Good walk-able cities, with public transit in the US. (quality, rail, state)
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Denver has been the most aggressive mid-sized metro area in taxing, spending, and engaging in public-private partnerships to build a huge rapid and commuter rail network. It's not perfect but is still a major asset that is having and will have, long-term positive effects for the region. Denver should be a model for all major cities that have been too reticent to make the mass transit plunge.
This just might be the most wildly inaccurate description of Chicago that I have ever read.
You are right that Chicago's urban development is very American but you are incorrect about the lack of small buildings, setbacks, row homes.
Chicago was the fastest growing city in the world during the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. By 1900, Chicago had grown to become the 5th largest city in the world.
The real estate boom that occurred during these years of explosive growth was oriented around street cars, horse drawn buggies, elevated rail lines, and pedestrians - because this was before the advent of mass automobile ownership.
Take a look at the photos of Chicago's neighborhoods today to see what I mean!
You hit on exactly the point: Chicago exploded at the right time -- while NYC was experimenting with new-fangled rapid transit and many decades prior to the development and growth of the automobile. Ironically, the city used the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 to its advantage: it wiped the slate clean and, essentially made Chicago an incubator of urban experimentation: the skyscraper, preservation of the lakeshore, building an inland waterway, in part, to channel industrial development away from the lakeshore which wise planners realized is a place for people, not industry, the development of a pioneer research university (U. of Chicago), large-scale planned street-grid development, including extensive use of alleyways to carry power lines of electricity (another new-fangled technology of the era) as well as elevated rapid transit trains behind the building line and not darken/uglify city streets.
Denver has a lot of rail miles, but overall transit ridership is poor. It's not a model in my opinion.
Its rail has gone to the easy corridors, not necessarily where the people are. It's built for the park-n-ride suburban commuter. There's been good TOD growth, but not on the scale needed to move the needle.
Denver has a lot of rail miles, but overall transit ridership is poor. It's not a model in my opinion.
Its rail has gone to the easy corridors, not necessarily where the people are. It's built for the park-n-ride suburban commuter. There's been good TOD growth, but not on the scale needed to move the needle.
While I agree, I think the benefits will reveal themselves in 20 years when the whole system is covered in TODs. Many of the newest commuter lines have only been open for a couple years.
Denver has a lot of rail miles, but overall transit ridership is poor. It's not a model in my opinion.
Its rail has gone to the easy corridors, not necessarily where the people are. It's built for the park-n-ride suburban commuter. There's been good TOD growth, but not on the scale needed to move the needle.
Rail is just a plus. Denver has good bus coverage which should be taken into consideration.
Its combined commute stats are poor, both core-city and metro.
Continued TOD growth will help, and there seems to be energy to put a lot of growth in TO areas both by policy and public/developer desire. But those existing neighborhoods still need better service.
Locals complain about poor service in some pretty obvious corridors, including buses. The gist seems to be basically what I've said, that transit is focused on the long-range park-n-rider rather than better service in Denver itself.
Its combined commute stats are poor, both core-city and metro.
Continued TOD growth will help, and there seems to be energy to put a lot of growth in TO areas both by policy and public/developer desire. But those existing neighborhoods still need better service.
Locals complain about poor service in some pretty obvious corridors, including buses. The gist seems to be basically what I've said, that transit is focused on the long-range park-n-rider rather than better service in Denver itself.
Speaking from experience, I’ve never had an issue getting around the city using RTD (And I used to use it often). I know C-D is stat based but Ridership numbers don’t always tell the full story imo. I’ve learned that in more than a few cities. The suburbs are a different story and frequency can be an issue though.
Its combined commute stats are poor, both core-city and metro.
Continued TOD growth will help, and there seems to be energy to put a lot of growth in TO areas both by policy and public/developer desire. But those existing neighborhoods still need better service.
Locals complain about poor service in some pretty obvious corridors, including buses. The gist seems to be basically what I've said, that transit is focused on the long-range park-n-rider rather than better service in Denver itself.
It's combined commute stats look very much like Seattle's. Pre-covid it had slightly higher light rail ridership, significantly higher commuter rail ridership and significantly less bus ridership, but very much in the same general area. During the pandemic it's passed Seattle's numbers for total ridership. This is all from APTA transit stats, which are what what transit agencies actually measure, not what people self-report on the census.
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