DENVER | Transportation Thread

[bobg]

Looks like LA poached Phil Washington from RTD: http://www3.rtd-denver.com/elbert/news/index.cfm?id=6445

Denver – The man who has been at the helm of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) for the past six years is taking his leadership and talents to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority – also known as LA Metro.

RTD General Manager and CEO Phillip Washington was selected this morning by the LA Metro Board to serve as the agency’s next CEO. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who also serves as chair of the Metro board, made the announcement this morning and introduced Washington at a news conference.

[PLANSIT]

^Not good. But congrats to him.

[RyanD]

He's going into quite the animal! Given my love affair with LA, I wanted to see what kind of transit they have in the works.

Under Construction - 3.9 miles of subway, 15.1 miles of above / below grade lightrail - $4.8 billion

Proposed - 12.5 miles BRT, 8.98 miles Subway, 24.9 miles above / below grade LRT - $7.3 billion

Total - $12.1 billion

Data from: http://www.metro.net/projects

He's going to have fun with that. Fastracks has a $6.5 billion budget IIRC?

[Denver]

Originally Posted by EngiNerd

Proposed US 36 Bus Rapid Transit Service Plan



http://www.rtd-denver.com/servicechanges-us36.shtml

Huge mistake to take away the stop by the CU Campus. After 10PM on the weekends, the bus is full of drunk CU students returning to Boulder from a night of drinking in Denver. I hate to think what will happen if these student stop taking the bus....

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by Denver

Huge mistake to take away the stop by the CU Campus. After 10PM on the weekends, the bus is full of drunk CU students returning to Boulder from a night of drinking in Denver. I hate to think what will happen if these student stop taking the bus....

Who says the local stops are going away? Seems like the All Station to Union Station covers it. Not sure if the Express will make make the local stops, but if there's a big enough demand, it can be added.

[Cirrus]

Yeah, I'm sure - god I hope - that they're just not illustrating the local Boulder city stops on the diagram.

[DenverTrans]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Yeah, I'm sure - god I hope - that they're just not illustrating the local Boulder city stops on the diagram.

I remember the day they built the bus pullout at the UMC on southbound broadway...

In architectural school I proposed a mini station/coffee shop for that site. Now I realize that is how many commuter rail stations are designed, at least in the northeast. It has been explained to me by those who know that the original planners of the current service understood it to be like commuter rail, and thus it has always used the high floor coaches.

It's a great bus service. I am writing from a commuter train; it is not as comfortable as a train. But definitely one of the best bus services I know.

Similar schedule density exists radiating from
New York. That is saying something.

[Denver]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Yeah, I'm sure - god I hope - that they're just not illustrating the local Boulder city stops on the diagram.

I am at Grad School at CU Boulder. Everything we have heard is that they are eliminating the CU stop (and none of Flaitirons Flyer literature is indicating anything to the contrary). I am sure RTD is going to enjoy hearing from a bunch of pissed off law students though.....

[Cirrus]

I could see not making every local Boulder stop. Maybe there's some world where it makes sense to skip Regent. But there's no conceivable universe where it makes sense to skip Euclid.

[TakeFive]

When I attended CU I mostly lived up in Four Mile Canyon and Nederland. Other than school buses there weren't any bus stops up there.

[bobg]

Originally Posted by Denver

I am at Grad School at CU Boulder. Everything we have heard is that they are eliminating the CU stop (and none of Flaitirons Flyer literature is indicating anything to the contrary). I am sure RTD is going to enjoy hearing from a bunch of pissed off law students though.....

From the proposal:

5.2 BRT SERVICE LEVELS
5.2.1 All-Station Denver-Boulder
Previously referred to as Route BV, the all-station service will operate with 15 minute, bidirectional
frequencies along the US 36 corridor, serving all of the US 36 stations (See
Figure 25 - Proposed Weekday Schedule Eastbound and Figure 26 - Proposed Weekday
Schedule Westbound). The 15 minute frequencies will foster all-day, spontaneous use.
The routing of the new all-station service will remain unchanged from the existing Route
BV service. This route will be the spine of the corridor, providing passengers with a
spontaneous use, all day service in both directions. Passengers will know that this route
will connect them to any station on the corridor. This will set RTD up for success as the
demand for intra-corridor connectivity increases.
The all-station service is expected to utilize the Managed Lanes between Westminster
Center and DUS as well as between Cherryvale and McCaslin. At all other times, the allstation
service will travel in the general lanes and will utilize the Shoulder Lanes when
traffic has slowed to less than 35 miles per hour.
Weekend service on the corridor will be provided exclusively by more frequent all-station
service since the market for limited-stop service is reduced on the weekend (See Figure 27
- Proposed Saturday Schedule and Figure 28 - Proposed Sunday Schedule). All-station
service will operate at 15 minute frequencies during the midday on Saturday and at 30
minute frequencies during the midday on Sunday.
The all station buses serve local stops between Boulder Transit Center and Table Mesa.(emphasis added)
While these stops may add ridership, they also increase travel time and operating costs.
RTD and the City of Boulder will examine ridership along Table Mesa Drive and Broadway
to identify the costs and benefits of improved stop spacing and other transit priority
measures.

