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RTD Lights the Lights on the
West Rail Line's 6th Avenue Bridge
with an visual assist from a light rail heading east;
January 23rd, 2013. This marks the end of construction with testing trials set to begin in preparation of
Grand Opening Day,
April 26, 2013
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THE BACK FENCE NEWSLETTER
The Newsletter Featuring Livable Community Items That Readers Value and Highlights of Happenings Along the West Corridor on the RTD West Rail Line Serving Golden, Lakewood & Denver. |
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The "W" Line Opens in:
92 Days.
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Hi Everyone! This is Bill Spriggs and I have found several news articles, links and blogs that I wanted to share along THE BACK FENCE & beyond in the Weekly Edition, January 24, 2013. |
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West Corridor, Denver & Region
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TheDenverPost
New Plan Aims at Bolstering FasTracks to Commerce City By Monte Whaley, Jan 23 2013
Regional Transportation District officials say they have a financial plan that will help build the FasTracks North Rail Line from Denver Union Station to 72nd Avenue in Commerce City sooner than expected.
TheDenverPost
RTD Approves New Shuttle Buses for 16th Street Mall By Monte Whaley, Jan 22 2013
A new fleet of shuttle buses will soon arrive on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver, despite critics who say they are being purchased with little regard to their reliability and cost.
ExaminerDotCom
Denver Brownfield Program Catalyst to Revitalization of Colfax By Michelle Synskie, Jan 17 2013
The Colfax Mainstreet Coalition (CMC) is a partnership between the City and County of Denver, the City of Lakewood, and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA). The partnership received an EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant which will be used to conduct brownfield assessments in order to assist in the the revitalization of Colfax Avenue.
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ReconnectingAmerica
2013 Transit Space Race Projects Map
On January 22nd, Reconnecting America released the 2013 edition of its Jumpstarting the Transit Space Race interactive map, which documents the national interest in fixed-guideway transit. The fresh data show demand for transit development is even greater than when the first Space Race report was released in October 2008.READ MORE...
DC.StreetsBlog
Drivers Cover Just 51 Percent of U.S. Road Spending By Angie Schmitt, Jan 23 2013
There's a persistent misconception in American culture that transit is a big drain on public coffers while roads conveniently and totally pay for themselves through the magic of gas taxes. And that used to be true - at least for interstate highways, a fraction of the total road network.
OpEdNews
MLK Day 2013: Why Transportation is Still a Civil Rights Issue
By Robert Bullard, Jan 20 2013
Transportation provides access to opportunity and serves as a key component in addressing poverty, unemployment, and equal opportunity goals while ensuring access to education, health care, and other public services.
READ MORE...
Washington.CBSLocal
Biking Community Excited that Inaugural Parade Showcased D.C. Bike Lanes
January 22 2013
There has been a lot of chatter surrounding transportation woes that came as a result of Monday's Inauguration. During the festivities, some people were waiting in lines around the block to get inside Metro stations. Later on, they were missing flights trying to navigate crowds at the airport.READ MORE...
TheAtlanticCities
Why We Should Stop Talking About 'Bus Stigma'
By Jarrett Walker, Jan 17 2013
Transit, even the indispensable bus, will continue on that path to greater relevance so long as citizens care about it and demand that it be funded.READ MORE...
Blog.WalkScore
How to Combine Bicycles & Public Transit
By Duncan Hurd, Jan 21 2013
Combining bicycles with transit for trips both short and long is a growing trend in North America. Public transit systems are installing bike racks on buses and at popular transit stops and some are including secure bike storage facilities, with lockers and repair stands, at transit stations. By making it easier to combine bikes with transit, cities can help alleviate rush hour congestion and provide a stepping stone toward motivating people to use their bicycles more often.
READ MORE...
USAToday
Recent Studies Show That Protected Bike Lanes Can Benefit a City Economically.
By Larry Copeland, Jan 16 2013
Cities increasingly are building protected lanes for bicyclists, finding that they bring economic as well as environmental benefits to communities.
READ MORE...
DC.StreetsBlog
Road Diets Are Changing American Cities for the Better By Angie Schmitt, Jan
If it can work on Edgewater Drive in Orlando, it can work anywhere. This road diet - or "street rightsizing" - removed one traffic lane on a four lane road through 1.5 miles of the city's College Park neighborhood. Since then, traffic collisions are down 34 percent. Pedestrian activity increased 23 percent and cycling rose 30 percent.
GristDotOrg
Baby, You Can Drive my Car: How Car Sharing Teaches us to be Good Neighbors.
