The SoCal Amtrak trains might be an interesting subject. They have lots of important connections but especially the local trains (NOT light rail) do not get remotely used enough compared to how bad the traffic is to theoretically push demand towards public transit.
If you don't have it already, I suggest to get a printed copy of "Plan of Chicago." Not only is it dense with information on the reasoning behind overhauling the city, but it's a beautiful, richly illustrated book in its own right. The chapter on transportation shows you how far back the scheme of multiple "circuit" lines goes. It includes many diagrams on how the scheme would work. The book will give you some good background on the topic.
In traveling five states in the US so far, I would have worded the "transportation system" in Denver as follows; From the international airport, one catches the train that stops at bus stations that has many outlets to far distances while moving toward Downtown Union Station. When one arrives, there is the Rail stations that branch out deeper into the state of Colorado as well as more trains to transport out further in with more bus stations to make the residential stops. The escooter "lime"from Lyft was such a success, that the bus system is sure to stay since writing an e scooter in a large city is the funnest and coolest experience in America right now. Denver and one other state is offering Lyft escooters. The escooter
shout out to the lady from the Denver Downtown for actually sitting down and taking the time to talk to you. Quality of the videos and message you convey is much more than your sub count would let on 👌🏻
@@TheFlyingMooseCA I was born and raised in Denver. The drug and homeless situation has gotten significantly worst. We have tents towns all around downtown. And this has made Downtown significantly more dangerous. My parents had a glass bottle thrown at them by some homeless man because they didn’t give him money. Shop lifting has become so widespread on 16th street mall that a lot of businesses have had to put security or police officers at the endurance. They have also put merchandise behind glass cases. It didn’t use to be this way. Parts of downtown have become an cess pool. On top of that you have our dumbass mayor declaring us a sanctuary city. And now as a result we have a Venezuelan prison gang in Denver and Aurora. And I’ve talked to homeless people and asked them why they’re in Denver. Most of them said they were on their way to California but stayed her for 2 main reasons. It’s easy to be homeless in Denver and it’s easy to shoplift because the punishments are very minor. I voted for Obama twice, but liberal policies have ruined Denver. Thankfully some of the surrounding cities aren’t as liberal so they have avoided these problems.
@@TheFlyingMooseCAAnd our public transportation is mediocre at best. I lived in Mexico for over a year and I lived in Madrid for a semester in college. Those places had great public transit. Here in Denver if you don’t live off certain major boulevards, getting a bus to and from work is going to be a pain. You made this video as a guest, without actually looking at the intricacies of why our public transit is so bad.
I traveled to Denver last semester for a hockey tournament and i used the RTD rail service as much as possible. Being too young and poor to afford a rent a car, their program for anyone under 19 to ride free was a life saver!
A lot of middle/high school students here regularly use RTD to get to school. Makes a huge difference when you don't have to worry about fares/cards/etc.
@@jbssfelix That's definitely true, but you also have to remember that the Denver Public School system doesn't provide transportation to students*. The transit is free right now from a pilot program, but I remember in high school having to go to the treasurer to get a weekly bus pass to use RTD. Although, I think my school had the passes because it had a magnet program. *I know that if you are going to your neighborhood school and live outside of 2 miles of said school that a school bus is an option, but that is practically impossible.
@@briang4914 I take the bus every day, that depends on how much you ride, if you are only going to ride twice it's 2.75 each way, significantly less than 20 dollars.
The only other time I've heard of a free bus system is my college town's "drunk bus." The public, private, and community college all pitched together funding to have free bus routes during weekend nights that would go from the main student housing areas to downtown.
@@ffnovice7think about it this way. The people who are partying are already party-ers. So they have an option now. And, the people who don’t normally party, now have a safe way home
I feel like all of this fear-mongering about safety within cities is just anti-city sentiment at this point. It doesn't matter what city it is or where it is, it's always considered drug-infested and dangerous simply because it's a city. That's the stigma that Americans have been told about cities since the mid-20th Century. It's why so many people still think that city life is sub-standard living.
It's not fear mongering, the drug and crime situation onboard many transit systems and in downtowns today is bad. Yes anti city people highlight them as reasons for cities being bad but pro city people need to acknowledge the problem because it's driving away enormous amounts of transit ridership and downtown visits.
@@NaniVitali or that America just has higher rates of crime and homelessness then major cities in Europe/Japan and they need to do something about it. There's a reason why NYC, the city with the lowest crime rate, is the most urbanist city in America, public safety is the pre-requisite to good urbanism
Yep. I visited San Francisco, basically the only city outside the east coast that truly survived the urban destruction of the 50s to 90s, it was amazing. Made me sad about all the other once amazing American cities bulldozed for the car.
While true, I think there's a new wave of attention towards this topic and more widespread recognition that what was taken away can be rebuilt. Surely there's a way we can learn from history :^)
@@TheFlyingMooseCA that's cool that she's a fellow Hoosier! :-) There's definitely some bright spots like the cultural trail 💯 it's still a cool city, it's just sad to consider how much of what we want in a vibrant, walkable city with excellent electrified public transit we actually already had at one point in history 😭 it somehow would sting less if we'd just never had it...
I spent a week at the convention center, and was only LUCKY enough to catch the mall ride bus once. 1) It’s important to know that if you’re not waiting at a stop, the bus does not stop and wait even a few seconds. 2) When the bus stops, bring “right there” running to the stop won’t cut it. 3) The “6 minute wait” is fantasy, so I suppose by not stopping and waiting they’re always trying to achieve it.
Common scene with the light rail in my hometown. Oftentimes you have people come running and hit the button on the door just a fraction of a second too late.
I couldn't focus on what he was saying while that was happening. Automated transit is SO much better than relying on bus drivers. The only reason to have a human driver is for customer service but he sees the lady waving but just pulls away so what's the point of them. A computer would also pull away from the station exactly on schedule but it least it will stop at every stop, won't skip people waiting at stops, or bunch up and drive an empty bus, or rush through the route to have a longer coffee break at each end of the line. A computer will always show up even on a snow day and routes will never have to be cancelled due to illness or a labor shortage. All the great bus drivers out there prove me wrong. Your only job is to pick people up and move them. Moving an empty bus around is just a waste of time and energy.
Every 6 minutes for a free bus is incredible, might be one of the most frequent buses in the US. I've lived in Boston (specifically Cambridge) and the frequent bus lines there are constantly getting stuck in traffic and bunching up. I wonder if the pedestrianized mall helps them avoid this because bus bunching sucks a lot.
Lack of competition from nonprofessional normal drivers helps a lot to maintain regularity. Hence why the most consistent systems are on dedicated exclusive paths, while the ones stuck in traffic often end up even worse than just driving yourself.
