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Ok, Folks, the W Rail Line trains are gathering and getting ready to rock and roll! Want to ride one before the W opens on April 26th, 2013? Well, Ya Gotta Work at It! RTD is having a little photo contest to allow you to become a VIP rider!
From RTD: "Catch the Train" Photo Contest
With RTD's West Rail Line set to open in three months, you'll be seeing more of our test trains coming down the tracks. "Catch the Train" by taking a photo of one of our test trains as it moves along the line. Submit your photo to us for possible use on our Facebook and Twitter. If it's chosen, you'll win a pair of tickets for a free VIP ride on the West Rail Line before it opens to the public!
Click on the photo above to read the contest rules!
Photo: RTD
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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 "W" Rail Line Serving Golden, Lakewood & Denver, Colorado. |
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The "W" Line Opens in:
78 Days.
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Important:
The date of the first BIKE EIBER meeting has been moved from
Wednesday, Feb 20th to Wednesday, Feb 27th at 6:00pm
The meeting will be held at the residence of Mr. Tom Slabe, 8860 West 13th Ave, Lakewood, Colorado, 80215
RSVP to:
BikeEiber@comcast.net
if you plan to attend
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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, February 07, 2013. |
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West Corridor, Denver & Region
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TheDenverPost
Colorado Court Rules Against Black Hawk, Saying Bicycles are a State Interest The Colorado Supreme Court has overturned Black Hawk's ban on riding bicycles, ruling that bicycles are a matter of state and local concern.
READ MORE...[In case you think the above is a trivial matter, the news went national}. DC.StreetsBlog
Colorado Supreme Court Strikes Down Black Hawk Bike Ban By Angie Schmitt, Feb 04 2013
Cycling advocates won an important victory today in the Colorado Supreme Court, where justices struck down the notorious bike ban in the town of Black Hawk.
TheDenverPost/Editorial
Let Bicyclists in Aspen Treat Stop Signs as Yields Aspen should proceed with a plan to let cyclists treat stop signs as yields. A study shows it can boost safety.
READ MORE...
BizJournals/Denver
Cost of Denver Traffic Congestion Hits $1.6B. By Staff, Feb 05 2013
The financial cost of being stuck in Denver traffic last year amounted to $1.61 billion, according to a report released Tuesday on traffic congestion across America.
TheNewYorkTimes
Colorado Communities Take On Fight Against Energy Land Leases By Jack Healy, Feb 02 2013
Here, amid dozens of organic farms, orchards and ranches, the federal government is opening up thousands of acres of public land for oil and gas drilling, part of its largest energy lease sale in Colorado since Mr. Obama took office. READ MORE...
TheDenverPost
New RTD District M Board Member Eyes the Agency With Suspicion
By Monte Whaley, Feb 07 2013
Natalie Menten says she is a scrounger, a penny pincher and a longtime advocate of tacking every government ledger up on the town square for public inspection. READ MORE...
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TheAtlanticCities
Why People Choose Cars, Even When Mass Transit Would Serve Them Better By Eric Jaffe, Feb 01 2013
People don't always make rational decisions. The entire field of behavioral economics, with all its colorfully named biases and heuristics, is based on our irrationality. If that's not enough to convince you, then let us remind you that Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is a thing.
READ MORE...
StreetsBlog
Study: People Who Bike or Walk to Work Enjoy Their Commutes the Most
By Angie Schmitt, Jan 31 2013
This news will surprise no one who has discovered the joy that is setting off to work on two wheels, but new research out of Portland State University found that people who bike to work enjoy their commutes the most. People who walk to work are close behind on the commute satisfaction scale.
READ MORE...
UPIdotCom/Health
Mass Transit Takers Physically Active
February 05 2013
People who take mass transit in large urban areas may more than meet their weekly recommended aerobic exercise requirement, U.S. researchers say.
READ MORE...
TheHill
Gasoline Costs Take Biggest Share of Household Income in Three Decades
By Ben German, Feb 04 2013
Trips to the gasoline pump in 2012 and 2008 took their biggest share of U.S. household income in several decades, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). READ MORE...
