DENVER | Transportation Thread

[TakeFive]

“We’re done with Denver. The risk far outweighs the reward.”

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

“We’re done with Denver. The risk far outweighs the reward.”

Not carrying insurance on your assets (not liability but comprehensive at the least)? Seems like a pretty dumbass way of doing business.

Especially for a business where your assets aren't on your property nor are they actively monitored.

[seventwenty]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Not carrying insurance on your assets (not liability but comprehensive at the least)? Seems like a pretty dumbass way of doing business.

Especially for a business where your assets aren't on your property nor are they actively monitored.

Yeah seriously. Reading about Turo insurance, I have a hunch the owners never got commercial liability insurance. So their personal auto insurance said tough shit when they filed a claim, or they under insuranced themselves with Turo’s insurance policies.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Not carrying insurance on your assets (not liability but comprehensive at the least)? Seems like a pretty dumbass way of doing business.

Especially for a business where your assets aren't on your property nor are they actively monitored.

Originally Posted by seventwenty

Yeah seriously. Reading about Turo insurance, I have a hunch the owners never got commercial liability insurance. So their personal auto insurance said tough shit when they filed a claim, or they under insuranced themselves with Turo’s insurance policies.

My guess would be they figured the only time insurance was needed was when the cars were rented. Didn't check Turo but I assume like Uber/Lyft their insurance comes with rental contracts. Since the cars were otherwise just 'stored' on a lot they figured they'd just self-insure for any piddly, comprehensive stuff. Not sure they properly assessed the security of the 'storage'.

[TakeFive]

“Fix our Damn Roads”
by Caldara/Independence Institute will now be competing with the genteel Denver Chamber for initiative signatures and votes come November.

Colorado House, Senate leaders strike transportation-funding deal
By Ed Sealover – Reporter, Denver Business Journal an hour ago

Bottom Line: Republicans blinked; they pretty much had to; throwing a hissy fit would have accomplished nothing just like what has happened for years.

So far... excellent
Over the next couple of years CDOT will receive one-time injections of $495 million and $150 million followed by $50 million a year. Fifteen percent of the funds are to be allocated to multimodal and fifteen percent allocated to local projects while the remaining seventy percent go to state projects. I like it; well done everybody.

The Denver Chamber/business groups intend to bring a transportation initiative for state voter approval for increased taxes and revenue. The Chamber thought it important that the legislature/general fund first contribute to the cause, partly as a good-faith showing to voters that existing state funding is part of the solution. But it's not enough so voters will be asked to join the road party

[TakeFive]

The adults in the room


Photo: Nathaniel Minor/CPR News via CPR

http://www.cpr.org/news/story/colora...tation-funding

House Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, and Republican Sen. President Kevin Grantham, R-Cañon City, announced a deal Monday...

Can we all just get along...

“This is not what would be the ideal for either one of us,” said Grantham, nodding to Duran. “We are in a split legislature and sometimes that’s when we do our best work, when we have to look at the other side and come up with solutions that fall somewhere in between.”

Duran agreed the plan proved lawmakers could overcome political divisions.

Politics can be so predictable...

Republicans blinked but not all were happy about it so many threw out pissy statements which is SOP following any resolution.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

[aw nevermind; everyone's moved on]

A Gif for you...


Gif courtesy Seattle Bike Blog

[TakeFive]

May 1st will roll around before you know it

What's in store for new shops, restaurants in DIA's Great Hall?
May 9, 2018 by Cathy Proctor – Reporter, Denver Business Journal

Interest in the new business opportunities is running high, said Great Hall Partners CEO Ignacio Castejón said Wednesday in an interview with the Denver Business Journal. More than 200 people turned out in mid-April at a kick-off seminar about the request-for-proposal (RFP) process, and information about bidding for the concessions is being downloaded steadily from the team’s website, he said.

The 10 new stores are the first of 50 new shops and restaurants that will be part of the renovated Great Hall inside DIA’s Jeppesen Terminal. And Great Hall Partners isn’t wasting time. The team, led by Spain’s Ferrovial S.A., wants bids submitted by June 12, with contracts in place by the end of June — and stores open by May 1, 2019, less than a year away.

Does the Great Hall really have that much potential?

DIA officials have said the newly renovated Great Hall will have three times the square footage available for restaurants and shops compared to the existing hall.