Trust me, it is an average of 6 minutes. Occasionally the busses get bunched up and it takes 15 minutes to get one, so instead you start walking to Union Station to catch your train. Then you have three buses arrive within three minutes of each other. I think they need red/green lights at the light rail stop and Civic Center Station to spread the buses out when they get bunched up.
@@RobPenguinsSince78 In my city no matter what they do, strict schedules, waiting areas, increased dead time at each end of the route, any route that isn't currently running late because of traffic is bunched up because if you're a bus driver as you catch up to the bus ahead most or all of the passengers get on the first bus or arrive at the stops after you're gone and you get to drive your whole route with a quiet, empty bus.
It's pretty regular it has its own right of way and stops frequently. Tbh right now it's a bit of a fucking mess bc they've been doing construction on 16th for forever now and it's not very consistent.
I was a young teen, not old enough to drive yet when they converted 16th St. My parents were miffed about them taking away driving... but as someone who lived in the north suburbs, I could catch a bus that got me downtown, then I could take the shuttle and go all the way to the State Capitol. I think that east of connections is where I started falling in love with transit.
I've only been to Denver twice but it always struck me as weird how all this money was spent on this giant light rail ring *around* the city but not through it and especially not on Colfax. Now RTD is building BRT on Colfax but it won't use the 16th Street Mall but rather run parallel to it.
Yeah, there’s a lot of good stuff on TH-cam about how RTD is willing to spend money, but the things they build don’t end up being useful 💀 Still looking forward to seeing the Colfax BRT tho - that seems to have pretty widespread support
But Colfax (which is basically 15th) runs east-west... while 16th at that point runs on a diagonal... they don't run parallel to each other. All the streets in downtown, while technically on a grid, are rotated 45-degrees. I grew up in Denver, don't currently live there, but any BRT on Colfax would work well in conjunction with the shuttle... as the shuttle terminates about a half-block north of Colfax and Broadway. I can totally see how they will work together... get off the BRT at Colfax/B-Way and take the shuttle up to Union Station/Market Street transit.
denverite here. Yep! it stinks. The light rail here system was built with mainly state funds that were made available from a very small tax increse that was voted on by the state, in the planning phase, to appease suburban governments, most of the trains were built in order to connect the richer suburbs to the downtown core. making them pretty useless to the actual citizens of Denver as well anywhere but the richest suburbs, and entirely not fulfilling the guarentee for a boulder to denver train. trust me, they would be so much more useful if they ran actual denver corridors instead of commuter routes following freeways. running down roads like broadway/ lincoln, colfax, MLK, 6th, Speer, federal and colorado… Denver used to have such an extencive trolley cart system with viaducts and the coverage was pretty impressive.
@@Militantaoist I've really wanted to use RTD for transport but it has multiple things that prevent it from being truly useful. The station is only a mile from me. A very easy bike ride. But the trains only run every 30 minutes which makes timing which one I need to actually be on very awkward. I'd either be very early or very late. Second problem is Union or 48th are 1.6 or 2.5 miles from work respectively. Still a short bike ride BUT there are so many huge car-centric roads that it wouldn't be safe to ride. Third problem is that my job works 24/7 and RTD stops running trains at midnight so I'd have no way home except a 14 mile bike ride which I can do but the trail would be pitch black. It's so frustrating that Denver has one of the larger transportation networks in the country but the rail lines really don't go anywhere useful. "Transit needs a destination. Dropping you off at a mile-long parking lot is not a destination."
I live in Denver and have started getting everywhere via the light rail, commuter rail, bus, and perhaps most often, the multi-use pathway system. It's certainly still a car dependent city, especially where I live in southeast Denver near Aurora, but people who say you can't go anywhere without a car are just straight up wrong. People who avoid the trains and busses, in my experience, more often than not do so because poor people are icky and only poor people stoop to using public transit. I know there are legitimate safety issues and, to their credit, RTD has started addressing them, but often when I talk to someone about riding the bus or train I get this look of pity like the only reason someone would ever dare use public transit is if they were in dire straights; it's really just not as bad as people think yet they will never try it because of the reputation. So, people drive. That's meant that I've nearly been killed multiple times crossing in a 100ft long crosswalk with the right of way.
Cars are inherently unfair to those without the means. If someone lives in a car centric suburb, they HAVE to spend money to own a car, fuel it, insure it, register it, and maintain it just to be a part of society. Its very class-ist and disproportionality impacts lower incomes. Next time they give you that pity look for that, you can tell them that you dont spend money on purchasing, maintaining, and fueling a depreciating asset.
I just wish the service levels were what they used to be pre-pandemic. I had to use RTD exclusively from 2014 through 2016 (I also interned there as a Spcial Events Intern from 2015-2016) and it was quite easy. Between E and F lines, the headways on Southeast LRT were 7.5 minutes. That is so frequent, I did not even have to check the schedules. I miss it :( I live at Arapahoe station now and hardly ever take RTD, as E line barely shows up...
We’re able to avoid that somewhat here in Madison, WI because the UW campus is right next to downtown, so many students use the bus system. Technically, college students are also low-income, and some folks don’t like them either, but you get my point.
I think the problem with Denver is 2 fold. A. The people from colorado who still live here have watched Denver go from a cowtown to one of the more culturally significant locations in the US, and with the population growth has come a ton of growing pains. B. Since Covid a number of specific crime stats have gone up that has made people feel like the city is wholly unapproachable from the outside. The general feeling of safety on RTD has been eroded by the percieved loose enforcement of ticketing since covid, the general feeling of safety parking has been eroded by the catalytic converter theft rings which has risen dramatically. Combine that with the fact that more and more denver's COL caters exclusively to the extremely wealthy tech and high end business fields, the growing disparity in social classes means you get a lot more nimbys who are moving to a place that is trying to do a ton of social programs, and so you end up with this weird situation where the state all moves in a direction but is hampered by the people who don't want to continue supporting that direction but refuse to leave because where else do you go from colorado and get to still microdose feeling like youre living in LA
@@SurrealGoatsA+ reply SG! I think if we actually get rail to the mountains it will set off a chain reaction. Union Pacific is holding us back from a world class car-free city. It’s not our city, state, or its residents.
As someone who lives 45 mins from Denver but rarely goes, I'm really excited about this. I knew there was a bungled light rail expansion in development hell from the 90s, but it's nice to know we actually have people like Ellen working on solutions.
Tell me about it. I tend to stay away at this point unless I'm biking to Denver. They started the upgrade of that metro rail block, but I'm not sure how long it will take. They took a year and a half to finish a small biking underpass by CU Boulder.
I live right next to the DDP and I commute to a building right next to Civic Center station. I almost always bike to work as its faster than the Mall Ride due to its mandatory stops, but on a day like today when the snow is coming down, it's an excellent FREE alternative! Also while the Rockies do suck, they have the best bar in town! $3 beers before first pitch and the cover (Rockies tickets) is always cheap!