Transportation.National.Journal
What Would Cutting Edge Transportation Look Like?
By Fawn Johnson, Feb 04 2013
Who knows what the kids are going to come up with next? Some of them think owning a car is a big bother and would rather rent or borrow one. Others don't even have a driver's license! Their smart phones are an extension of their brains, which makes grown-ups cringe when they get behind the wheel. Still, all that connectivity has tantalizing possibilities for modernizing how people get from place to place.
READ MORE...
TheAtlanticCities
The Link Between Kids Who Walk or Bike to School and Concentration
By Sarah Goodyear,
The survey looked at nearly 20,000 Danish kids between the ages of 5 and 19. It found that kids who cycled or walked to school, rather than traveling by car or public transportation, performed measurably better on tasks demanding concentration, such as solving puzzles, and that the effects lasted for up to four hours after they got to school. READ MORE...
GristDotOrg
The Cost of NOT Using Renewable Energy
By David Roberts, Jan 30 2013
A clever new study from the World Future Council attempts to do something I haven't seen before: quantify the cost of not using renewables.
READ MORE...
TheAtlanticCities
Walkable Urbanism as Foreign Policy
By Emily Badger, Jan 31 2013
Earlier this month, national security scholar Patrick Doherty published a proposal in Foreign Policy magazine for America's next "grand strategy," a plan for how the U.S. should reposition itself in a world defined less by threats from communism or terrorism and more by the global challenge of sustainability. His offering is among a crop of such foreign policy tracts all aiming big ideas at the newly re-inaugurated president.
READ MORE...NationalConferenceOfStateLegislatures
Transit-Oriented Development in the United States By Douglas Shrinkle, Dec 2012
Across the United States, in large cities such as Seattle and Miami and in smaller metropolitan areas such as Hartford, Conn., and Fort Collins, Colo., new transit systems are being built to aid mobility, reduce congestion and spark economic activity. In 2012 alone, more than 30 metropolitan areas were building new transit lines, and many more projects are slated to begin in the next few years.
TheAtlanticCities
4 Reasons the U.S. Trails the World in Road Safety By Eric Jaffe, Feb 06 2013
Americans pay a great deal of money for their roads - from taxes on their gasoline to parts of their general income - but they don't get a whole lot of road safety in return. A report from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, released last month, compared road fatality statistics in the United States with those in Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Guess which per capita fatality rate was about three times greater than the others.
SustainableCitiesCollective
Teenagers: Lost Downtown Demographic By Aascot Hot, Feb 05 2013
Teens and young adults want to go out with their friends, and they like to stay out as late as possible. That's a fact of life. But where do most of these teens and young people spend their time? Preferably somewhere they can park their hand-me-down, four-wheeled, newfound freedom machine: the automobile. But, their weekend nights usually doesn't get far past the parking lot. Minors aged fifteen to twenty are the lost downtown demographic. READ MORE...
TheAtlanticCities
Density vs. Livability in the World's Biggest Cities
By Richard Florida, Feb 06 2013
Density is an issue that's generated heated debate among urbanists...On the one hand, a growing number of economists extol the benefits of greater high-rise construction as a panacea for everything from innovation and job creation to affordable housing... Harvard's Edward Glaeser points out that "tall buildings enable the human interactions that are at the heart of economic innovation, and of progress itself."
GristDotOrg
GOP Could Reach Out to Cities...But
By Ben Adler, Feb 04 2013
In the current issue of City Journal - house organ of Rudy Giuliani-style neoconservatism - Glaeser contends that it is time for cities and Republicans to put aside their history of animosity and come together. He makes three arguments, each less true than the next: that Republicans would benefit politically from appealing to urbanites, that urbanites will be receptive to their entreaties, and that Republican policy ideas would substantively benefit cities...
READ MORE....
