Part 2 from my recent Colorado trip, focusing on transportation. Pictures are in 4 sections: rail, bus, parking, cycling.
I prepared this as a slideshow, so to get the narrative making sense I included some pictures from previous trips. If you are a long-time forumer you may recognize a few here and there.
RAIL:
Light rail runs on-street in downtown. It has a dedicated lane, but there is generally little to no physical separation.
Trains are limited to a maximum of 3 or 4 cars (depending on the line) due to the length of city blocks on which they run.
A typical downtown Denver light rail stop.
In the suburbs light rail generally runs adjacent to the highway or in a previously-existing freight rail right-of-way. Stations are more substantial than downtown, and less frequent.
Unfortunately light rail cars are not low-floor. However, door locations are identified on each platform.
Note that this door location specifically is a bicycle entry point.
Proximity to stations has become a selling point.
BUS:
Denver and Boulder share a regional bus system called "RTD", which stands for "Regional Transit District".
This is a typical bus (except most aren't articulated), running in Denver's Larimer Square.
Downtown Denver is linear, with almost all major destinations within 1 or 2 blocks of 16th Street, which is a transit mall. The only vehicles allowed on the 16th Street Mall are RTD shuttle buses.
Along the 16th Street Mall, RTD provides a free shuttle. It comes approximately every 2 minutes and is by far the most heavily-ridden bus in Colorado. In addition to shoppers on 16th Street, it is used by commuters traveling from Union Station (which is at the far end of downtown) to office buildings throughout downtown.
The free shuttle is custom-built for RTD and is a unique bus frame.
This image shows one of the shuttles at what could be called a "super stop", with the tenting as shelter and other amenities.
Denver's free 16th Street shuttle features a unique bus design with multiple low-floor entry points for easy loading.
Since the shuttle is fully low-floor there is limited seating. This is generally not a problem because the route is only 1 mile long; most passengers are on only a few blocks.
Although Boulder is part of RTD and is served by normal RTD buses, they fund bus service in the city at a level above and beyond normal. One of the significant improvements is that the major trunk lines in Boulder each have a unique name and livery.
Named routes generally operate on headways of 15-minutes or less, and have simple routes that stick to the arterial streets. The idea is to remove complication from the process. Want the bus that goes down 30th Street? It's any bus with a "Bound" paint scheme, and it comes often enough that you don't need a schedule.
This one is called the "Dash". Note the cyclist included on the livery, about 3/4 of the way back.
Here are some other uniquely-branded buses from Boulder.
This particular route is a regional line that goes from downtown Boulder to the city of Longmont, approximately 20 miles away. Thus it is a more luxurious coach bus rather than a city bus.
Other named routes in Boulder include the "Bound" and the "Stampede". At one time there was a "Leap", but it was discontinued.
This is the large bus station in downtown Boulder. Above the bus station is public parking.
Long distance regional buses (such as the "Bolt" and buses to Denver) use bays on the ground floor, under the public parking.
Note the bike racks and lockers.
Local buses simply stop at the curb on one of the streets surrounding the station.
Note the bus-only lane at right.
A waiting room is provided. It doubles as a commuter store; there's an RTD ticket counter, bus and rail schedules, and a snack vendor.
Real time arrival information for regional routes is provided in the waiting area.
Arrival information for local routes is at the on-street stop, if it exists.
PARKING:
Downtown Boulder has a parking district. Rather than require individual property owners to provide parking, they are required to pay a fee to the city, which then builds public garages. The garage on top of the bus station was one such facility, but since that was built the city has taken to hiding the garages behind a wrapped mixed-use facade.
You can see the garage portion of this building above and behind the two floors of narrow commercial space (retail on the bottom and office above).
In order to preserve views of the nearby Rocky Mountains, Boulder has a strict 45-foot height limit. The restrictions on density that come with such a limit explain why underground parking is generally not economically feasible.
Here is another wrapped garage, with three floors of narrow commercial space.
CYCLING:
We all know Boulder is famous for its cycling infrastructure.
The main north/south street in Boulder is called Broadway. Parallel to Broadway the city provides an off-street trail. For much of its length the trail is directly adjacent to the sidewalk.
There is plenty of friction between cyclists, pedestrians, and skateboarders (which are common in Boulder), but it's much better than cycling on Broadway itself.
Boulder has a counter-flow cycle track on 13th Street in downtown. Unlike the DC or New York cycle tracks, it is separated by attractive landscaping.
Here the track mingles with a short turn lane for cars. Except this short section, 13th Street is one-way in the other direction.
Another view of the 13th Street cycle track.
This counter-flow bike lane is on the campus of the University of Colorado (go Buffs!). The street it runs along, Pleasant Street, has such low volume of vehicular traffic that no physical separation was deemed necessary.
And I guess they wanted to save that tree.
The main east/west street in Boulder is called Pearl Street. Pearl Street is parallel to Boulder Creek, along which a linear park runs for several miles. Rather than provide an on-street facility, the city decided to provide for east/west bike travel with a trail through the linear park.
Here are two views of it.
The city takes wayfinding along the major bike routes seriously.
Boulder is famous for its bike/ped underpasses. This is where the east/west Boulder Creek trail goes under north/south Broadway.
Good sight lines and lighting are key features of Boulder's underpass system. Underpasses have to feel safe or people won't use them.
That same underpass up close. It is comfortable and safe-feeling enough for this female cyclist to park and enjoy the ambiance of the adjacent creek.
This impressive underpass is the main gateway between the University of Colorado and the adjacent student ghetto neighborhood, University Hill.
Although this picture was taken at an inconvenient time of day, this underpass is extremely heavily used. When I was a student at CU I walked under it every day.
RTD places bike-on-bus practice racks at key locations around town, so users can become comfortable with the process without holding up other passengers on a full bus.
This particular one is at Denver Union Station, but there are some in Boulder too.
The University of Colorado has a bike station centrally located on campus. It features racks for hundreds of bikes, registration, minor maintenance, parts recycling, info on Boulder trails and transit, and free bike-sharing for students.
The back side of the bike station building, with free air and informational displays.
CU's bike-share is called "Buff Bike". There are 60 bikes available free to CU students, faculty and staff. I think they are only available at this one location, but could be incorrect.
The city of Boulder is planning a 250-bike, 10-station public bike-share system for launch in 2010.
The Buff Bike fleet is not completely uniform.
Bike part recycling at the CU bike station.
Boulder has several bike shops. The largest and most famous is University Bikes.
Note the mural on the second floor.
Inside. Their selection of commuter bikes was better than any store I've been to in DC.
Biking permeates throughout Boulder culture. Check out the logo of this pizza shop.
To wrap up, here are some vintage bikes just for fun.
Threaded Mode