I can definitely see how biking would be quicker, but you're spot on - sometimes you need other options. And I do always love catching a game when I'm in town - y'all have a beautiful stadium especially on summer evenings 😍
when you're driving in downtown denver, 16th st doesn't feel like an obstacle at all. you're never gonna think to yourself, oh if only i could turn onto this pedestrian area. when you're on foot, hopping on the shuttle is a no-brainer too. it's surprising to hear it described as a really bold and risky policy choice because the experience of it just feels like a lay-up.
I think that's the beauty of it - it feels seamless today but it was quite controversial when they were discussing it in the 70s. Part of that was how cities really were emptying out and the pedestrian mall concept had run its course in a lot of other places
16th street has been essentially closed down for over a year with construction ripping the road up, and most businesses have left. I work on 14th street.
having lived both in downtown denver and in suburbia denver, i've always been fascinated by our public transit because the issues with it are a little bit overwhelming (especially since they stopped running a few lightrail lines during lockdown and never picked them back up), but there IS a lot about it that works really well. unrelated, but my favorite goofy (horrific) thing about the free mall ride busses is that they really Do Not Stop. some people are just unaware enough of their surroundings that they end up in front of one of these things while it's moving.
About the Denver homeless situation - you should check out their free housing program and the reasoning behind it. From what I remember, the idea revolves around the fact that homelessness isn't a bell curve. The vast majority of those who wind up homeless are only without a place for a day or two and get back on their feet.The people you see sleeping on the streets - outside the Denver Partnership building in this case - represent a very, very small minority of the homelessness crisis and are "chronic" in this way. This minuscule minority, however, take up an overwhelming amount of the costs associated with handling the homeless - medical bills being a significant expense. Denver's plan hinges on the fact that it is simply cheaper to just house these people for free than any other social programs. And many argue that it is the only feasible solution to end homelessness. It is a very fascinating issue - especially since it veers so hard from what we think is "right" or "fair" in regards to other welfare programs.
It's too make money, look up California Insider show to understand from insider perspectives how the many companies profit off of 'crisis management'. It's a good money maker! and money drives the economy after all.
A housing first approach has many other benefits beyond just making housing them cheaper: Finding and keeping a job is much easier with a house, finding those who need help (medical help, addiction treatment, etc.) is a lot easier if they have an address, and there are probably other benefits that I can't think of from the top of my head.
There was a similar study here in my city where they found the same thing. A super small group of 4 or 5 people were costing society $1M a year or more in hospital bills, damages to shelter they were given, law enforcement, courts, social workers. For a small group of people it would actually be far healthier for them and far cheaper for society to hire 2 full time social workers to babysit them 1 on 1.
@@InventorZahranSee: health insurance (at least mine) offering free birth control and vaccines because it turns out that's a lot cheaper for them compared to paying for child and illness related medical care.
I visited my brother in-law in Denver recently, and I was delighted by how good their public transit is in general. Probably the best metro system I’ve used in the US so far
Wow our standards must be low. Rtd blows a lot of money, but usually in meaningless ways it seems. Yeah let's build a light rail network that just picks people up and drops them off primarily in unwalkable wastelands. What you didn't want to go to the ghetto or the abandoned car lot?! We thought those were the two primary attractions in the area.
@@mtndude96 Compared to a lot of midsize cities, it's pretty good. Runs past 8pm and has coverage to it. Oh, and trains to the airport is always big points.
@9:14 "it would be unfair to only increase the cost of driving, without a commensurate improvement to the alternatives" So true. In London the Mayor introduced a daily fee to drive in the city, but only belatedly (and rather half heartedly) introduced some new bus routes.
Glad you stuck it through to that part of the video - I originally had a longer section about the necessity of improving transit if you increase driving costs, but it got a bit rambly so I just axed it lmao I still feel that it's a key message here - it's ineffective and a bit unfair to do one without the other 🤷
@@TheFlyingMooseCA as per your section about drivers benefiting from big subsidies ... it may NOT be unfair to increase the cost of driving ... but you have to bring the public with you (even when drivers are in the minority) ... so the "effectiveness" argument is definitely valid
Don’t forget about the trains in Denver. There is actually a direct rail connection from downtown to DU and many other places around the city. Plus the city are working on BRT lines along Arterials like colfax to dense urban neighborhoods.
Moved to Denver 13 years ago and the Free Mall Ride was one of the first things I loved about downtown. At the time I was broke and in my early 20s so being able to take a bus for $2 and explore downtown for free was a game changer
@@TheFlyingMooseCAThat also connects you with RFTA, highly rewarded and I've heard called "best rural transit service in North America". Covers 70 miles from Aspen to Rifle. And Glenwood is beautiful ofc, try the Iron Mountain Hot Springs.
As a Denver resident, the only bus system I generally avoid is anything down Colfax. I’m not *scared* of it, but considering how many tweakers there are on Colfax, you never know if someone’s gonna have a bad high, get paranoid, and start fighting their demons on a crowded bus.
yeah, i totally get this. all throughout high school, i had to take the 15 to and from school every day and i can definitely say it was always a bit of a gamble. i lived right off colfax for all of my childhood, so i knew how to navigate it, but i also never risked taking the bus without a friend lmao. safety in numbers is always a good rule to follow.
As a coloradan who worked in dt denver pre-pandemic, until 10pm, in the winter, the free mall ride didn't always come. Trudging endlessly through sometimes knee deep snow downhill (yahs!) to the light rail. Sometimes the light rail didn't show. I especially remember a cold winter night where I idiotically only brought a hoody. There was a small puddle of water around my feed where my shivers had thawed the ice, waiting for the hour-late train. Wife's phone was off, she was asleep. The warm shower I took when I got home was the most comforting shower of my life. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.
I appreciate this vid as someone who has grown up and lived in Denver, I really hope the city can move to a more walker and public transportation friendly city. Also the digs at the Rockies are so warranted it hurts
Creators like you remind of why content creation is so important. So important to have eyes on these subjects and your quality is superb. Under 10k gang, it will be 1 million subs before you know it!
You went to denver after they sweeped the "drug addled homeless warzone" out of the center primarily and to the outskirts. It used to be super intense but now its still there just on the periphery.
I've lived in Colorado for 8 years now and have yet to step foot in Denver. I just don't see a need for me to go there. It's over-priced, the people are snobby as f**k, anything that isn't a main attraction to tourists sucks because of filth and crime. Denver is worried more about solving future problems, than it is fixing the current problems it has. Instead of regulating the $2000/mo rent for a 400sq ft apartment, they voted to release wolves that haven't been here in over 80 years. Instead of making sure people are compliant with vehicle registration, which matters when 80% of the people will hit you and run away, they issued a Sugar Tax. It's not run by good or smart people, but greedy people who care nothing about helping people. It's so expensive there that they get their own special minimum wage laws the rest of the state doesn't get in order to combat this. Instead of just fixing why things are so costly to begin with. It's $4/hr higher there, than the rest of the state because they are so specially stupid there that they can't fix the issues. But those in charge know that the more income people make, the more tax they can take. Why fix prices? Pay people more, then you can take more.
