DENVER | Transportation Thread

[The Dirt]

Umm, massive technicality since they're all mall shuttles.

[TakeFive]

Designated pick-up and drop-off areas work as hoped

Boston has used a pilot program to study the impact of designated areas for ride-share and low and behold it was a huge success.

https://www.boston.gov/departments/t...passenger-cars

We learned a great deal from the pilot and have drafted an initial assessment report after collecting four months of data. We relied on both quantitative and qualitative methods. A few of the findings are listed below:

• Huge increase in curb productivity. The utilization rate of the curb increased by more than 350 percent in the pick-up/drop-off zone.
• Parking incidents decreased. We saw an eight percent drop in overall parking citations in the area.
• Safer behaviors observed. Observation data found a notable decrease in pick-up/drop-off activity happening in the travel lane after the zone was installed.

Who wouldathunk that common sense really works.

[TakeFive]

RTD ridership Good News

https://transportationtodaynews.com/...third-quarter/

Ridership on public transportation grew 2.2 percent nationally during the third quarter compared to the same quarter of 2018, according to an American Public Transportation Association (APTA) report.

Ridership for bus systems increased 0.59 percent, commuter-rail systems grew 4.38 percent, and heavy rail spiked 5.46 percent.

Wut you say: RTD rang the bell?

The largest increases in ridership were the Denver Regional Transportation District for commuter rail, spiking 35.1 percent.

Scurrying over to APTA... I find they've not yet released the full report, just a news release.

[TakeFive]

I found the APTA ridership numbers

Third quarter APTA ridership results:

• Light rail up 2.7%
• Commuter Rail up 35.1%
• Bus ridership up 15.1%

These numbers are for year over year (YOY)

Note: This years number are fairly useless since a new counting system (apparently) started in January. Interestingly, the commuter rail numbers appear to be unaffected. Here were 1st quarter numbers:

• Light rail down 11.3%
• Commuter rail up 4.0%
• Bus ridership up 10.9%

With respect to the G Line the 3rd quarter was the 1st full quarter of operation. The 35% YOY increase suggests the G Line has about half as much as the A (and B) Line. *

Third quarter weekday ridership looks like this:

• All rail ridership is 142,000 per day
  • Light rail ridership is 99,200 per day
  • Commuter rail ridership is 42,800 per day
• Bus ridership is 275,000 per day

The other deductive reasoning that could be applied is to use the 1st quarter numbers as a new baseline at least with respect to light rail and bus ridership. Remember January is also when the restructured 'higher' fares started. With 3rd quarter bus ridership being up 15.1% as compared to being up 10.9% in the 1st quarter shows nice growth. Light rail being up 2.7% compared to being down 11.3% in the 1st quarter also shows marked improvement.

* With my final attempt at deductive reasoning I'll guess that the A Line contributed 5% of the 35% YOY commuter rail increase leaving 30% which would be attributed to the G Line opening. 30% of 42,800 weekday ridership would be 12,840 which is a respectable start for the G Line - if reasonably close.

[TakeFive]

Anybody want to guess the biggest fear
of the upcoming 2.2-mile project to convert Market Street to a multimodal paradise in San Francisco?

Look-see the schematic here.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...o-14499546.php

The already-wide sidewalks would be broadened from 35 to 37 feet, with as much as 12 feet along the curb reserved for bicycle lanes and a curbside buffer zone. The street itself would be repaved, the center lanes in concrete rather than asphalt to reduce the noise from historic streetcars.

“Everyone gets their space in the future design, instead of things being all hodgepodge like they are now,” Olea said. The hope of planners is that with the so-called “street-life zone” in-between, the different publics will coexist.

So no cars? According to Better Market Street:

Yes, the project proposes to restrict private vehicles on Market Street, from 10th to Spear streets. Buses, taxis, commercial vehicles and paratransit would be exempt from vehicle restrictions.

Uber/Lyft would be provided loading zones on side streets which should work well I'd think.