By Claire Thompson, Jan 22 2013
When news got out a few weeks ago that car-rental company Avis had purchased the popular car-sharing service Zipcar, many reacted warily, wondering if the deal would kill Zipcar's grassroots ethos. Others found such negativity overblown, calling the move not only unsurprising but smart, on both Avis' and Zipcar's parts.
READ MORE...TheGlobeAndMail
The City State: How Urban Design Affects Our Health By Ivan Semeniuk, Jan 21 2013
As a behavioural psychologist, James Sallis started out trying to understand how to motivate people to become more physically active. But, like many of his colleagues, he soon found that whatever worked only worked a little, on a few people, for a short time. Soon, Dr. Sallis came to see the modern urban environment as a big part of the problem. Place matters, he decided, and he set about investigating the design of public spaces and their influence on physical activity and the obesity epidemic. READ MORE...
SwitchBoard.NRDC
The Disturbing and Sometimes Tragic Challenge of Walking in America
By Ken Benfield, Jan 16 2013
in much of America, walking - that most basic and human method of movement, and the one most important to our health - is all but impossible. Maybe not literally impossible, but inconvenient at best, and tragically dangerous way too often.
READ MORE....
TheAtlanticCities
Public Transportation ... for Your Car?
By Emily Badger, Jan 23 2013
Anwar Farooq has some out-there ideas, the product of his background as an electrical engineer, before he ever became a high school math teacher in Los Angeles...designing ...[a]...transit system, a scheme that looks both futuristic and antiquated, one that would try to eliminate traffic congestion from our highways while still accommodating the car. He has invented, in essence, a train-ferry. For car commuters.
READ MORE...
Blog.WalkScore.com
Walk Score Integral to America's Top Art Spots
By Jocelyn Milici Ceder, Jan 17 2013
Where are the best spots in cities across the US to discover art? Walk Score was part of the criteria used for ArtPlace's Top 12 American Art Places. We're honored. Walking is more enjoyable when beauty surrounds you.READ MORE...
TheAtlanticCities
A Map for All Possible Routes By Emily Badger, Jan 22 2013
The route-planning application on Google Maps can get you from Point A to Point B in a car, on a bike, by foot or by transit. But one thing the all-powerful mapping engine can't do (yet) is give you all of those options at the same time. It would be a handy feature to have, both for individual commuters weighing whether to take the bike or bus, or for planners eager to illustrate that sometimes the shortest path to where you want to go is not taken by car.
READ MORE...
ShelterForce
Data Says Inclusionary Housing Does Foster Economic Integration
By Rick Jacobus, Jan 17 2013
Long time advocates of inclusionary housing (often known as "inclusionary zoning") will be relieved to learn that a new report from the Rand Corporation confirms that the housing produced by these policies is in fact "inclusionary," meaning it creates or preserves affordable housing in areas of low poverty. It is easy to imagine big headlines if the research had found the opposite, but it is nonetheless valuable to have hard data confirming that social programs are achieving their intended effects.
READ MORE...
TheAtlanticCities
Bethlehem Steel's Redevelopment: Winners and Losers in Public-Private Partnerships
By Mark Byrnes, Jan 17 2013
When asked if anyone could save Bethlehem Steel, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, famously said, "I don't think Christ could have."
READ MORE...
TheNewYorkTimes
LEDs Emerge as a Popular 'Green' Lighting
By Diane Cardwell, Jan 21 2013By DIANE CARDWELL
The lighting industry has finally come up with an energy-efficient replacement for the standard incandescent bulb that people actually seem to like: the LED bulb.
READ MORE...
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International (when available)
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TheAtlanticCities
'I Pledge to Walk Alone': Activists Demand Safer Cities for Women in India By Sarah Goodyear, Jan 22 2013
The trial of five men accused in December's horrific gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a New Delhi bus began Monday. The woman died of massive internal injuries two weeks after she was attacked when coming home from a movie with a male friend, and the case is being heard in a "fast-track" court, one of six instituted by the government in the Indian capital to deal with crimes against women.
READ MORE...UrbanTimes
Urban Relief: Is Graffiti Vandalism or the Creative Lifeblood of Our Cities? By Positive News, Jan 18 2013
Walking up London's South Bank to Leake Street, you'd be forgiven for feeling uneasy among the forbidding concrete and hooded individuals milling around. But this is, in fact, one of the few legal graffiti walls in London. Everything - including the lights - is covered in colourful paint.
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Weekly Film (when available)
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Video below: Yes, Virginia, people do commute their bicycles in the snow -- when their City helps to clear the bike paths.
 | | Cycling in the snow in 's-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) |
Below: Hey RTD, maybe you could hire these folks to sell your BRT in the NW corridor. If anything, you'll get a good idea how GEN Y will approach things in the future. 11 minutes long, but worth it.
