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Sounds like our sales taxes are going way up again. The Regional Transportation District is unwilling or unable to build light rail to Denver International, so now it is looking to magnetic levitation technology.
Nowhere do they say how much it costs. Having attended mag-lev workshops all over the nation, nowhere is it being built. Not New York to Miami, not Boston to Washington, not Los Angeles to Las Vegas, not Dallas to Houston. Of course, common sense is missing around here, so we will be in for costly, time-consuming, endless studies. It is a good excuse for not building a line to DIA.

Richard Weber, Denver

READER COMMENTS

RTD (Reason To Drive) is addicted to wasting your money on the most hare-brained ideas possible.

Again, if only people who post here had any clue as to what they're talking about. The maglev idea is simply something that RTD wants to study a bit, seeing as airport to downtown lines in various major cities worldwide actually use maglev technology... RTD is trying to find ways to cut back on potential cost overruns with FasTracks, and rightfully so. Construction costs have skyrocketed in the last few years, and new technologies and/or some level of privatization will be necessary to accomplish their goals.

And damn, I'm really quite tired of the old tired Reason To Drive garbage. RTD has remarkably good service for a metro of Denver's size, far better than most, in fact.

Posted 06:26 AM (no name) you must be one of those "let's just keep taxing them" crowd. The old Reason To Drive "garbage" as you put it is a very valid term. RTD is an inefficient tax monster, how about those of us who live in Allenspark? We pay for this boondoggle without any benefit whatsoever and they woudln't let us out of the taxation without representation mess. Have you ever looked at the ridership levels versus the average taxpayers burden for this system? I'm sure RTD provides good service for somebody but I suspect you drive a car yourself don't you?

If you live in Allenspark, do you really expect RTD to have much service that far out from the metro area? However, isn't there at least one bus route that goes through town (village)?

Boondoggle? What a load of bunk. Taxation without representation? Give me a break. I absolutely DARE YOU to find a regional transit system that does so much for relatively so few tax dollars. You think a 1% sales tax is too high? You ought to live in some other cities where the transit system tax can be as high as 2-3%...

Those idiots! They do nothing for me!! Until I get a line from my door straight to the video store I work at, Im not giving them any money!

There you go again, Richard Weber: I buy you books; I send you to school; and, you eat the books and skip class. Over and over, I tell you: Common sense is a collection of your bias and prejudice.

You say: "Common sense is missing here." It is not missing; it is there; it is here; it is everwhere; it is in the form of bias and prejudice. It is even in places god cannot get into. This entire forum is predicated on common sense. But for common sense, this forum would not exist.

Some people place so much value on their bias and prejudice (common sense) they are willing to roast others on account of it with kid Keith a fine example of the common sense giant that does the roasting.

Ps: Keith, you are being monitored and what you say to LarryMc, et al, is inexcuseable. You are about to be purged from this forum for your common sense. Me, RG, your friendly deicide.

Point of information (please forgive me for interjecting with a fact, I apologize...)
This is Colorado. Nobody's sales taxes are going up unless we voters say so. Remember TABOR????

What will our kids do if we do not start planning for the future now? I hope some sort of rail/alternative mass transit goes from at least Eagle to Denver with spurs to DIA and maybe F.C. and C.S. Let’s think about this. When gas climbs to $5 then $10 then $20 a gallon, the sky’s the limit, as supply shrinks and demand around the world skyrockets. If we have done our homework and have installed the infrastructure for mass transit, we will not only survive, but will prosper for our long vision. If we do nothing, not only will the economy tube, but the cost to fix the problem when it has become acute, will be astronomical compared to what it will cost now. We have the choice of future generations looking back at what we do now, and say, ‘That generation was intelligent enough to prepare us for the terrrific, world wide depression when fuel prices hit the roof.’ Or they can say, ‘What a bunch of short sighted, greed driven, stick their head into the sand generation. They did not do anything to plan for the future, and now we are paying the price in lives, not just in $.” The choice is ours, the time to build the dam is before the flood, not after.

hey liam you forgot the dems repealed Tabor for a bit so they could take all of your tax money and say its not a tax increase. the money they are keeping is 10 fold what they sold everyone on.

Service from the Reason To Drive? O.K.
45 minutes to an hour - even on the Colfax "express" bus - to get downtown from Colfax and Peoria to Colfax and Broadway. A wait of up to 30 minutes, in rain, sleet, wind, snow, or any other weather, on an unprotected corner, with a metal bench, for the bus going West from Colfax and Cheyenne Place to arrive.

(If it arrives early, the bus driver gets out, closes the bus; and goes for coffee. The passengers cannot get out of the weather. "Rules" that is.)

Leave Colfax and Cheyenne Place for West Colfax; and another 45 minutes to an hour to get out to Simms St.

Let's use just the "shortest" times. Comes to 90 minutes + wait time to get across town. 3 Hours + to get to, and back home from, work. And that's on a regular business day. Sunday and Holiday schedule? Don't even ask!

"Remarkably good service for a metro of Denver's size, far better than most in fact."

Yeah! Sure! Have you bought your share in that wonderful bridge over the East River yet?

But look at the pretty trains! And they run all the way out to . . . well, wherever. And someday, maybe, they'll even run to DIA! Oh! Wow!

Sorry Old Grouch, but the last time I checked, Colfax was a VERY busy street, and to get across town by CAR from Peoria to Simms was going to take well over an hour, due to the traffic and signals. Besides, I can think of SEVERAL routes that are better suited for full cross-town trips than the 16L, which I assume is the route you're talking about.

You want a fast route across town? Take an express bus or perhaps the SkyRide from Downtown...