There are also some existing complicating factors.

Anyone who has walked the length of Market Street knows that it rarely offers a uniform procession: BART portals form one type of impediment, while delivery zones cut into the sidewalk. Some Muni buses pull up to the sidewalk, others to linear boarding islands midstream. The aged streetcars share the center lanes with two busy bus lines.

Market’s makeover can’t erase this. As Olea conceded, “the bikeway and buffer will narrow” in especially pinched locations.

It sound pretty interesting but...

[TakeFive]

Speaking of Streets - in Denver
Denverites now want Complete Streets.

Buddy; are you saying Denver forgot to complete their streets?
Doobie; it's more like people love a nice grid street system but they want their streets to feel like a nice pet-friendly suburban cul-de-sac.

Department of Public Works

As Denver changes and grows, there are more and more demands on our streets and transportation system. The Complete Street Design Guidelines are the guiding principals for the city's public right of way, detailing how we allocate space to transportation, utilities and other public infrastructure.

In the first stage, we will coordinate with the community to update the Complete Street Design Guidelines. The Design Guidelines will further define and develop the street typologies from Blueprint Denver, and will identify how streets should be designed to meet current and future needs in a context-sensitive manner.

From the link above you too can take The Survey.

Postscript: does not "context-sensitive manner" just melt your heart?

[TakeFive]

I am familiar with so-called Complete Streets

Things like bulbs, chokers, chicanes, mini-roundabouts, landscaped medians, generous sidewalks, bike lanes, off-street bike paths along arterial roads, etc

I've driven across crosswalks with embedded amber lights or posted flashing amber lights or newer rapidly flashing LED lights; crosswalks with paint, crosswalks made of pavers or slightly raised and once in awhile HAWK lights.

If you live in nice places like Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Gilbert or Chandler you'll find a variety of Complete Streets treatments. All it takes is money. To be fair, many parts of Scottsdale, Gilbert and Chandler are newer and were able to design 'safe' streets as they developed. They are nice - where they exist.

NOTE: When it comes to streets, life is a lot easier when you don't have to worry about snow, snow removal or freeze and thaw patterns.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

* With my final attempt at deductive reasoning I'll guess that the A Line contributed 5% of the 35% YOY commuter rail increase leaving 30% which would be attributed to the G Line opening. 30% of 42,800 weekday ridership would be 12,840 which is a respectable start for the G Line - if reasonably close.

RTD reported G Line ridership at about 7,000 per weekday in August. It's unrealistic that it would have grown by 5,000 in one month. Hopefully it reaches 9,000 by the end of year as that would indicate RTD hitting it first year ridership goal 4 months early.

The A Line continues to be what drives commuter rail growth. It might have something to do with the continued on-time performance and lack of cancelled trains of commuter versus light rail.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

RTD reported G Line ridership at about 7,000 per weekday in August. It's unrealistic that it would have grown by 5,000 in one month. Hopefully it reaches 9,000 by the end of year as that would indicate RTD hitting it first year ridership goal 4 months early.

The A Line continues to be what drives commuter rail growth. It might have something to do with the continued on-time performance and lack of cancelled trains of commuter versus light rail.

I was wondering and now I know I have no clue what APTA's weekday ridership number of 42.8 means.
Surely, the A Line isn't up to 35,000 weekday ridership?

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

I was wondering and now I know I have no clue what APTA's weekday ridership number of 42.8 means.
Surely, the A Line isn't up to 35,000 weekday ridership?

Using the monthly average, the A line is averaging 24K per day, but that includes weekend ridership. I don't know if 35K is realistic, but 28K-30K is possible.

[TakeFive]

Transit Lane On 17th Street Could Cause Problems For Downtown Businesses
December 16, 2019 By Tori Mason CBS4 Denver

DENVER (CBS4) – Denver Public Works is adding another 24-hour transit lane Downtown. In October, a traffic lane on ‪15th Street became exclusively for buses. Now, crews are adding the same “bus only” markings along ‪17th Street from Broadway to Market.

