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Originally Posted by Brainpathology
How about craning your head slightly westward to what RTD and P3 are doing. Not that the person you're asking would agree.
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To Bunt
In the US, IMO, the best government/private hybrids have been in building airports. In terms of excellence of function, the best transportation complex built in Denver in the last 30 years or more, has been DIA ((the issue here is not property plays which involved land from DIA to the former boundary of Denver, but that the project serves (the pre-911 world in particular) airline traffic, ground movements, user access via rubber tired vehicles almost perfectly.))
Historically, on an intra-state and interstate level ,over the last century or so, the best government construction has been related to the movement and storage of of fresh water, and, the processing of waste water. Look beyond the miscalculations in Colorado Basin run off based on a too short a length of time database, and, the development of the water usage has been incredibly efficient.
Nationally the best government/private hybrid in the last 60 or so years has been NASA, particularly related to non-manned space craft.
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Regarding the Circulator:
The steel rail system envisioned by RTD is almost completely a downtown Denver development scheme. The object is to get as many commuters and visitors into the DUS-Civic Station axis. This maximizes real estate values, and, generates the greatest increase in tax base worth.
Think of it an early 20th century Manhattan and Brooklyn, with white collar and manufacturing jobs concentrated in the two boroughs and commuters traveling in from suburbs via train, and, the subway providing linkages within the boroughs.
The problem, of course, is that 21st Century Denver cannot become early 20th Century NY because the jobs are dispersed throughout the metro-area. Paradoxically, 21st Century Denver is more like LA, today, where jobs are spread out in concentrations and workers commute to a huge number of locations.
In Denver metro, perhaps 10% of the jobs lie in an expanded downtown area, and, the rest are located in places like the Tech Center, DIA, Boulder, Lakewood, etc., as well as almost evenly dispersed throughout the metro-area, particularly in retail.
The official line of the RTD might be that the spokes actually serve the Tech Center, DIA, Boulder, Lakewood, etc., but, if so, they do so poorly (and will continue to do) poorly as the time factor involved in
passing through downtown for commuters will tend to negate the advantages of public transportation for cross metro commutes.
(A friend of mine remarked that the build out will produce an almost ideal commute world only for someone living in Lodo, near DUS. When the system is completed, could work in Boulder, Lakewood, at DIA, and, at the Tech Center and have quick commutes anywhere. Another reason for a downtown apartment condo..... Yup, serves the needs of the metro-area.)
Great transportation systems accept this transportation need and deal with it via rail loops, same seat through service, and, platform to platform transfers, all of which could have been provided in the build out as ample right-of-way and downtown rail yard land was available.
For property development profit reasons, this was not done nearly as well as it could have been done and should have been done. Choices, bottom line, were made deliberately, and, were made in response to money and power.
The Circulator is a response to the larger number of commuters who will pour into Downtown via DUS and Civic Center Connections, as well as to spread a diluted 16th Street Mall 'effect' over a larger area. The 16th Street Mall usage during rush hours runs at saturation, as is, and, the movement of Market Street Bus traffic to the DUS bus station combined with additional rail traffic on the DUS light rail and heavy duty commuter lines will put a huge number of commuters at the north end of the Downtown Axis who will need to move south. Nothing more- (you are correct in your analysis.)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7QE9...7300AF8A6624BB
This shows an excellent bus station/rail station combination, with buses running parallel to the ground floor of a multi-level train station in Osaka, Japan. The Station, like most great train stations, is a through tracked station with the terminal running parallel to, and, over, the tracks. The bus station lies on one side, has one multilane axis point, is one way, and, exits at an intersection, permitting multidirectional exit.
A side note: the Japanese have the practice of running a full or near full bus (and train) schedule for commuter traffic throughout the business day. For this reason, the buses shown in this video, have few passengers. This will not be the case during rush hours.