DENVER | Transportation Thread

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by RyanD

You're putting bike lanes, with a 10 foot double reinforced retaining wall between the bike and car lane, on I-70 right?? Nothing spells out safety like some good retaining walls!

No, I am going for absolute transportation equality. That's what we want, right? Which means bikes are welcome to use the tolled lanes, so long as they have an ExpressToll account and a transponder in a clearly visible location. Oh, and they'd better keep up. (#sarcasm)

[seventwenty]

"Live" transit map.

[bcp]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Focus how? We do focus - good lord, we have thousands of pages of federal highway safety regulations, what more do you want? Accidents happen. I figure to some extent this is the cost of the American way of life. We could invest more in infrastructure, of course, which would help, but nobody wants to do that.

breathe...breathe...jeebus man! i meant that there is such a media focus on train wrecks...obviously the volume of driving is higher, but the raw numbers of auto-related deaths are kinda swept under the rug.

[denconyny]

Originally Posted by seventwenty

"Live" transit map.

I think that I like this.... sometimes this may help (even me) to take the bus more when one knows where a bus is and how soon it will be where one would want to catch it......

[seventwenty]

Originally Posted by denconyny

I think that I like this.... sometimes this may help (even me) to take the bus more when one knows where a bus is and how soon it will be where one would want to catch it......

I don't think it's really live; it's more like "here's where things should be, if everything is on schedule."

Also check out Transit App for iOS and Android. Not only is that app far better than RTD's, it also helped me figure out Portland's transit system a few months back. Plus it shows you where car2go cars are.

[denconyny]

Originally Posted by seventwenty

I don't think it's really live; it's more like "here's where things should be, if everything is on schedule."

Also check out Transit App for iOS and Android. Not only is that app far better than RTD's, it also helped me figure out Portland's transit system a few months back. Plus it shows you where car2go cars are.

Really? ..... then I'm disappointed. If this is only - a where the bus is supposed to be - then of what use is it? Just to throw this out there.... why would RTD put this up if it's only a where maybe the buses are supposed to be..... or maybe this is a preface to sometime very soon going live? Because looking at it as is now certainly had me thinking that this was live.....

I'll check out the other links.... but to actually have the ability to know in the now where a bus is that one might plan to soon board certainly would be such an improvement in time management in a lot of lives of a lot of folks (and probably a stress reducer as well).....

[afrench]

Originally Posted by denconyny

Really? ..... then I'm disappointed. If this is only - a where the bus is supposed to be - then of what use is it? Just to throw this out there.... why would RTD put this up if it's only a where maybe the buses are supposed to be..... or maybe this is a preface to sometime very soon going live? Because looking at it as is now certainly had me thinking that this was live.....

I'll check out the other links.... but to actually have the ability to know in the now where a bus is that one might plan to soon board certainly would be such an improvement in time management in a lot of lives of a lot of folks (and probably a stress reducer as well).....

TRAVIC uses the publicly available trip and stop data that transit agencies publish for services like Google Maps (the data model was actually developed by Google and Portland's TriMet to normalize each transit agency's data). They're able to see how many trips are underway each moment and when each bus or train should be arriving at a stop, so they can show them "moving" based on that, not their actual reported position. It's more a visualization of transit availability and trip density than a tool to tell you when to leave work to catch the bus, as any individual bus or train could be several minutes in front of or behind this ideal model.

On a related note, a student group I was involved with tried to get RTD to let us throw a GPS tracker on the Call n Ride shuttles in Golden. They declined, saying that their own real-time GPS service would be available soon. That was a few years ago, so apparently that service is on the same "soon" timeline as the smartcard service.

[Pedalrob]

Nm

[seventwenty]

Toll lane pricing finalized: Http://www.m.bizjournals.com/denver/...oll-rates.html

$7.60 peak pricing with pass. $13.68 without a pass

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by seventwenty

$7.60 peak pricing with pass. $13.68 without a pass

I'll be keeping me hands in me pockets. Catch you in the FREE lanes.


"Highway projects now won't run out of gas until August"
May 20, 2015 by Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief/DBJ

Federal funding for highways and mass transit will continue through the end of July under legislation making its way through Congress this week.

Nobody is happy with this two-month extension — it’s the 33rd short-term extension of highway funding over the past six years. But members of Congress can’t agree on a long-term solution to the Highway Trust Fund’s basic problem: Gasoline tax revenue no longer brings in enough money to fund transportation projects. The simplest solution — raising the gas tax — is opposed by most Republicans

No way to run a business, certainly. Actually the short extension may mean they think they can get a long-term funding bill passed sooner than later. I'm still hearing 5/6 years.

Which got me to thinking...

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

I'll be keeping me hands in me pockets. Catch you in the FREE lanes.

Not sure if anybody else heard the NPR piece this morning. Executive Director Bhatt noted, "You can pay with your time or you can pay with your money."