Please do a video on RTD's death spiral: Decreased frequencies, terrible leadership, bad route planning, etc. It's so bad that Polis is trying to restructure the board to change things up, and I think that we may see some additional service cuts as their budget problems worsen to the point where it's unusable.
Speaking of learning a thing or two, here’s a note for Ellen: I spent a week at the convention center, and was only LUCKY enough to catch the mall ride bus once. 1) It’s important to know that if you’re not waiting at a stop, the bus does not stop and wait even a few seconds. 2) When the bus does stop, being “right there” running to the stop, easily within view of the driver’s mirrors, arms waving, suitcases clattering, won’t cut it. 3) The “6 minute wait” is fantasy, so I suppose by not stopping and waiting they’re always trying to achieve it. 4) I was in the Hyatt Regency for a week, and honestly, it was better to just walk everywhere, including the 12 blocks back to Union Station to catch the airport train. $10.50 and a stone-cold bargain.
Try taking the shuttle at noon every day! :-) Is very congested,but the good thing is that everybody gets where they need to go fast. I wrote it too many times, and I loved it!
the bus that provides free ride through 10 block straight road and this video says it solves car problem in the downtown lol... Free mall ride is merely a tourist attraction and does not provide a function as a transit mean. When we hang out in the downtown we often just walk down the mall street and race with the free ride bus who gets to the next stop first. Denver downtown and greater Denver metro is notarious for having terrible public transit. We jokingly say that you need a car to get to the public transit (true story) is a testament to how broken Denver public transit is.
@5:22 "mind numbing amounts of parking" ... it really is! i live near two Premier League football grounds in London ... and although we complain about London being car centric ... there's (thankfully) hardly any dedicated parking for the stadiums !
LOL, back in 2018 maybe. 16th Mall has been a torn up, fenced off, disaster zone of a construction site for years. The last time it looked anything like this video was maybe early 2022. The street is currently considered one of the city's biggest shitholes, is absolutely infested with fentanyl zombies, and is avoided by anyone who knows the area at all. Seriously, people DO NOT go to 16th to hang out. Most storefronts are closed down as local businesses have left, so it's basically just a bunch of chain stores and restaurants that have stuck around. These red busses still run down another street, and cover about 1 mile of downtown. Not 1 square mile, 1 straight line mile of 2 parallel roads downtown. This video uses 3-4 year old footage, and is very misleading about the current state of downtown Denver, which as I mentioned previously, is an absolute disaster.
God Thank you so much for this video. it makes me feel alot better about living in Denver and lowkey forgot how far the free mall ride went. I actually am gonna use it alot more. Thanks man!
i live in denver, and have for 13 years, and i have literally no idea what everyone in the comments is talking about. the rtd is horrible. yes, riding under 19 for free is great, but what y’all don’t know is everyone in colorado has to pay $365/year to re-register your vehicle, even if the rtd doesn’t service you. also, the rtd is constantly late, and cancelled all the time due to tracks being offline or being repaired. it’s a good idea, and i do support it, but the implementation is really poor and needs so much work.
Agreed! I lived without a car in Aurora because living closer to Denver proper was way too expensive. Unless you’re taking the 16 right from Colfax directly downtown, it takes hours to get anywhere. So many transfers and lots of late and canceled buses, as you mentioned. And some of the rail stops are in weird, remote places. It’s just tough to get around without a car.
There’s also another ride that’s free called “Free MetroRide” but was discontinued when Covid-19 happened to limit ridership and to this day, its still not open yet… yikes!
Been here all my life. It's improved, but Union Station a couple years back was literally an open air drug market with dozens of people shooting up in public, and dangerous at night.
As someone from dallas, the AT&T district has actually gotten even better than you think. The DART transit mall (light rail) is only a 15 minute walk along very pedestrian friendly streets. I believe there is also a decent number of bus lines that connect around the district.
I lived in Denver for school and still live in the area. 16th Street was always quite interesting, and it was fun to walk it after going to a movie or something similar.
Here in Colorado, something like 97% of people who commute to work use personal cars. Yes Denver has some shuttles & mass transit has its niche but it will NEVER replace the personal car. Keep in mind Denver has large, sprawling suburbs & exurbs that are far too low density for mass transit to make any sense & Colorado also has large rural areas far outside the Denver metro area. At the state level there has been a problem with politicians & transportation officials being far too fixated on pie in the sky mass transit goals and not allocating enough resources to build, expand & maintain the roads & highways that the very extreme majority of us depend on.
This is great coverage of an important issue. I love Denver and the Mall ride has always been super useful. I'm hoping we can get much more transit and less cars all over the city. Highlighting success stories is an excellent way to approach this topic. Well done. Also if you don't know sometimes Denver shuts down traffic on Broadway on the weekends to show people what a carless and walkable city would be like. It would be fantastic to get another mall ride up and down Broadway.
Within Denver city proper, the transit system is alright. However, the larger RTD throughout the metro area is... Not good. Yes, suburban transit is hard. But RTD tends to build lines where it is convenient for them, rather than where people actually need to go.
I grew up in Denver and spent the last 7 years of my life in DC and I unfortunately also love baseball. it's like your content is specifically catered to me lol jokes aside this is top tier stuff. keep this up you're crushing it
I'm a Denver native, while I think this is a great video and good journalism, I think perhaps it would've been a good idea to interview people that don't live in downtown. The people living downtown are almost never natives, and moved to Denver because of the 'dude weed lmao' SanFran type reputation it has. They're a very specific kind of person that doesn't represent the natives. We've basically been colonized haha.
Your content is amazing. I’ve lived in Denver my entire life, and what strikes me about Denver’s public transit is that it goes “around” the city to Aurora and Centennial, but no transit on Colfax or near anywhere remotely residential. I’m a new subscriber after your DC metro video, so it’s awesome to see a new video about my city. Keep doing what you’re doing, I love seeing new videos :) One idea for a transit system to cover the PRT at West Virginia university - it’s really interesting!!
Really glad you liked this one - Denver is growing on me the more time I spend there :) And the PRT has popped up before as a suggestion - not sure if it was you but it'd definitely be a fun topic to look at
I lived on Colfax in Aurora and took the 15 often, but the other 2 places I lived in Aurora required lots of walking and transfers. It took so long to get to work that my starting point was too early for any of those buses. You can get lucky if you live close to a line that’s going where you need to go, but the suburbs are definitely underserved.