The city says the purpose of these new transit lanes is to move more people, more efficiently. According the DPW, ‪17th Street sees more than 650 buses each weekday.

Do all these buses have people inside or do they just cruise through downtown?

This is interesting.

On 15th, cars are driving in the bus lane because there’s so much traffic,” said Lee. The city says it’s too soon to produce data on the impact of the new ‪15th Street transit lane, but bus riders have said its made getting to their destination faster.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

This is interesting.

Nice Joe Everyman piece. Too bad it doesn't actually say whether 15th Street is choked in traffic and the poor drivers are forced to use the bus lane out of desperation or drivers simply lack the cognitive ability to understand what a bus only lane is for and just drive down it.


I'm going with the latter.

[The Dirt]

Wow, such a dumb piece. Tea Cloud is in downtown because it mainly serves the 17th street business crowd and folks already wandering around on foot.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Nice Joe Everyman piece. Too bad it doesn't actually say whether 15th Street is choked in traffic and the poor drivers are forced to use the bus lane out of desperation or drivers simply lack the cognitive ability to understand what a bus only lane is for and just drive down it.


I'm going with the latter.

It might be a little of both. I hop on the 28 several days after coming back from Boulder which goes down 15th towards the Highlands. 15th does have a ton of traffic during rush hour. It's a shame the bus lane can't keep going past Delganey as I feel like that's a bit of a choke point near US.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Nice Joe Everyman piece. Too bad it doesn't actually say whether 15th Street is choked in traffic and the poor drivers are forced to use the bus lane out of desperation or drivers simply lack the cognitive ability to understand what a bus only lane is for and just drive down it.

I suspect that cars driving in designated bus lanes is not unique to Denver.

I support this conversion for obvious reasons. While the hope is to get more people riding buses there's another benefit.

There's lots of people who could easily use light or commuter rail but don't. I can envision many more deciding to forgo the driving headache to take light & commuter rail. Congestion isn't limited just to downtown so rail riders have more to gain if they're driving in from the suburbs.

Originally Posted by twister244

It might be a little of both. I hop on the 28 several days after coming back from Boulder which goes down 15th towards the Highlands. 15th does have a ton of traffic during rush hour. It's a shame the bus lane can't keep going past Delganey as I feel like that's a bit of a choke point near US.

If my hunch that more people decide to ride light and commuter rail this could significantly cut the number of commuters from the suburbs into downtown. Interestingly, it could be the 'locals' that are more resistant to giving up their cars?

[TakeFive]

...awaiting final state inspection

I was reminded today that pending final inspection, the 22-mile, 8-lane, toll-free South Mountain Freeway will open soon in Phoenix. In addition, another 20 miles are being widened to ten lanes.

More importantly, it also reminded me how much 'bang for the buck' the metro's half-cent transportation tax is getting compared to Denver. The South Central light rail extension is now under construction and Tempe's streetcar line should be opening in 2021.

Meanwhile Denver RTD's full-cent sales tax struggles to perform half as well. Re-imagining RTD at least sounds appropriate.

[The Dirt]

TakeFive, maybe you should set up a personal blog.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

TakeFive, maybe you should set up a personal blog.

I suggest LiveJournal.

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Nice Joe Everyman piece. Too bad it doesn't actually say whether 15th Street is choked in traffic and the poor drivers are forced to use the bus lane out of desperation or drivers simply lack the cognitive ability to understand what a bus only lane is for and just drive down it.


I'm going with the latter.

When I do it it’s the former. Would be impossible to pull anybody over on the new and improved 1-1/2 lane 15th Street, so what’s the risk?

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

When I do it it’s the former. Would be impossible to pull anybody over on the new and improved 1-1/2 lane 15th Street, so what’s the risk?

That right there screams for a few traffic cameras and a new revenue stream for the city: quasi-tolled access lanes.