Everybody should get a switchable transponder. (100,000 of them arriving before June 22's opening.) You will no longer be able to use the HOV lanes free as an HOV without a transponder, where you "self-select" HOV. Otherwise, it'll assume you are a SOV and you'll be issued a license plate toll. Just FYI.

[Scottk]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Not sure if anybody else heard the NPR piece this morning. Executive Director Bhatt noted, "You can pay with your time or you can pay with your money."

Everybody should get a switchable transponder. (100,000 of them arriving before June 22's opening.) You will no longer be able to use the HOV lanes free as an HOV without a transponder, where you "self-select" HOV. Otherwise, it'll assume you are a SOV and you'll be issued a license plate toll. Just FYI.

What's to stop me from just switching the transponder to HOV, even if it's just me?

Edit to add: traffic on US 36 eastbound becomes non existent once the third lane becomes available at Sheridan. Given this fact, I don't think traffic in the free lanes will be bad at all. The "Lexus lane" should be good enough to ease congestion

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by Scottk

What's to stop me from just switching the transponder to HOV, even if it's just me?

Edit to add: traffic on US 36 eastbound becomes non existent once the third lane becomes available at Sheridan. Given this fact, I don't think traffic in the free lanes will be bad at all. The "Lexus lane" should be good enough to ease congestion

I am working on this. It's crazy how many different permutations there are for trying to beat the system.

When you pass through a tolling point, there is actually a light that registers whether the car going through identifies as HOV or toll-paying, which the state patrol and/or local police can see.

[TakeFive]

...seeing as how CDOT is now hiring lawyers off the street to work on I-70 thru Denver, you know that's the top priority; that's gonna get done come hell or high water.

Next priority (other than some work on I-70 into the mountains) is supposed to be C-470. Not sure if that might or could be delayed pending funding needed for I-70 or not?

Thinking back, since completion of T-REX, CDOT has prioritized work along I-25 north of Broadway through downtown including the ongoing 6th Ave. reconfiguration. Additionally highway 36 is now in the home stretch.

If the more typically Republican legislators from outlying and more rural areas desire better roads (or transit) it seems only logical that they would come to the table with their metro area friends on both sides of the aisle on both the TABOR issue and raising the gas tax for much needed funds.

[bunt_q]

Hey, I was neither hired off the street, nor do I work for CDOT. But yes, I-70 is getting done, Statements of Qualifications from teams are due in a little over a month.

C-470 is happening at the same time, NEPA process is underway. Private money makes things happen faster.

Peak period toll lane in the mountain corridor will open in December.

Northern Colorado legislators are at the table. Toll lanes are in planning for that corridor already as well.

Nobody is even talking about taking a gas tax increase to the ballot. All polling says it would get trounced. Badly. Who is going to champion that?

It's not accurate to say that's what CDOT has championed since TREX. 2009 was really the turning point year. Since then, nearly all of the state's bad bridges have been replaced. And if you google the strategic priority investment projects statewide, a good many of those have gotten done too. (I-25 through Colorado Springs, for example.) All post-TREX.

Not to say we don't need more transportation money... obviously. But we manage okay, what with Fastracks and the other random things we've cobbled together. It's not like TABOR is going away...

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

C-470 is happening at the same time, NEPA process is underway. Private money makes things happen faster.

Good, good. I wasn't sure if it was that nailed down.

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Northern Colorado legislators are at the table. Toll lanes are in planning for that corridor already as well.

Tolls, tolls, everywhere a toll.

On the one hand it seems much easier for "user fees" from a dime more of gas tax. Obviously the biggest difference is that tolling lanes don't have to be voted on. An added advantage is that it's NOT a regressive tax/fee.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Hey, I was neither hired off the street, nor do I work for CDOT.

What's funny is that I can think back to a few years ago when I was ranting about getting I-70 redone. You were agreeable but at the time you were posting comments from your car while driving along I-70, slowly I believe. Don't recall if you were coming or going... but look at you now. You're actually working on the project.

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

What's funny is that I can think back to a few years ago when I was ranting about getting I-70 redone. You were agreeable but at the time you were posting comments from your car while driving along I-70, slowly I believe. Don't recall if you were coming or going... but look at you now. You're actually working on the project.

Oh yes, I vividly remember that drive, and that post. Was headed eastbound, to the airport. I probably would've paid anything that day... It's a great project, they don't get a whole lot more complicated!

[seventwenty]

RTD approves fare increases: http://m.bizjournals.com/denver/news...-protests.html

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by seventwenty

RTD approves fare increases: http://m.bizjournals.com/denver/news...-protests.html

The agency also says it plans to introduce a "smart card" system next year, allowing passengers to purchase and store fares electronically and pay fares at a discount.

You mean... There won't be grey in my beard before this happens? I'll believe it when I see it.

Of course... I don't really care. I have an EcoPass.