I just gotta say, your videos are fantastic! It feels way more personal than a lot of the videos I see online now. Incredibly well made! I’m excited to see more. Also the baseball clips are amazing.
The Mall Ride is so handy, and a lot of people don't give it credit for how much service it does for that part of the city. It's nice to see it getting some love. I'd LOVE to see you do a video on the Montreal subway, because it has so many super cool features (old F1 tires, wooden brakes, passive cooling on train cars) that I'd love to learn more about. Also, for Chicago, you gotta mention how the city scooted a whole historic building a little bit east to make improvements to one of the light rail lines.
The first problem with the mall ride is that since it's just a little over a mile long, you end up walking almost all of it if you mis-time a bus, going from one end to the other. The next problem is that's a microcosm of all Denver/Boulder transit. Unless you happen to accidentally be near the light rail or 36, and going to somewhere near a light rail stop or along 36, walking or plain old bicycling (not even e-bike) will probably get you there faster than any combination of transit, even up to 3 hours of biking. All light rail, for some reason, must go through Union station. Which means there's no way to go from 1 suburb to another by train without having to transfer in the literal heart of Denver. Or you could drive, which will be 30 minutes or less unless it's rush hour. Even then, it's still probably twice as fast as RTD.
Thanks for explaining the Mall Ride. I live in Toronto and took the RTD Aline to Union Station from the airport this summer. There were no signs for the Mall Ride bus at Unon Station and I wound up mis-directed into the bus terminal where the Mall Ride does not go. I went behind Union Station where the Mall Ride buses hang out. The first stop out of there went right next to Union Station near the A-Line platform. Since 16th Street is still under construction, the buses have a shortened loop that's a guess to where you will wind up. Incidentally, the RTD app is very worthwhile - you buy a "ticket" in the app (a QR code) for the A-Line and sometimes a person "collects" it. Otherwise it stays valid until the next time you want to use it.
If you’re going to Chicago then take a train to Milwaukee. It’s a short trip. Lots of history and controversies with transit in Wisconsin. Urban desires vs the rural state ran government stories
Love these videos, very informative and great storytelling. I think a good idea for a video would be a cost breakdown of driving vs transit. That is, taking all the costs of both owning and driving the car, but also the money spent on car infrastructure. Then comparing it to transit infrastructure and riding transit
Hi I am going to school in St. Louis and I am very curious about our metro - in specific, there is pretty much no regulation of tickets for the metro, so everyone rides for free. How does the city afford to do that? Also, they are opening a new line for the first time in ~20 years next year. Why is our metro system so small?
I live in Lakewood but me and my girlfriend go out to Denver a lot and it’s really helpful to plan out all our stops along 16th street so we can just take the light rail down there and avoid driving altogether. Driving in Denver sucks so it’s great to be able to access the city without the hassle.
Been living here for a few years, and even with all the little oddities, it's been far more reliable than other transit systems within the country that I've experienced. I haven't had to own a car which helps with my cost of living immensely. Also downtown denver is HELLA tame especially when you've grown up in the seattle area. I actually like that transit does still make it out to the less populated areas.
We have something like this in Rutland Vermont of all places where The Bus (it's actual name) is free and can travel between the city, surrounding towns, and the local ski resort. It's very nice.
Follow me on threads for when I eventually start yappin about transit on there www.threads.net/@hudson.yuen
Boston has a ton of good and bad things to talk about, but a really interesting one is the silver line-bostons *attempt* at BRT
The SoCal Amtrak trains might be an interesting subject. They have lots of important connections but especially the local trains (NOT light rail) do not get remotely used enough compared to how bad the traffic is to theoretically push demand towards public transit.
If you don't have it already, I suggest to get a printed copy of "Plan of Chicago." Not only is it dense with information on the reasoning behind overhauling the city, but it's a beautiful, richly illustrated book in its own right. The chapter on transportation shows you how far back the scheme of multiple "circuit" lines goes. It includes many diagrams on how the scheme would work. The book will give you some good background on the topic.
In traveling five states in the US so far, I would have worded the "transportation system" in Denver as follows; From the international airport, one catches the train that stops at bus stations that has many outlets to far distances while moving toward Downtown Union Station. When one arrives, there is the Rail stations that branch out deeper into the state of Colorado as well as more trains to transport out further in with more bus stations to make the residential stops. The escooter "lime"from Lyft was such a success, that the bus system is sure to stay since writing an e scooter in a large city is the funnest and coolest experience in America right now. Denver and one other state is offering Lyft escooters. The escooter
...is what needs to be mentioned since the escooter is the next best thing since Uber.
shout out to the lady from the Denver Downtown for actually sitting down and taking the time to talk to you. Quality of the videos and message you convey is much more than your sub count would let on 👌🏻
100%, Ellen was great! And thanks for the kind words - glad you liked the video and we'll keep growing :^)
Surely, has to be sponsored
@@TheFlyingMooseCA
I was born and raised in Denver. The drug and homeless situation has gotten significantly worst. We have tents towns all around downtown. And this has made Downtown significantly more dangerous. My parents had a glass bottle thrown at them by some homeless man because they didn’t give him money. Shop lifting has become so widespread on 16th street mall that a lot of businesses have had to put security or police officers at the endurance. They have also put merchandise behind glass cases. It didn’t use to be this way. Parts of downtown have become an cess pool. On top of that you have our dumbass mayor declaring us a sanctuary city. And now as a result we have a Venezuelan prison gang in Denver and Aurora. And I’ve talked to homeless people and asked them why they’re in Denver. Most of them said they were on their way to California but stayed her for 2 main reasons. It’s easy to be homeless in Denver and it’s easy to shoplift because the punishments are very minor. I voted for Obama twice, but liberal policies have ruined Denver. Thankfully some of the surrounding cities aren’t as liberal so they have avoided these problems.
@@TheFlyingMooseCAAnd our public transportation is mediocre at best. I lived in Mexico for over a year and I lived in Madrid for a semester in college. Those places had great public transit. Here in Denver if you don’t live off certain major boulevards, getting a bus to and from work is going to be a pain. You made this video as a guest, without actually looking at the intricacies of why our public transit is so bad.
@@javiersilva1577 Sorry to hear your city getting worse but these stuff have nothing to do for the topic this video focus about..
I traveled to Denver last semester for a hockey tournament and i used the RTD rail service as much as possible. Being too young and poor to afford a rent a car, their program for anyone under 19 to ride free was a life saver!
A lot of middle/high school students here regularly use RTD to get to school. Makes a huge difference when you don't have to worry about fares/cards/etc.
Yeah until you're an adult and they charge you like $20 for a single day.
@@jbssfelix That's definitely true, but you also have to remember that the Denver Public School system doesn't provide transportation to students*. The transit is free right now from a pilot program, but I remember in high school having to go to the treasurer to get a weekly bus pass to use RTD. Although, I think my school had the passes because it had a magnet program.
