Quote:
Originally Posted by wong21fr
Bikes = small impact due to low use. Buses = large impact due to high use (and less desirable people). Or something along those lines, I'm playing fast and loose....
Can you imagine how many passengers those 350 buses will bring daily?
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This is the inevitable consequence of poor urban planning.
To start:
Let's assume that the decision to place the bus station between the DUS light station and Union Station was the correct thing to do.
So we have an underground linear bus station that has to have ways to enter and ways to leave. In addition, these axis roads have to feed into the road grid in some fashion. The question is how.
As part of the DUS schema, a minimum of land was devoted to public transportation, and, a maximum to quick real estate development. This schema pushed the development of as large a street grid as possible within the former rail yards.* To the northwest of the Light Rail end of the Bus Station, land between the 3 existing freight rail tracks and parks paralleling the S. Platte were laid out into the Riverfront Complex. To the northeast of the Light Rail Station, 19th was extended southeast, and Chestnut road was extended into another road grid labeled Oakwood.
The road layout forces traffic exiting the northwest end of the Bus station to make 5 turns over about a half of mile to get to 20th St which provides the quickest access to I-25. This road is choked when the Rockies are near .500 (had to change that,
). Coors Field parking, in large part, is accessed from 20th. In addition, while access to I-25 to the north is fair, access from 20th St to 1-25 south requires more time spent at a couple of lights.
The south end is far worse, here the traffic exits directly into already built up portions of Lodo and streets with stop lights, high traffic density etc. Unlike the better road accessible Civic Station, the south Bus exit does not quickly access large streets such as Broadway, and, Colfax.
And, as is often the case, those parties who will deal with radically increased bus traffic are only now verbalizing their concern.
Lesson learned for other cities:
Put the central bus stations somewhere else on the rail network, perhaps one or two stations away from the core railroad station. Huge bus stations need quick access to arterials to function, and, designing such complexes requires room to put in direct access to freeway on ramps, and, to 4 to 6 lane roads.
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In Denver, the best place for such a bus station would have been south of the Pepsi Center Station, perhaps at a properly configured W line/Corridor line Station complex with a fast connection to Civic Station. Colfax could have been accessed directly by bus for West and North Connections as well as East (and South bound local) Bound connections. South bound connects A 4 minute light rail trip would have provided access to DUS.
Again, we are beginning to reap mistakes set in concrete and steel.
Wait until 200,000 or more users flood into the DUS complex and calls are made for cut and cover tunnels for bus usage under downtown streets.
*This extension of the street grid around the stub ends of the light rail northeast of the DUS Light Rail station has reduced the size of a light car storage yard. The small size, as laid out, reduces the storage ability to both inhibit train frequencies into DUS light and affect the length of trains that can be temporarily stored there. For now, a passenger platform needs to be QUICKLY laid between tracks 2 and 3, despite difficulties to passengers to get to the north track when tracks 1 and 2 are occupied. Ideally, an underground user tunnel should be put in west of the buried bus complex, and, the fence between tracks 2 and 3, in large part should remain.
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