Light rail to Parker (Denver, Aurora: renting, house, neighborhood)

[aurora303]

I'm familiar with the expansion plans of Denver mass transit but I was wondering if anyone knows of any plans for a line to Parker. Maybe from Lincoln or from the upcoming RidgeGate station? It doesn't look like there are any plans but maybe someone with more experience with RTD would know. Thanks!

[vegaspilgrim]

Fat chance of that happening within the next 20 years. Existing plans on the Fastracks expansion are being curtailed, and expanding the southeast line further south never was part of the plans to begin with.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

Fat chance of that happening within the next 20 years.

Try 40+ years. LOL. I would have said: FFC and not just FC.
Will never happen.
Driverless cars and renting cars by the hour will obviate the need/desire for "mass" transit everywhere in greater Denver.

[robertgoodman]

That would not be a transit travel time improvement to downtown over the P bus due to the number of stops. It may make sense for riders to eventually take to the tech center from Parker, but RTD and the cities that comprise the DTC would need to further mitigate the "Last Mile" problem as even now that's a huge hurdle for ridership on that corridor. Parker would also need to densify and fill in more before that would make sense and I really do not see that happening to the extent necessary to support light rail.

So yeah I would guess if everything aligns perfectly for that corridor they may begin to study that in 20 years. However, as it stands now Parker is an Exurb and LRT is a Suburban/Urban transit solution that does not make sense for it.

[aurora303]

Originally Posted by robertgoodman

That would not be a transit travel time improvement to downtown over the P bus due to the number of stops.

Good point, I didn't think of that for some reason. I like seeing growth in Denver but I must be looking too far ahead for the city's current situation

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by robertgoodman

That would not be a transit travel time improvement to downtown over the P bus due to the number of stops. It may make sense for riders to eventually take to the tech center from Parker, but RTD and the cities that comprise the DTC would need to further mitigate the "Last Mile" problem as even now that's a huge hurdle for ridership on that corridor. Parker would also need to densify and fill in more before that would make sense and I really do not see that happening to the extent necessary to support light rail.

So yeah I would guess if everything aligns perfectly for that corridor they may begin to study that in 20 years. However, as it stands now Parker is an Exurb and LRT is a Suburban/Urban transit solution that does not make sense for it.

As it stands, there are stops in Littleton and Lone Tree, and as far as I know those are fine. What's the difference between Lone Tree and northern Parker? Not much. Franktown is an exurb, Castle Rock is an exurb, but Parker borders 470 just like Lone Tree and HR, plus it borders Aurora(in it's own way, since part of that southern area of Aurora is unincorporated as far as I know), and Aurora is a major city in its own right.

[skins_fan82]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

What's the difference between Lone Tree and northern Parker? .

I-25 I think LOL.

And I agree. we live in Parker, about a mile past the Wildlife Experience right off of Lincoln. We took the light rail into town the other day, and it LITERALLY took us 6 minutes from pulling out from our house to the metro parking garage.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

Fat chance of that happening within the next 20 years. Existing plans on the Fastracks expansion are being curtailed, and expanding the southeast line further south never was part of the plans to begin with.

Actually extending the southeast line south to I-25 and RidgeGate Parkway was a Fastracts plan, as promised to voters in 2004. According to RTD the project is still currently in the environmental review process, until the end of this year (subject to change depending on alternatives evaluation process).

But in light of RTDs current financial condition and the fiscal with their plans to bring commuter rail to Boulder County, the southeast extension stands probably about as good a chance of getting build as the Longmount line does. Which is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a snowball's chance in hell.

Even if the extension does somehow get build, it will still go nowhere near Parker. And I have not seen any recent plans from RTD for bringing light rail service to Parker. If it ever does happen, I agree with other posters here. 40 plus years would be an optimistic timetable for it happening.

Here is the current plan for the southeast extension.

http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/media/u...2finalrev1.pdf

[robertgoodman]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

As it stands, there are stops in Littleton and Lone Tree, and as far as I know those are fine. What's the difference between Lone Tree and northern Parker? Not much. Franktown is an exurb, Castle Rock is an exurb, but Parker borders 470 just like Lone Tree and HR, plus it borders Aurora(in it's own way, since part of that southern area of Aurora is unincorporated as far as I know), and Aurora is a major city in its own right.

Lone Tree is at the southern end of a continuous chain of mostly suburban municipalities along I25. Lone Tree also has pretty consistent suburban land use patterns while Parker's is an even mix of suburban and exurban land use patterns. Lone Tree is at the southern end of the DTC/Inverness/Meridian office area, and has a major shopping center which means transit makes a little more sense. In my mind those are all pretty significant differences.

Your other example Littleton has pretty consistent suburban densities and is pretty much surrounded by suburbs on all sides. It's also significantly closer to downtown Denver.

Yes Parker is pretty close to Lone Tree, and it even borders an extreme southern sliver of Aurora, but usually Exurbs are close to and may even technically border a few suburbs. If a city is surrounded by exurban land use patterns or undeveloped land most people will consider it an exurb. I do not mean anything negative by calling Parker an exurb it is what it is and I see nothing wrong with that.

[aurora303]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Here is the current plan for the southeast extension.

http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/media/u...2finalrev1.pdf

Thanks I found this very interesting