HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > Transportation


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Jan 31, 2019, 3:08 PM
sopas ej's Avatar
sopas ej sopas ej is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Pasadena, California
Posts: 6,847
Denver's Buses and Trains Are Not Useful to Most People. A New Book Shows Why.

From Streetsblog Denver:

Denver’s Buses and Trains Are Not Useful to Most People. A New Book Shows Why.

By Andy Bosselman
Jan 29, 2019

Denver built a transit network that most people don’t use. It doesn’t go where they want to go. Trips take too long. And the primary hub, Union Station, is three-quarters of a mile from the heart of downtown’s job center.

The region’s public transit does some things well. But it often fails to get the basics right according to the urban planner Christof Spieler, author of the new book “Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of U.S. Transit.”

The book, which looks at public transportation systems across America, starts with a quick discussion about the essential but often neglected features that make transit successful. What follows in most of its 264 pages is a fascinating atlas that profiles 47 transit systems, including Denver’s Regional Transportation District. For each city, photos, maps and infographics complement easy-to-follow writing, illustrating what each city gets right — and where they fail.

[...]

Link: https://denver.streetsblog.org/2019/...ILmRW8g2VMn7sQ
__________________
"I guess the only time people think about injustice is when it happens to them."

~ Charles Bukowski
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Jan 31, 2019, 10:44 PM
SIGSEGV's Avatar
SIGSEGV SIGSEGV is online now
He/his/him. >~<, QED!
 
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Loop, Chicago
Posts: 5,991
I bought that book. I like it, although there are some typos / formatting errors that are a little distracting.
__________________
And here the air that I breathe isn't dead.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Jan 31, 2019, 11:06 PM
BrownTown BrownTown is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,884
This is essentially how I felt when attempting to get around Denver. I was specifically TRYING to use transit and it was still hard to get anywhere with it. The only trip that felt really useful was the A line from the airport to Union Station. So often I was one of only a few people on the train and as mentioned in the article there's large stretches of light rail that basically go through extremely sparse areas and take a very roundabout way to get downtown.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Jan 31, 2019, 11:23 PM
sopas ej's Avatar
sopas ej sopas ej is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Pasadena, California
Posts: 6,847
Quote:
Originally Posted by SIGSEGV View Post
I bought that book. I like it, although there are some typos / formatting errors that are a little distracting.
I want to buy it myself; I'm such a transit geek. And I'm curious to see what it says about Los Angeles. My partner and I have long complained that the Metro Gold Line through Pasadena was obviously built on the cheap (running along an old Santa Fe Railroad ROW). It would have much better served Pasadena if it went underground along Colorado Boulevard. It's convenient to use to get to Old Town Pasadena but then as it goes east, it goes into a tunnel and then down the median of the 210 Freeway through the eastern half of Pasadena, which makes it more of a walk to get to the South Lake Avenue Business District, and an inconvenient long walk to Pasadena City College (though PCC does provide free shuttle buses from the Metro Gold Line Station).
__________________
"I guess the only time people think about injustice is when it happens to them."

~ Charles Bukowski

Last edited by sopas ej; Jan 31, 2019 at 11:35 PM.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Feb 3, 2019, 5:39 PM
twister244 twister244 is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Chicago
Posts: 3,844
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrownTown View Post
This is essentially how I felt when attempting to get around Denver. I was specifically TRYING to use transit and it was still hard to get anywhere with it. The only trip that felt really useful was the A line from the airport to Union Station. So often I was one of only a few people on the train and as mentioned in the article there's large stretches of light rail that basically go through extremely sparse areas and take a very roundabout way to get downtown.
I guess it really depends on where you are going. I live in Denver but work in Boulder, and I use transit every day. There is a pseudo BRT service that runs between Union Station and downtown Boulder that runs buses every 15 minutes normally, with express routes every 10 minutes during commuting hours.

Part of the problem though is our fares are so high. I have a pass through work, so for me it's free. But... I can see how people might not use these services often depending on their own personal economics.

The other thing worth noting is most of the light rail / passenger rail lines in Denver are still fairly young. As TOD continues to build up around these lines, I think transit will work more for people in the future.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2019, 6:20 PM
CastleScott CastleScott is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Sacramento Ca/formerly CastleRock Co
Posts: 1,055
Quote:
I guess it really depends on where you are going. I live in Denver but work in Boulder, and I use transit every day. There is a pseudo BRT service that runs between Union Station and downtown Boulder that runs buses every 15 minutes normally, with express routes every 10 minutes during commuting hours.

Part of the problem though is our fares are so high. I have a pass through work, so for me it's free. But... I can see how people might not use these services often depending on their own personal economics.

The other thing worth noting is most of the light rail / passenger rail lines in Denver are still fairly young. As TOD continues to build up around these lines, I think transit will work more for people in the future.
I agree plus several of metro Denver's rail lines run thru former brownfields which are just getting started with TOD (the former Gates Rubber plant), so future ridership should be dramatic..
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2019, 7:46 PM
lrt's friend lrt's friend is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 11,823
Part of the problem is when transit is not brought to the people. Instead, we plan to have people move to transit. That is at best a long-term proposition. To really draw people to transit, transit needs to go where people want it to go. We fail at that sometimes when we take the route of least resistance.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Apr 23, 2021, 9:46 AM
SFBruin SFBruin is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 1,189
Kind of late to the party, but I wanted to put in a plug for this book.

I bought it about a year ago, and I think it has been a great read.

Last edited by SFBruin; Apr 23, 2021 at 6:33 PM.
Reply With Quote
     
     
End
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > Transportation
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:39 PM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.