And the winners of the bid process will have access to a huge group of potential customers, Castejón said. “This is one of the single largest flow of passengers globally, as they walk through Jeppesen Terminal,” Castejón said.

[TakeFive]

The Story of Two Kindred Cities

Austin transit advocates watch in horror as kindred city shoots down ambitious plan
May 2, 2018 By Meg Garner and Daniel Salazar – Austin Business Journal

Nashville-area residents voted overwhelmingly against a $5.4 billion transit plan... But that disappointment was felt Wednesday outside of Middle Tennessee.

"It's a heartbreaker," said Rich MacKinnon, the former chairman of Austin's Urban Transportation Commission who splits his time between Austin and Nashville.

I wasn't aware of the affinity between Austin and Nashville.

The two cities are often compared to one another as booming tech hubs in the South that are grappling with growing issues related to affordability, gentrification and traffic. So many transit advocates in Austin were closely watching the results of the referendum...

The Moral of the Story:
A bird in the hand is better than two kindred cities in the bush.

Geaux Denver/RTD

[jbssfelix]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

The Story of Two Kindred Cities

Austin transit advocates watch in horror as kindred city shoots down ambitious plan
May 2, 2018 By Meg Garner and Daniel Salazar – Austin Business Journal

I wasn't aware of the affinity between Austin and Nashville.


The Moral of the Story:
A bird in the hand is better than two kindred cities in the bush.

Geaux Denver/RTD

Current Austinite here. Nobody ever mentions Nashville about anything other than the new hot chicken place that just opened by my place.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by jbssfelix

Current Austinite here. Nobody ever mentions Nashville about anything other than the new hot chicken place that just opened by my place.

It's been awhile.... but have you ever played the "Who are all those people, game?"

Consider DFW or DEN and all the scheduled flights going every-which-way to cities everywhere; and they do it every day. Who are all those people and do they just go back and forth every day?

[TakeFive]

Just your typical Spring Cleaning?
or not...

With the aid of my mechanical calculator it looks like RTD is eliminating ~170 bus stops on various routes in May.

[Sam Hill]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Just your typical Spring Cleaning?
or not...

With the aid of my mechanical calculator it looks like RTD is eliminating ~170 bus stops on various routes in May.

They're eliminating the stop closest to me. They're also reducing bus frequency on some of my most-used routes. This is -- as I understand it -- due to falling ridership. It seems the anti-car crowd's dream of Denver becoming a transit city are fading and we're in fact only becoming more car dependent despite all the increased density.

A major factor obviously is ride-sharing. I personally recently decided I would never use the bus again and started using ride-sharing exclusively - even though I can't afford it and it's really hurting me financially. But it doesn't work at all for most people (especially those of the lower classes) because most people have a commute long enough to make it prohibitively expensive. (Bear in mind, on some days the cost of a ride abruptly triples due to increased demand, due to poor weather and the like. My $17 ride to work once suddenly became a $50 ride one cold, snowy morning, and there was nothing I could do about it but either take the bus and be over an hour late for work [my RTD commute is typically 75 to 90 minutes -- 20-25 by car], or eat the cost. I ate the cost.)

It seems to me the shift away from commuting by car or public transportation, and towards ride-sharing, walking, and cycling, is primarily benefiting the wealthy who can afford to live and work downtown, and exacerbating gentrification. The vast majority of those residing in this metropolis continue to get around by car out of necessity (which is only getting worse as public transportation services are being cut), and the urbanist dream is quickly becoming out of reach for the average resident. Am I wrong? Thoughts?

I'm curious how ride-sharing compares to public transit and personal automobile use ecologically. Is it increasing traffic, pollution, and fossil-fule-use? Or decreasing? I imagine it's slightly beneficial - but only slightly. I'd be curious to see some data but I don't think there's much out there.

[Sam Hill]

Here's what I wanted to avoid ranting about but I just can't help myself in this moment: the reason I stopped using RTD. I already know much of what I'm about to say is very much not politically correct, but I don't give a crap because it's the damn truth.