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Making Transit Social by Mission Possible
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Things you need to know along the West Corridor
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From RTD's online newsletter sent on Jan 16, 2013:
West Rail Line Bicycle Lockers
The West Rail Line is set to open April 26, 2013 and bicycle lockers will be available for lease at the following new stations: Decatur-Federal, Sheridan, Lakewood-Wadsworth, Oak, and Jeffco-Golden. You can put your name on the waiting list for a locker at one of these locations by calling the Civic Center Station customer service desk at 303-299-2288. Lockers are currently available with no waiting at the existing Federal Center Station. Bicycle lockers cost $30 for a six-month renewable lease with a one-time padlock fee of $20. An RTD-issued padlock must be used on these bike lockers. First time renters will need to turn in a lease agreement in person at the Boulder Transit Center, Civic Center Station, or Market Street Station. Lease agreements are available at each of these customer service locations.
Below: The following was broadcast from the City of Lakewood Colorado's Friday Report, January 11, 2013
Lakewood Colorado Council Member Tom Quinn appointed to The National League of Cities 2013 Transportation Infrastructure & Services Steering Committee.
This committee has the lead responsibility for developing NLC federal policy positions on issues involving transportation including planning, funding, safety and security of public transit, streets and highways, aviation, railroads and ports. "The condition of our streets, highways and public transportation systems are critically important to every community," Quinn said. "I see the work of this committee as essential to ensuring that the maintenance and restoration of our transportation system is a top priority for the country."
[Editor's Note to above: I hope the Councilor understands that by "streets," an inclusive community such as Lakewood Colorado also intends to put in sidewalks."]
[Note to below: I'm enclosing the full text of one section from a Friday Report from the City of Lakewood because it involves an important built environment connectivity change along the West Corridor adjacent to the West Rail Line.]
Preparing for a roundabout
The City received funding, including a $1 million grant from the state, to build a roundabout at the intersection of Lamar Street and West 14th Avenue and to add a section of sidewalk and bicycle lanes. The work will improve safety at the intersection and provide better access for pedestrians and bicyclists to the upcoming Lamar Station for the West Rail Line. This intersection has an unusually high rate of accidents, and they are some of the most dangerous kind, which are collisions at a right angle. The roundabout will eliminate these kinds of accidents and slow vehicles in the intersection. Properly designing the improvements to match the surrounding area will require collecting land survey information along 14th for 400 feet east and west of Lamar and along Lamar for 400 feet north of 14th to south of West 13th Avenue. The City needs residents' help by allowing surveyors to collect information on their property. Residents with concerns can contact Ken Nyhoff, Lakewood's engineer for the project, at (303) 987-7939/kennyh@lakewood.orgAdded Information. See the short video below
How to use a roundabout Michagan DOT Aug 10 2011  | |
How to use a roundabout
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Denver Union Station
Construction Cam
Wish You Could Find an Apartment/Condo near a Light Rail Station? As part of TBF's continuing efforts to bring TOD's to the West Corridor & elsewhere, this link from Walk Score.com will now be a permanent feature. Thanks.
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Commercial Real Estate Assemblages, Land or Buildings Available on The West Corridor
Please note: TBF does not
own or sell any real property.
Prices displayed may not be correct.
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>4917 West 11th Ave Assemblage [sold]
Sold, See Press Release
>10th Avenue Light Rail Assemblage
>1010 Sheridan Blvd TOD Site
>5310 West 10th Ave TOD opportunity
>13th Ave & Newland, Ideal TOD property
>5830 West Colfax Ave
>1025 Ammons Complex
>6990 West Colfax Ave Pad Site
THE BACK FENCE supports a corridor wide, regional vision, with individual nodes of unique "places" within that corridor. We hope that the listing of commercial properties available will help to speed this vision to fruition sooner. Learn more about this vision below from the Center for Transit-Oriented Development.
West Corridor Vision
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Residential Real Estate Agents
who get the "big picture" of
transit-oriented living of
walkable, sustainable
neighborhoods.
JIM SMITH REALTOR, GOLDEN
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Things You Need to Know Around the Region
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The Transit Alliance Citizens' Academy is now Accepting Applications for the Spring 2013 Class!
SPRING APPLICATIONS ARE DUE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013 by 5:00 PM
Please note that the Academy application process is competitive as they only have 50 slots available and usually have 100 applicants or more. Please be sure to answer all questions thoughtfully and thoroughly as the selection committee selects participants primarily upon application responses. The Spring 2013 Citizens' Academy will be held on Wednesday evenings for seven weeks beginning on March 6th and ending on April 17th. Classes will be held at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM each week.
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| The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of William A. Spriggs and no one else. |
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