Sunday, August 26, 2007

Taking 'The Ride'

Hey all, welcome to the conference web log (clog) for TRB's Best Practices: Coordination of Transit, Regional Transportation Planning and Land Use. We'll post up pictures and links to whats going on this week as well as be a place where folks can comment. Looking down the line...

Down The Line

Today was the introduction to the Denver System. First, a board member of the Regional Transportation District(RTD) discussed the Fastracks program and how it would work. An overview of the program can be found here. There were some interesting facts given that I wasn't aware of and I imagine that it was news to a few folks in the room. I've taken the time to discuss a few of them below. Some are also covered in greater depth in Sam's post above.

1. Each Fastracks Corridor has it's own alotment of money. This way there is no system cannibalization if costs rise on certain corridors. They have to figure out how to build out with the money they have, and find ways to cut costs or raise money to build the line.

2. Southeast Corridor (Formerly TREX) is 14% above projected ridership.

3. A consulting and marketing group was hired to help local leaders understand and get the word out about the Fastracks program.

4. There are always disgruntled tax payers, everywhere. (Folks might have known this one already)

5. One of the issues that RTD is facing on the current lines are the use of park and ride facilities by people outside of the service area, often displacing those that live in the service area and pay the tax.


Also covered today was the story of Englewood, a streetcar suburb of Denver with a lot of history and now a TOD. Sam covers more of the history above but also we'll hopefully post the power point from the city up here discussing the development later.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the conference. Here are some photos from today's tour of Englewood and Union Station.

Rockies

Englewood Trolly

Englewood Bridge

LODO LRT

Englewood3

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