I stopped riding the bus because RTD is nasty. It's just nasty. When I lived in SF there were far more riffraff, and the riffraff were much more in-your-face and aggressive. However, the use of public transportation wasn't actually that unpleasant because the riffraff to normal person ratio was actually pretty good. Same thing every time I visit NYC. But the riffraff to normal person ratio on the buses of Denver is just awful. Due to this, my commute has been uncomfortable (to say the least) the whole time I've been at my new job in Commerce City. Sometimes the smell alone is too much to take. And it seems to have gotten worse recently (especially compared to what I remember from years past).

On the same week I had two experiences on the way to work that were enough to make me swear off RTD forever. The first: I didn't look before I sat and I sat in something disgusting that some riffraff left behind. I had to get off at the next stop, speed-walk home, shower and change, and take a Lyft to work. It was so disgusting I still get the eeby-jeebies every time I think about it. I threw those jeans away.

The second: a few days later this homeless guy sits right next to me. For some reason he was cradling an old hardhat filled with bloody tissues. Not only was his smell so horrific it was making me gag, but I was afraid he or one of his bloody tissues was going to touch me, so I had to move to the front of the bus (which is where the riffraff more typically are) and sure enough, a few stops later, these two rough individuals get on with an excuse about why they only have a fraction of the fare. The bus driver lets them on with the ole apathetic rebuke: "Well I'm not giving you a transfer." One was dragging a heavy five-gallon bucket for some reason. As I realized they were preparing to sit on either side of me, I stood up and got off the bus. That was it for me. No more RTD.

There are many, many more such stories from my adventures on RTD over the past (mere) five or six months. I once almost got cornered into a fist fight trying to convince this extremely drunk guy (I think he was also on drugs) to stop sexually harassing, and gawking at, this poor, frightened girl who couldn't have been any older than 13 (but luckily a fellow rider backed me up). Speaking of fist fights, I once witnessed one that broke out over whether or not a rider's rapping was bad (for some reason he was rapping really loudly and rhyming the n-word with the n-word at the end of every verse). Speaking of the n-word, I once had to endure sitting two seats down from this big ol' crazy redneck that was shouting it over and over and making the whole bus uncomfortable. (The bus driver did nothing. I would have kicked him off and/or summoned the RTD cops.)

I've seen it all - and in such a short period of time. But no more. RTD is nasty. I'm done.

Edit: Come to think of it, it's really just the buses that are bad. The trains really aren't that bad at all. I wonder why that is? :/

[PLANSIT]

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

Here's what I wanted to avoid ranting about but I just can't help myself in this moment: the reason I stopped using RTD. I already know much of what I'm about to say is very much not politically correct, but I don't give a crap because it's the damn truth.

I stopped riding the bus because RTD is nasty. It's just nasty. When I lived in SF there were far more riffraff, and the riffraff were much more in-your-face and aggressive. However, the use of public transportation wasn't actually that unpleasant because the riffraff to normal person ratio was actually pretty good. Same thing every time I visit NYC. But the riffraff to normal person ratio on the buses of Denver is just awful. Due to this, my commute has been uncomfortable (to say the least) the whole time I've been at my new job in Commerce City. Sometimes the smell alone is too much to take. And it seems to have gotten worse recently (especially compared to what I remember from years past).

On the same week I had two experiences on the way to work that were enough to make me swear off RTD forever. The first: I didn't look before I sat and I sat in something disgusting that some riffraff left behind. I had to get off at the next stop, speed-walk home, shower and change, and take a Lyft to work. It was so disgusting I still get the eeby-jeebies every time I think about it. I threw those jeans away.

The second: a few days later this homeless guy sits right next to me. For some reason he was cradling an old hardhat filled with bloody tissues. Not only was his smell so horrific it was making me gag, but I was afraid he or one of his bloody tissues was going to touch me, so I had to move to the front of the bus (which is where the riffraff more typically are) and sure enough, a few stops later, these two rough individuals get on with an excuse about why they only have a fraction of the fare. The bus driver lets them on with the ole apathetic rebuke: "Well I'm not giving you a transfer." One was dragging a heavy five-gallon bucket for some reason. As I realized they were preparing to sit on either side of me, I stood up and got off the bus. That was it for me. No more RTD.

