Advice on Denver Living? (Arvada, Glendale: apartment, lease, school)

[xman665]

I'm looking for advice on Denver.

How's Cost of living?
Downtown cost of apartment?
Public transportation?

[kwk722]

Where are you moving from? for comparison -
Denver supposedly has very good public transit. check out RTD-Denver.com

[esya]

Denver's public transit depends on where you live. The frequent (15 min) buses serve the northeast area or main streets best--Park Hill and surrounds, and major N/S boulevards. BE sure and check the maps at schedules at RTD.com I think. If you like newer urban, Stapleton is nice or north of downtown. Not sure about west although that's become popular--I know there is a major route on 38th all the way west to Arvada wheatridge etc. The commuter buses to/from the south western suburbs serve the sixth and simms stop and probably others.

There are light rails from the far southern burbs--highlands ranch, Lonetree, but beware bec you have to drive to the train stations and parking may be inadequate, plus snow removal and/or warm up of cars on wintry days would be a drag.

On the other hand, I have lived within 6 miles of downtown for 9 years and many of those routes can be, ironically, commuter only, and east-west access is severely challenged across Glendale. If you have older school kids they will have to take public buses to their school of choice--that adds to the traffic problem.

Cherry Creek, which is mucho expensive, naturally has the best public transportation (multiple routes to choose from) while the more outlier portions of city proper (more affordable) have less service. Go figure.

What the city and county of Denver got for going with RTD was better service to and from the burbs--an ironic situation to me, anyway.

Also, they adjust the routes every few months and have been dropping less used bus routes to pay for the commuter trains, so you should calculate that in if you really want to use the bus and sign a lease. I think you might get that info on their web, I don't know.

[livecontent]

I would suggest that you look at a thread that I started on RTD. I am a strong advocate of public transportation. It will help you to understand the system.

Car Free living in Denver