*I know that if you are going to your neighborhood school and live outside of 2 miles of said school that a school bus is an option, but that is practically impossible.
@@briang4914 I take the bus every day, that depends on how much you ride, if you are only going to ride twice it's 2.75 each way, significantly less than 20 dollars.
$20 a day is comparable to car ownership in terms of cost. If it’s that stupidly expensive that’s a problem. But I don’t believe you, so…
The only other time I've heard of a free bus system is my college town's "drunk bus." The public, private, and community college all pitched together funding to have free bus routes during weekend nights that would go from the main student housing areas to downtown.
Many universities have some sort of deal with the mass transit system in their area, with either free or discounted service for students.
I feel like that's just enabling that behavior
@@ffnovice7whatever your thoughts on drinking it might still decrease drunk driving and save lives. Yay!
@@ffnovice7think about it this way. The people who are partying are already party-ers. So they have an option now. And, the people who don’t normally party, now have a safe way home
@@jzubs I like that
I feel like all of this fear-mongering about safety within cities is just anti-city sentiment at this point. It doesn't matter what city it is or where it is, it's always considered drug-infested and dangerous simply because it's a city. That's the stigma that Americans have been told about cities since the mid-20th Century. It's why so many people still think that city life is sub-standard living.
Yep. Homelessness and drugs aren’t inherently dangerous.
@@Nun195Literally proved her point
It's not fear mongering, the drug and crime situation onboard many transit systems and in downtowns today is bad. Yes anti city people highlight them as reasons for cities being bad but pro city people need to acknowledge the problem because it's driving away enormous amounts of transit ridership and downtown visits.
@@NaniVitali or that America just has higher rates of crime and homelessness then major cities in Europe/Japan and they need to do something about it. There's a reason why NYC, the city with the lowest crime rate, is the most urbanist city in America, public safety is the pre-requisite to good urbanism
May be you haven't read how many RTD bus drivers had to stop driving because of fentanyl overdose from passenger.
As a European, it’s so depressing to see how beautiful American cities used to be compared to now.
Yep. I visited San Francisco, basically the only city outside the east coast that truly survived the urban destruction of the 50s to 90s, it was amazing. Made me sad about all the other once amazing American cities bulldozed for the car.
While true, I think there's a new wave of attention towards this topic and more widespread recognition that what was taken away can be rebuilt. Surely there's a way we can learn from history :^)
As an American I feel the same 😭 I see old pictures of Indianapolis (my home town) and think "that's a city I would really love to live in!'.
@@een_schildpad Ellen's from Indianapolis as well! She mentioned the cultural trail, so there's a little bit of walkability at least :)
@@TheFlyingMooseCA that's cool that she's a fellow Hoosier! :-) There's definitely some bright spots like the cultural trail 💯 it's still a cool city, it's just sad to consider how much of what we want in a vibrant, walkable city with excellent electrified public transit we actually already had at one point in history 😭 it somehow would sting less if we'd just never had it...
0:58 the lady in the background that wanted to get on, but was too late! 😆
If you slow it down you can make out aww dam
I spent a week at the convention center, and was only LUCKY enough to catch the mall ride bus once.
1) It’s important to know that if you’re not waiting at a stop, the bus does not stop and wait even a few seconds.
2) When the bus stops, bring “right there” running to the stop won’t cut it.
3) The “6 minute wait” is fantasy, so I suppose by not stopping and waiting they’re always trying to achieve it.
“It’s here to stay”
Common scene with the light rail in my hometown. Oftentimes you have people come running and hit the button on the door just a fraction of a second too late.
I couldn't focus on what he was saying while that was happening. Automated transit is SO much better than relying on bus drivers. The only reason to have a human driver is for customer service but he sees the lady waving but just pulls away so what's the point of them. A computer would also pull away from the station exactly on schedule but it least it will stop at every stop, won't skip people waiting at stops, or bunch up and drive an empty bus, or rush through the route to have a longer coffee break at each end of the line. A computer will always show up even on a snow day and routes will never have to be cancelled due to illness or a labor shortage. All the great bus drivers out there prove me wrong. Your only job is to pick people up and move them. Moving an empty bus around is just a waste of time and energy.
Every 6 minutes for a free bus is incredible, might be one of the most frequent buses in the US. I've lived in Boston (specifically Cambridge) and the frequent bus lines there are constantly getting stuck in traffic and bunching up. I wonder if the pedestrianized mall helps them avoid this because bus bunching sucks a lot.
Lack of competition from nonprofessional normal drivers helps a lot to maintain regularity. Hence why the most consistent systems are on dedicated exclusive paths, while the ones stuck in traffic often end up even worse than just driving yourself.
Trust me, it is an average of 6 minutes. Occasionally the busses get bunched up and it takes 15 minutes to get one, so instead you start walking to Union Station to catch your train. Then you have three buses arrive within three minutes of each other. I think they need red/green lights at the light rail stop and Civic Center Station to spread the buses out when they get bunched up.
@@RobPenguinsSince78 In my city no matter what they do, strict schedules, waiting areas, increased dead time at each end of the route, any route that isn't currently running late because of traffic is bunched up because if you're a bus driver as you catch up to the bus ahead most or all of the passengers get on the first bus or arrive at the stops after you're gone and you get to drive your whole route with a quiet, empty bus.
It's pretty regular it has its own right of way and stops frequently. Tbh right now it's a bit of a fucking mess bc they've been doing construction on 16th for forever now and it's not very consistent.
$15 million just for a bus to drive in circles all day 💀
I was a young teen, not old enough to drive yet when they converted 16th St. My parents were miffed about them taking away driving... but as someone who lived in the north suburbs, I could catch a bus that got me downtown, then I could take the shuttle and go all the way to the State Capitol. I think that east of connections is where I started falling in love with transit.
I've only been to Denver twice but it always struck me as weird how all this money was spent on this giant light rail ring *around* the city but not through it and especially not on Colfax. Now RTD is building BRT on Colfax but it won't use the 16th Street Mall but rather run parallel to it.
Yeah, there’s a lot of good stuff on TH-cam about how RTD is willing to spend money, but the things they build don’t end up being useful 💀 Still looking forward to seeing the Colfax BRT tho - that seems to have pretty widespread support
But Colfax (which is basically 15th) runs east-west... while 16th at that point runs on a diagonal... they don't run parallel to each other. All the streets in downtown, while technically on a grid, are rotated 45-degrees. I grew up in Denver, don't currently live there, but any BRT on Colfax would work well in conjunction with the shuttle... as the shuttle terminates about a half-block north of Colfax and Broadway. I can totally see how they will work together... get off the BRT at Colfax/B-Way and take the shuttle up to Union Station/Market Street transit.
denverite here. Yep! it stinks. The light rail here system was built with mainly state funds that were made available from a very small tax increse that was voted on by the state, in the planning phase, to appease suburban governments, most of the trains were built in order to connect the richer suburbs to the downtown core. making them pretty useless to the actual citizens of Denver as well anywhere but the richest suburbs, and entirely not fulfilling the guarentee for a boulder to denver train. trust me, they would be so much more useful if they ran actual denver corridors instead of commuter routes following freeways. running down roads like broadway/ lincoln, colfax, MLK, 6th, Speer, federal and colorado… Denver used to have such an extencive trolley cart system with viaducts and the coverage was pretty impressive.