There are many, many more such stories from my adventures on RTD over the past (mere) five or six months. I once almost got cornered into a fist fight trying to convince this extremely drunk guy (I think he was also on drugs) to stop sexually harassing, and gawking at, this poor, frightened girl who couldn't have been any older than 13 (but luckily a fellow rider backed me up). Speaking of fist fights, I once witnessed one that broke out over whether or not a rider's rapping was bad (for some reason he was rapping really loudly and rhyming the n-word with the n-word at the end of every verse). Speaking of the n-word, I once had to endure sitting two seats down from this big ol' crazy redneck that was shouting it over and over and making the whole bus uncomfortable. (The bus driver did nothing. I would have kicked him off and/or summoned the RTD cops.)

I've seen it all - and in such a short period of time. But no more. RTD is nasty. I'm done.

Edit: Come to think of it, it's really just the buses that are bad. The trains really aren't that bad at all. I wonder why that is? :/

This is a typical Thursday for me.

[mr1138]

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

I stopped riding the bus because RTD is nasty. It's just nasty. When I lived in SF there were far more riffraff, and the riffraff were much more in-your-face and aggressive. However, the use of public transportation wasn't actually that unpleasant because the riffraff to normal person ratio was actually pretty good. Same thing every time I visit NYC. But the riffraff to normal person ratio on the buses of Denver is just awful.

Edit: Come to think of it, it's really just the buses that are bad. The trains really aren't that bad at all. I wonder why that is? :/

There's a lot to unpack and discuss in there, and I would say you are not wrong. I'll single out these two specific points though: I think for the "riffraff to normal person ratio," just see your previous post about frequency and you'll have your answer as to why there aren't more "normal people." I also think the same thing goes for your edit - RTD's trains run along routes that are much more useful to people, have higher frequency, and are often time-competitive with automobile travel. Hence why more "normal people" use them.

In Boulder, they're beginning to have a discussion about the 30-min frequency routes and whether they could be better served by a "micro-transit" service. This would mean something more like Lyft-line, but operated by a public transit agency. Via (formerly "Special Transit"), which operates Boulder's HOP bus, already has a fleet of vehicles that would be ideal for such a service, and the idea is that payment would honor RTD's EcoPasses and their fare structure (much like the HOP already does). This would suggest that you aren't wrong that mobility-on-demand services can in fact be superior to fixed-route transit in many cases. They key is what kind of route you're talking about - is it a trunk route with high frequency, like a commuter train, the 15, the mall shuttle, or Boulder's SKIP (which still make a lot of sense); or is it a meandering route with 30-min or less frequency (which may be much better served by a public "micro-transit" system)?

[TakeFive]

How 'bout those Washington Capitals?
Nice move bringing in Michal Kempny from the Blackhawks. Penguins are so yesterday.

Sam Hill Have you checked into the new Lyft Pass?

[Cirrus]

I'm curious how ride-sharing compares to public transit and personal automobile use ecologically. Is it increasing traffic, pollution, and fossil-fule-use?

I don't have the stats in front of me right now, but ride-hailing is generally increasing congestion, pollution, and fuel-use, but decreasing demand for off-street parking.

This is a fairly predictable result. For every one passenger-carrying trip, a ride-hailing car actually takes two trips: The passenger-carrying trip plus the trip to get to the passenger pick-up point.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

I don't have the stats in front of me right now, but ride-hailing is generally increasing congestion, pollution, and fuel-use, but decreasing demand for off-street parking.

This is a fairly predictable result. For every one passenger-carrying trip, a ride-hailing car actually takes two trips: The passenger-carrying trip plus the trip to get to the passenger pick-up point.

However... the analysis I've seen is for basic Uber/Lyft ride-hailing service which makes total sense; but with ride-sharing as opposed to ride-hailing a driver should take a few cars off the road. I don't recall any analysis for that.

EDIT: Not unusual I make a post and then go do additional research... but that's also how I learn.
It appears most are using ride-hailing and ride-sharing interchangeably. One (clearly biased) site made the argument that van-pooling/ride sharing presumably appealed to (former) bus riders and therefor was still adding to congestion. I buy the logic but the lack of analysis as to how true that is, is problematic.

Certainly in a place like Denver where bus ridership is not a robust part of commuting the option of van-pooling can be a 1st step for leaving the car at home. In this case it's more of a positive than a negative. The next step of van-pooling to the nearest light rail stop is ultimately the best solution for potentially lots of commuters.

[Sam Hill]

I did actually mean ride-hailing. I keep calling it ride-sharing by mistake. A lot of people do. I also use car-sharing (car2go) for trips to ikea and whatnot.