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International (when available)
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TheNewYorkTimes
Beijing Takes Steps to Fight Pollution as Problem Worsens By Edward Wong, Jan 30 2013
The Beijing government put in place emergency measures on Wednesday to try to combat thick smog that has encased the city, which the Communist Party has hailed as a showcase capital, in brown and gray soot. The measures include temporarily shutting down more than 100 factories and ordering one-third of government vehicles off the streets, according to official news reports.
READ MORE...
TheLosAngelesTimes
China Entrepreneurs Cash in on Air Pollution By Barbara Demick, Feb 02 2013
Gigantic domes to play in, fancy masks and even cans of air from other regions have come to market since fine particulate matter went off the charts in China.
READ MORE...
USAToday
In Rush to Urbanize, China Flattens 700 Mountains By Calum MacLeod, Feb 03 2013
China's shift from a rural to urban society is speeding up development projects, including one where a developer is flattening mountains to build a new city.
READ MORE...
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Weekly Film (when available)
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StreetFilmsDotOrg
Highlights from NACTO's 2012 "Designing Cities" Conference By Clarence Eckerson, Jr. on Jan 23 2013
The National Association of City Transportation Officials' 2012 Designing Cities Conference drew hundreds of city transportation officials from around the U.S. to New York City last fall to share ideas and learn about the latest innovations from places around the country.
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Things you need to know along the West Corridor
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The City of Lakewood, Colorado is Now Accepting Applications From Neighborhoods Interested in Joining the Sustainable Neighborhood Program
Learn more at the Community Open House on February 12, 2013
[Click on Logo above to learn more]
Lakewood Colorado's Sustainable Neighborhoods Program gives residents the opportunity to become active partners in making Lakewood a vibrant and sustainable community. Neighborhoods participating in this unique certification program use guidance from City staff to organize workshops, projects and events that enhance the livability of their neighborhood and reduce residents' ecological footprint. Participating neighborhoods earn program credits for their efforts and, depending on the number of credits earned in a given year, they may receive City designation as a "Participating Sustainable Neighborhood" or an "Outstanding Sustainable Neighborhood" from the City.
Program participation can enhance the environmental and social strength of a neighborhood while demonstrating commitment to sustainability in Lakewood. In addition, the participation benefits may include recognition from City Council, neighborhood signage, education and an increased sense of community.
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>Lakewood, Wednesday, February 13 2013 7:30am to 8:30am
Lakewood City Council members, Ward 2, Cindy Baroway and Scott Koop, will meet with residents and considerate guests from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the 40 West Arts District, 1560 Teller St.
>Lakewood, Saturday, February 16 2013, 9am to 1030am?,
Lakewood City Council members, Ward 1, Karen Kellen and Ramey Johnson, will meet with residents and considerate guests at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16 at the 40 West Arts District, 1560 Teller St.
 | RTD's FasTracks Freddy is ready to Par-Tee for the W Rail Line's
Opening Day
Click on his logo to learn more!!!
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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.
[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 St. Complex - Sold
>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.
National Adaptation Forum Action Today for a Better Tomorrow Denver Marriott City Center, Denver Colorado, April 2-4 2013 You are invited to be a part of the Inaugural National Adaptation Forum: Action today for a better tomorrow. Please join us as we kick-off the inaugural convening of adaptation practitioners and experts from around the country focused on moving from adaptation planning to adaptation action. What is the National Adaptation Forum? The National Adaptation Forum is a national event on climate change adaptation at which the latest scientific knowledge about climate adaptation and state-of-the-art practices will be presented. It combines professional development training, individual presentation, peer networking, and working group innovation opportunities, in order to create the most productive event possible in three days! Click Here to Learn More & Register Colorado Foundation for Water Education - 2013 Tours!
CFWE hosts tours of Colorado's agriculture, river restoration and much more! Save the date for this upcoming tour - registration will be available two months before tour date. To be placed on a priority list, send your interest to Kristin Maharg at kristin@yourwatercolorado.org to be notified as soon as registration becomes available.
May 2 and 16: Explore how waterways are managed, restored and protected on an Urban Waters Bike Tour in Denver.
For more information: Click Here |
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| The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of William A. Spriggs and no one else. |
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