@@Militantaoist I've really wanted to use RTD for transport but it has multiple things that prevent it from being truly useful. The station is only a mile from me. A very easy bike ride. But the trains only run every 30 minutes which makes timing which one I need to actually be on very awkward. I'd either be very early or very late. Second problem is Union or 48th are 1.6 or 2.5 miles from work respectively. Still a short bike ride BUT there are so many huge car-centric roads that it wouldn't be safe to ride. Third problem is that my job works 24/7 and RTD stops running trains at midnight so I'd have no way home except a 14 mile bike ride which I can do but the trail would be pitch black.
It's so frustrating that Denver has one of the larger transportation networks in the country but the rail lines really don't go anywhere useful. "Transit needs a destination. Dropping you off at a mile-long parking lot is not a destination."
It's still important to have transit reaching outside of the city. The light rail wasn't meant for just Denver city, but Denver county.
I click for the urbanist takes and I stay for the baseball references 🤙
my iDeAL viewer
I appreciated the sudden Avs logo jumpscare.
I live in Denver and have started getting everywhere via the light rail, commuter rail, bus, and perhaps most often, the multi-use pathway system. It's certainly still a car dependent city, especially where I live in southeast Denver near Aurora, but people who say you can't go anywhere without a car are just straight up wrong.
People who avoid the trains and busses, in my experience, more often than not do so because poor people are icky and only poor people stoop to using public transit. I know there are legitimate safety issues and, to their credit, RTD has started addressing them, but often when I talk to someone about riding the bus or train I get this look of pity like the only reason someone would ever dare use public transit is if they were in dire straights; it's really just not as bad as people think yet they will never try it because of the reputation.
So, people drive. That's meant that I've nearly been killed multiple times crossing in a 100ft long crosswalk with the right of way.
Cars are inherently unfair to those without the means. If someone lives in a car centric suburb, they HAVE to spend money to own a car, fuel it, insure it, register it, and maintain it just to be a part of society. Its very class-ist and disproportionality impacts lower incomes.
Next time they give you that pity look for that, you can tell them that you dont spend money on purchasing, maintaining, and fueling a depreciating asset.
I just wish the service levels were what they used to be pre-pandemic. I had to use RTD exclusively from 2014 through 2016 (I also interned there as a Spcial Events Intern from 2015-2016) and it was quite easy. Between E and F lines, the headways on Southeast LRT were 7.5 minutes. That is so frequent, I did not even have to check the schedules. I miss it :( I live at Arapahoe station now and hardly ever take RTD, as E line barely shows up...
We’re able to avoid that somewhat here in Madison, WI because the UW campus is right next to downtown, so many students use the bus system. Technically, college students are also low-income, and some folks don’t like them either, but you get my point.
I think the problem with Denver is 2 fold. A. The people from colorado who still live here have watched Denver go from a cowtown to one of the more culturally significant locations in the US, and with the population growth has come a ton of growing pains. B. Since Covid a number of specific crime stats have gone up that has made people feel like the city is wholly unapproachable from the outside. The general feeling of safety on RTD has been eroded by the percieved loose enforcement of ticketing since covid, the general feeling of safety parking has been eroded by the catalytic converter theft rings which has risen dramatically.
Combine that with the fact that more and more denver's COL caters exclusively to the extremely wealthy tech and high end business fields, the growing disparity in social classes means you get a lot more nimbys who are moving to a place that is trying to do a ton of social programs, and so you end up with this weird situation where the state all moves in a direction but is hampered by the people who don't want to continue supporting that direction but refuse to leave because where else do you go from colorado and get to still microdose feeling like youre living in LA
@@SurrealGoatsA+ reply SG!
I think if we actually get rail to the mountains it will set off a chain reaction. Union Pacific is holding us back from a world class car-free city. It’s not our city, state, or its residents.
As someone who lives 45 mins from Denver but rarely goes, I'm really excited about this. I knew there was a bungled light rail expansion in development hell from the 90s, but it's nice to know we actually have people like Ellen working on solutions.
Tell me about it. I tend to stay away at this point unless I'm biking to Denver. They started the upgrade of that metro rail block, but I'm not sure how long it will take. They took a year and a half to finish a small biking underpass by CU Boulder.
Yep, this will bring more people into Denver from suburbs and further. Makes it pleasantly visitable by more people.
I live right next to the DDP and I commute to a building right next to Civic Center station. I almost always bike to work as its faster than the Mall Ride due to its mandatory stops, but on a day like today when the snow is coming down, it's an excellent FREE alternative! Also while the Rockies do suck, they have the best bar in town! $3 beers before first pitch and the cover (Rockies tickets) is always cheap!
I can definitely see how biking would be quicker, but you're spot on - sometimes you need other options. And I do always love catching a game when I'm in town - y'all have a beautiful stadium especially on summer evenings 😍
when you're driving in downtown denver, 16th st doesn't feel like an obstacle at all. you're never gonna think to yourself, oh if only i could turn onto this pedestrian area.
when you're on foot, hopping on the shuttle is a no-brainer too.
it's surprising to hear it described as a really bold and risky policy choice because the experience of it just feels like a lay-up.
I think that's the beauty of it - it feels seamless today but it was quite controversial when they were discussing it in the 70s. Part of that was how cities really were emptying out and the pedestrian mall concept had run its course in a lot of other places
16th street has been essentially closed down for over a year with construction ripping the road up, and most businesses have left. I work on 14th street.
having lived both in downtown denver and in suburbia denver, i've always been fascinated by our public transit because the issues with it are a little bit overwhelming (especially since they stopped running a few lightrail lines during lockdown and never picked them back up), but there IS a lot about it that works really well.
unrelated, but my favorite goofy (horrific) thing about the free mall ride busses is that they really Do Not Stop. some people are just unaware enough of their surroundings that they end up in front of one of these things while it's moving.
5:20 Fun fact about that parking lot: it's so large that it has a transit system to go from the lot to the stadium.
