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How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

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Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#21

Post by aaron-lebo »

saosebastiao wrote: post #15
chadmaughan wrote: post #5

Salt Lake City (also "in the West") already has ~45 miles of light rail track [1], 88 miles of commuter rail track [2], ~3 streetcar track miles [3], and 69 transit stations. It was named as one of the top transit systems in north america for 2014 [4]. This was approved in 2008 by voters in Salt Lake County [5]. Already under works are plans to expand the commuter rail beyond Ogden to Provo (from 88 to 135 miles) and…

To me, SLC is the ultimate counterpoint to the whole "Republicans are destroying transit!!" hysteria. SLC's core is definitely left-leaning, but just a few miles outside the city center it is pure Republican territory. And despite the heavily skewed demographics, they are voting in massive numbers to extend rail transit to their cities. It is quite amazing what will happen to voting trends on transit investment when…

Do you have any idea why this is the case? Some aspect of Mormonism?

Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#22

Post by bri3d »

kposehn wrote: post #19
bri3d wrote: post #3

The Northwest suburbs (Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Broomfield, Longmont) got quite screwed over in this deal - we approved and paid into the 0.4% sales tax in 2004, but ended up with only years of disruptive highway construction leading to a privatized tollway and fake Bus Rapid Transit. We didn't even get real BRT as the buses run in the private toll lanes rather than their own grade and the buses board and debo…

The Northwest line is already under construction to Arvada, correct? I believe they are working westward right now. As for the line up to Boulder, blame the expense of building a completely separate right-of-way along the BNSF Brush Subdivision, a very busy funnel for coal trains :-/

"South Westminster" - basically, 72nd and Federal.

They weren't trying to build separate right-of-way - they were trying to lease the existing BNSF tracks:

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_20782125/rtd-stunned-by-bnsfs-c...

You're right that the busy freight corridor is a lot of the problem, though.

Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#23

Post by akgerber »

saosebastiao wrote: post #15
chadmaughan wrote: post #5

Salt Lake City (also "in the West") already has ~45 miles of light rail track [1], 88 miles of commuter rail track [2], ~3 streetcar track miles [3], and 69 transit stations. It was named as one of the top transit systems in north america for 2014 [4]. This was approved in 2008 by voters in Salt Lake County [5]. Already under works are plans to expand the commuter rail beyond Ogden to Provo (from 88 to 135 miles) and…

To me, SLC is the ultimate counterpoint to the whole "Republicans are destroying transit!!" hysteria. SLC's core is definitely left-leaning, but just a few miles outside the city center it is pure Republican territory. And despite the heavily skewed demographics, they are voting in massive numbers to extend rail transit to their cities. It is quite amazing what will happen to voting trends on transit investment when…

SLC is a counterexample to that trend, but Republicans definitely hate transit in many cities— for example, the Tennessee legislature tried to ban a bus rapid transit project in Nashville even when no state dollars were used: http://www.wired.com/2014/04/tennessee-bans-bus-rapid-transi...

Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#24

Post by chadmaughan »

saosebastiao wrote: post #15
chadmaughan wrote: post #5

Salt Lake City (also "in the West") already has ~45 miles of light rail track [1], 88 miles of commuter rail track [2], ~3 streetcar track miles [3], and 69 transit stations. It was named as one of the top transit systems in north america for 2014 [4]. This was approved in 2008 by voters in Salt Lake County [5]. Already under works are plans to expand the commuter rail beyond Ogden to Provo (from 88 to 135 miles) and…

To me, SLC is the ultimate counterpoint to the whole "Republicans are destroying transit!!" hysteria. SLC's core is definitely left-leaning, but just a few miles outside the city center it is pure Republican territory. And despite the heavily skewed demographics, they are voting in massive numbers to extend rail transit to their cities. It is quite amazing what will happen to voting trends on transit investment when…

Totally agree. For example, the Frontlines project, or "70 miles in 7 years" was done 2 years early and 300 million dollars under budget. [1] That goes a long way towards future budget increase requests and tax increase votes.

[1] - http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56733855-90/2015-alleg...

Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#26

Post by Xorlev »

Unfortunately, the satellite train tracks as they are now still require you to drive & park at an RTD garage, then wait for a train, and ride it with all the stops. For example, I used to take the W line from Federal Center station to Union Station. Without counting transit time to the station, it's about 40-45 minutes to Union Station. Car? 25-30 minutes. At that time, I still took the train.

I recently moved a little more south east, now it's a 5-10 minute drive to the Sheridan station (with lights) + parking + waiting, ends up being still 40-ish minutes. Only takes 20 minutes to drive, and I don't have people practically sitting on my lap.

And that's a good scenario. Denver lacks the simplicity I found in Portland's light rail and rail car system. It was quite clear how to get from place to place. Denver relies very heavily on buses.

Lots of transport? Sure. Most advanced? Don't think so.

Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#27

Post by jbail »

bnolsen wrote: post #25

denver isnt a downtown oriented city, its very spread out. also the trains are empty whenever i see them running. just another expensive sinkhole from what i can tell.

Lived in Denver 5 years. Never driven to work, a pro sports game or a bar. Trains and busses have never been empty any of the times I've ridden them...which is daily

Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#28

Post by lotharbot »

bignaj wrote: post #6

Funny how Seattle was left out of the comparison to other PNW cities. I'm not surprised... Seattle's transportation situation is abysmal.

Transportation of all types in Seattle is abysmal, because Seattle has so many waterways, steep hills, etc. that can only be crossed via a small number of routes. They're always terribly congested.

Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#29

Post by [deleted] »

jseliger wrote: post #14

Will metro residents give up their cars? I wonder if the rise of Uber will affect this. When I lived in Seattle, I noticed that a lot of people didn't commute to work via car but had one anyway, usually for one or two trips per week. Public transportation (buses and later light rail) were pretty good from about 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. or so during weekdays but were horrible the rest of the time. Bikes could be used intermit…

[deleted]

Re: How Denver Is Becoming the Most Advanced Transit City in the West

#30

Post by lotharbot »

timr wrote: post #12

Awesome. I went to college in Denver back when the first light rail initiative tanked, and it was a nightmare to get around the city without a car. I've been back a few times since, and the transformation has been remarkable: almost everywhere I went back then is accessible by train now. Now, if only San Francisco could follow suit and invest in greater transit -- instead of trying to increase the density of already-…

> "the transformation has been remarkable"

It's been great for my dad. He used to have to schedule the Access-a-ride to pick him up in his wheelchair. It was a huge pain, and he tried to avoid it as much as possible. Now he's got a light rail station a block away. He has an ease of mobility he's never had before.

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