Not sure which one you are referring to as the CU stop, but I cannot imagine them spacing out the stops for the all station service so that not a single stop is at CU. As Cirrus said they might skip a few current stops for 'improved stop spacing', but it sounds like they are still open for input on that. If you are that concerned about a particular stop go to one of the meetings, that's why they have them.

[Denver]

Originally Posted by bobg

From the proposal:



Not sure which one you are referring to as the CU stop, but I cannot imagine them spacing out the stops for the all station service so that not a single stop is at CU. As Cirrus said they might skip a few current stops for 'improved stop spacing', but it sounds like they are still open for input on that. If you are that concerned about a particular stop go to one of the meetings, that's why they have them.

Thanks for posting that. Where did you find the larger proposal?

[bobg]

Originally Posted by Denver

Thanks for posting that. Where did you find the larger proposal?

The full proposal was presented to the board in February prior to RTD seeking public input: http://rtd.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=2220&Inline=True

Like Zmapper said when he shared that there's a ton of information in that particular meeting agenda.

I am sure they will release something for the public meetings that is a little more condensed with a few minor revisions (usually just a powerpoint), and then will come back to the board after the public input period with another full detailed proposal.

[DenvertoLA]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

They did and it's an absolute cluster. This is for a couple of reasons but the biggest contributor is probably the I-25/6th Ave reconstruction and the Santa Fe onramp to I-25 having merge lanes that are inadequate.

Originally Posted by RyanD

He's going into quite the animal! Given my love affair with LA, I wanted to see what kind of transit they have in the works.

Under Construction - 3.9 miles of subway, 15.1 miles of above / below grade lightrail - $4.8 billion

Proposed - 12.5 miles BRT, 8.98 miles Subway, 24.9 miles above / below grade LRT - $7.3 billion

Total - $12.1 billion

Data from: http://www.metro.net/projects

He's going to have fun with that. Fastracks has a $6.5 billion budget IIRC?

The Light Rail from connecting DTLA to Santa Monica opens this fall!

[seventwenty]

Denver Post write up on Westminster Station.



Not really excited about having a giant park next to a commuter rail stop. I'd rather see plans to put some density there.

[bobg]

Originally Posted by seventwenty

Denver Post write up on Westminster Station.

Not really excited about having a giant park next to a commuter rail stop. I'd rather see plans to put some density there.

IIRC (it's been a year or two since I glanced at the plans) they are taking existing open space south of the station along Little Dry Creek and converting it to a park with better drainage and a smaller floodplain for the benefit of both the station, and the TOD to the north of the station which is beyond that semicircle plaza in the rendering.

I am okay with that, would rather have some density, but given the controversy in using open space for a school in a city like Denver I can only imagine how that would play out in a city like Westminster if you were to build TOD on existing open space. They are at least improving the area, and hopefully adding an amenity that makes the TOD they are planning more desirable. I don't get having the plaza there when you already have all that open space to the south, but that's trivial.

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by bobg

I don't get having the plaza there when you already have all that open space to the south, but that's trivial.

I don't think it's trivial at all. Every 100-feet counts when we're talking about TOD.

In fairness, though, I don't think there is any real prospect to TOD along a low frequency commuter rail line. Transit adjacent development, sure. It's an excuse for density in communities that might otherwise oppose it. But not TOD.

[bcp]

wow...building barriers to transit! well planned...

[The Dirt]

If we're treating this station as a park and ride then it's failing in that regard, as well. That's quite a long walk to the station from the parking lot. If you're competing with highways for the quickest commute, that walk alone adds a good 5-10 minutes to your commute.

[bcp]

anybody get the sense that these station designers might not have ever lived in an old city with transit?