As for the trains, we now have over 30 miles of light rail. I consider downtown to the tech center to be a pretty major commuter route, as is the Santa Fe Drive route...

Sometimes, I swear, people expect door to door service and 5 minute intervals on the bus, even when the major streets are traffic-clogged...

Besides, the Colfax buses run something like every 5-10 minutes, so I don't know what the hell you're talking about... 30 minutes? I see tons of buses all the time up and down Colfax...

08:32:pm,

I was using the East Colfax "express bus" in my calculations. When did they increase the frequency of buses on the West Colfax route?

Some of us do tend to expect reasonable service, with reasonable intervals between vehicles. At one time Denver had it. One of the best public transportation systems in the United States. Old fashioned as it may seem today, it was a form of "light rail", called the "streetcar".

And while it was not "door to door", it was one hell of a sight more convenient that anything the Reason To Drive has come up with in its whole existence. Denver Tramway even ran "owl cars" on major routes, so people could get to and from jobs, and other necessary places outside home, at night, and in the early morning.

But of course, that was "back then", before the current era of such boondogles as "magnetic levitation" and such like; along with lots of taxpayer money to fritter away on "studies", to find out if that kind of thing might even work, much less be put to use in this Century.

Oh yes. Just as a sort of by the way, Denver Tramway had several rights of way that could have been used for sensible Denver restoration of "light rail service". But the Reason to Drive seems to have either abandoned them, or just never bothered to consider anything that would have made for better inner city transportation. But then, why bother with Denver? Especially when there is all that tax money - and political advancement - to be gained "planning" for the rest of the Front Range?

15L and 16L routes are every 10-15 minutes, except for a rare 30 minute interval or two at non-peak times. 15 and 16 regular routes are every 10-15 minutes. My point is, Colfax is a very busy thoroughfare, one that takes a long time to travel down, especially all the way from Aurora to Lakewood.

As for the old Denver Tramway Company, you won't find me disagreeing with you that some of the old streetcar tracks should be restored and reused. That being said, light rail can handle far more riders much faster than streetcars can. Streetcars do have their uses though, especially perhaps down Colfax (or close to it at least), Federal, maybe Speer from Cherry Creek to Downtown, etc...

I simply get sick and tired of "Reason to Drive", when RTD has far better service and far better coverage for metro Denver than nearly any other metro area of this size.

07:53,

Well, as to that last bit about "better service and far better coverage": Some while back I had reason to go from that Colfax and Peoria location to a place off West Evans Avenue, a few blocks East of Federal Blvd.

Colfax to Broadway. Broadway South to the Station just North of the old Gates complex. Wait there for the Evans Avenue bus to come up North to the Station. West Evans Avenue bus back South to Evans Ave., and then West to its stop at So. Federal. Walk back East , and walk South to destination. Reverse procedure on way home. (Any reason why transfer from Broadway to West Evans could not be made at West Evans? None given. Just told to get off here, as it was the transfer point.)

Or, from just South of the fence at old Stapleton to East Evans and Dahlia: Walk up to 5 blocks to Montview Blvd. Take the Westbound #20. Wander down to Colorado Blvd. Take Southbound Colorado Blvd. bus to Evans Ave. Miss the East Evans bus, because it wouldn't wait for those crossing the two streets to get to the stop. Walk up to Dahlia, or wait 30 minutes for the next bus, on a mizerably cold, wet, snowy day.

(Closest other North-South cross town on Monaco and walk to Dahlia from there. Or walk up to 10 blocks to Colfax, IF that be any better for East-West service.)

Get off work at 9:45 PM. And beg a ride; since last Evans Ave. bus is 9:30 PM. Last Cross-town on Colorado Blvd gone by 10:00 PM; and who knows when Monaco Blvd. bus disappears? (MIGHT happen to get a last bus East on Colfax, if one's ride can get there in time; but that's chancy, and still an up to 10 block walk in the dark back North anyway.)

That's "better service and far better coverage for metro Denver, etc., etc."??????

For me anyway, those are just 2 of the myriad hosts of reasons for what I will go on calling the Reason To Drive.

You could easily take the 0 (Broadway) straight down to Evans... No problem there. So yes, two-bus trips will certainly have some wait for a transfer. Okay, it happens.

For your other one (Stapleton to Evans/Dahlia)... The 20 west to the Colorado Blvd. south seems like a good idea. Colorado to Dahlia's a half mile or so, so even if you have to walk, it's no big deal...

Fact of the matter is, you seem to want door to door service, and that's something you simply cannot get unless your trip involves essentially a straight line. Most RTD routes tend to follow one major street or avenue, rarely deviating from that path. It works out well overall, since there are numerous places to transfer from bus to bus on what is essentially a grided bus route system.

There have always been 3 major problems with any "grided transportation" system in Denver. 1. Cherry Creek. 2. The Platte River. 3. Downtown Denver.

Add to these: 4. I-70. and 5. I-25. And no full North-South grid street exists between University Blvd., and Broadway, and between Broadway and Federal Blvd.

Now add in 6. I-225; and between University Blvd. and Colorado Blvd. no true North-South grid street. Between Colorado Blvd. and Havana Street in Aurora, there are only Monaco Blvd.and Quebec.

East-West, you have Colfax, Alameda, and Evans/Illif.

Yet in everyone of these areas, you have population, at least some of who depend upon public trasnportation. To get to, and from, a transportation stop can involve nearly a mile walk. And, in many parts of these areas, service is in the 45 minute to 1 hour bracket between vehicles, with limited hours, and little, or no, night service.

How, then, does this "grid" make for such superior "service" to other Metro-locations?

RTD needs to bring back Ben Mew and give him an ice scrapper. Bring back the old 100 series Jimmey and Mack buses too.

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