mile.

FasTracks has already paid for itself. FasTracks along with the convention center expansion were the key catalysts in today's downtown. Denver Union Station and the DUS neighborhood and the 'A' Line owe it's current success to FasTracks. That's all you need to know (for now).

[twister244]

Speak of the devil....

https://www.cpr.org/news/story/heard-cha...d-train-to-boulder-dont-hold-your-breath

[Cirrus]

Boulder should get its train... after Boulder upzones and doubles* its population.

* I'm being generous here. Boulder should quadruple its population.

[SnyderBock]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Boulder should get its train... after Boulder upzones and doubles* its population.

* I'm being generous here. Boulder should quadruple its population.

I still think Boulder and Longmont should get the train, but it should be a CDOT project in which RTD contributes all funds for that corridor between now and 2050 to CDOT for construction of a high speed rail line connecting Denver-Boulder-Longmont-Fort Collins. The Enhanced Bus Corridor would continue to serve daily commutes and it could be expanded and enhanced further. The enhanced rapid bus route would also serve as a feeder system into the HSR stations. The HSR would be an Express service for people as far away as Loveland, Fort Collins and even Cheyenne, who want to get downtown for a weekend stay or to the airport to fly out. CDOT should annex all required ROW for this project and not be subjugated to lease payments to BNSF. Then in a future project, RTD could upgrade the A-line to full grade separation and use the HSR cars on it as well. And if you study the SW Corridor, it has sufficient ROW 80% of the way between Union Station and Colorado Springs for a HSR line. The corridor constrained sections would simply have to be elevated over existing structure and infrastructure.

[TakeFive]

Road rage from a bicyclist?

Road rage cyclist -- again -- beats up school bus parked in Minneapolis bike lane

There's the MAGA hat crowd, the socialist crowd and now the entitled millennial crowd. What's next?

[awholeparade]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Road rage from a bicyclist?

Road rage cyclist -- again -- beats up school bus parked in Minneapolis bike lane

There's the MAGA hat crowd, the socialist crowd and now the entitled millennial crowd. What's next?

How is this relevant at all?

[SnyderBock]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Road rage from a bicyclist?

Road rage cyclist -- again -- beats up school bus parked in Minneapolis bike lane

There's the MAGA hat crowd, the socialist crowd and now the entitled millennial crowd. What's next?

This is stereotyping and entire group of people based on the actions of a handful of people.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by SnyderBock

This is stereotyping and entire group of people based on the actions of a handful of people.

I'm defining a group of people by a specific characteristic; not saying they're all fat, skinny, tall, short or anything else. I would define it more like satire.

sat·ire - the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

With respect to "entitled" if you followed the link and read the article then you know exactly what I was referring to: a guy who thought it OK to damage a school bus (government property) because it dared to inconvenience him.

Let's take an example closer to home. https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/cr...on-woman-damaging-her-car-in-wheat-ridge

the attack happened early Sunday afternoon near W. 32nd Avenue just east of Wadsworth Blvd. as the family was making their way home following a Mother’s Day celebration. the woman pulled over near W. 32nd Avenue just east of Wadsworth Blvd. because her mother wasn’t feeling well.

So what happened?

Moments later, a male cyclist stopped at the back of the car and began shouting profanities at the driver for blocking the bike lane...

After mom is feeling better the family goes on there way. So end of story then? Nope, it gets worse.

When they reached the area near Sheridan Blvd. and W. 32nd Ave., however, the cyclist spotted them again and reportedly yelled at the people inside the vehicle and kicked the front passenger side of the car, causing damage... Police said the man also struck the top of the vehicle’s door frame which caused a small dent, before reaching into the passenger side window and grabbing the driver’s mother by the shoulders to try and lift her up. He then reportedly spit on the driver and her mom before leaving eastbound on W. 32nd Avenue.

Judge for yourself; I'm comfortable with my own opinion that these chaps are pure scum.

[twister244]

Again.... what's your f'ing point?...........

I don't like several cyclists myself, but not sure what the point of you posting this is........

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by twister244

Again.... what's your f'ing point?...........

I don't like several cyclists myself, but not sure what the point of you posting this is........

sat·ire - the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Honestly, I never thought pointing out one idiot in Minneapolis with satire would become such a Big Deal but I'm happy to add clarity.

I understand that our President sets a Bad Example but I operate from a mode of "Nobody is above the law." That includes cyclists who "assault" people or damage (public or private) property because they feel inconvenienced.

While I'm all for bike lanes - although I admit that in 'my day' there were no such things and it didn't inhibit me in the slightest - the existence of bike lanes doesn't give one the right to assault people or property. Hopefully that's clear enough.