About the Denver homeless situation - you should check out their free housing program and the reasoning behind it. From what I remember, the idea revolves around the fact that homelessness isn't a bell curve. The vast majority of those who wind up homeless are only without a place for a day or two and get back on their feet.The people you see sleeping on the streets - outside the Denver Partnership building in this case - represent a very, very small minority of the homelessness crisis and are "chronic" in this way. This minuscule minority, however, take up an overwhelming amount of the costs associated with handling the homeless - medical bills being a significant expense. Denver's plan hinges on the fact that it is simply cheaper to just house these people for free than any other social programs. And many argue that it is the only feasible solution to end homelessness. It is a very fascinating issue - especially since it veers so hard from what we think is "right" or "fair" in regards to other welfare programs.
Sometimes offering something free of charge is cheaper than dealing with the consequences of not offering it.
It's too make money, look up California Insider show to understand from insider perspectives how the many companies profit off of 'crisis management'. It's a good money maker! and money drives the economy after all.
A housing first approach has many other benefits beyond just making housing them cheaper: Finding and keeping a job is much easier with a house, finding those who need help (medical help, addiction treatment, etc.) is a lot easier if they have an address, and there are probably other benefits that I can't think of from the top of my head.
There was a similar study here in my city where they found the same thing. A super small group of 4 or 5 people were costing society $1M a year or more in hospital bills, damages to shelter they were given, law enforcement, courts, social workers. For a small group of people it would actually be far healthier for them and far cheaper for society to hire 2 full time social workers to babysit them 1 on 1.
@@InventorZahranSee: health insurance (at least mine) offering free birth control and vaccines because it turns out that's a lot cheaper for them compared to paying for child and illness related medical care.
I visited my brother in-law in Denver recently, and I was delighted by how good their public transit is in general. Probably the best metro system I’ve used in the US so far
Wow our standards must be low. Rtd blows a lot of money, but usually in meaningless ways it seems. Yeah let's build a light rail network that just picks people up and drops them off primarily in unwalkable wastelands. What you didn't want to go to the ghetto or the abandoned car lot?! We thought those were the two primary attractions in the area.
Where have you been lol Denver's transit blows
@@mtndude96 Compared to a lot of midsize cities, it's pretty good. Runs past 8pm and has coverage to it. Oh, and trains to the airport is always big points.
Have u taken Marta, or Metro in DC or the MTA. RTD is *fine* but it's kinda crazy to say it's super great.
I use RTD regularly. It’s awful. Don’t make assumptions til you’ve actually used it every day
@9:14 "it would be unfair to only increase the cost of driving, without a commensurate improvement to the alternatives"
So true. In London the Mayor introduced a daily fee to drive in the city, but only belatedly (and rather half heartedly) introduced some new bus routes.
Glad you stuck it through to that part of the video - I originally had a longer section about the necessity of improving transit if you increase driving costs, but it got a bit rambly so I just axed it lmao
I still feel that it's a key message here - it's ineffective and a bit unfair to do one without the other 🤷
@@TheFlyingMooseCA as per your section about drivers benefiting from big subsidies ... it may NOT be unfair to increase the cost of driving ... but you have to bring the public with you (even when drivers are in the minority) ...
so the "effectiveness" argument is definitely valid
"daily fee to drive in the city" lmao
@@SingleTheShot how would you describe it to people outside the UK ?
@@fToo NYC has done the same thing calling it a "congestion toll" for $15 on top of $14 or $15 to just get into Manhattan, anyway.
It's amazing that you found a rainy day in Denver.
April was wild - snow and sun 😬
@@TheFlyingMooseCA And hail, and rain, and wind... so basically spring in Colorado!
Don’t forget about the trains in Denver. There is actually a direct rail connection from downtown to DU and many other places around the city. Plus the city are working on BRT lines along Arterials like colfax to dense urban neighborhoods.
As someone living a few blocks away from this, i'm proud that the city is doing all this compared to most other western cities!
Glad to say I'm here before this channel blows up. The editing and presentation are top notch!
I take the train into downtown and then take the mall ride to my office. It’s so much better than driving.
Moved to Denver 13 years ago and the Free Mall Ride was one of the first things I loved about downtown. At the time I was broke and in my early 20s so being able to take a bus for $2 and explore downtown for free was a game changer
You got some great presentation my guy
I appreciate all the Rockies footage mixed into the vid. Great to see my city getting some love!
haha anything is an excuse for baseball 😎 and Denver's definitely grown on me!
Every time I visit Denver I love the 16th street mall! I can't wait for it to be finished. Very interesting video!
Don't forget the Bustang Outrider services that can take you to every corner of the state once daily.
Might try it later this summer - thinking of a lil trip to glenwood springs 👀
Yes! Took it to Vail, Frisco/Breckenridge, Idaho Springs, Ft.Collins, & Colorado Springs.
@@TheFlyingMooseCAThat also connects you with RFTA, highly rewarded and I've heard called "best rural transit service in North America". Covers 70 miles from Aspen to Rifle.
And Glenwood is beautiful ofc, try the Iron Mountain Hot Springs.
As a Denver resident, the only bus system I generally avoid is anything down Colfax. I’m not *scared* of it, but considering how many tweakers there are on Colfax, you never know if someone’s gonna have a bad high, get paranoid, and start fighting their demons on a crowded bus.
yeah, i totally get this. all throughout high school, i had to take the 15 to and from school every day and i can definitely say it was always a bit of a gamble. i lived right off colfax for all of my childhood, so i knew how to navigate it, but i also never risked taking the bus without a friend lmao. safety in numbers is always a good rule to follow.
this video was so good! I'd love to see more Denver stuff and I'm looking forward to the Chicago video :)
It's refreshing to see a video about something done well.
As a coloradan who worked in dt denver pre-pandemic, until 10pm, in the winter, the free mall ride didn't always come. Trudging endlessly through sometimes knee deep snow downhill (yahs!) to the light rail. Sometimes the light rail didn't show. I especially remember a cold winter night where I idiotically only brought a hoody. There was a small puddle of water around my feed where my shivers had thawed the ice, waiting for the hour-late train. Wife's phone was off, she was asleep. The warm shower I took when I got home was the most comforting shower of my life.
Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.
You learned a lot about the area and represented/portrayed it well! Thanks for coming to town!
I had to ‘like’. For Ellen!!
I appreciate this vid as someone who has grown up and lived in Denver, I really hope the city can move to a more walker and public transportation friendly city.
Also the digs at the Rockies are so warranted it hurts
Creators like you remind of why content creation is so important. So important to have eyes on these subjects and your quality is superb. Under 10k gang, it will be 1 million subs before you know it!
Really appreciate it - let's hope we get there one day 😎
Excellent video and graphics! I'm glad this channel popped up on my recommended, and I hope you keep growing!
Glad you liked it - see you around!
I really want to move to Denver, especially as they are building the Front Range Passenger Rail.
The FRPR is still in the planning phase. Will take many more years until it's opened
See you in 20 years
Be warned, the closer you get to Denver in Colorado the higher the cost of living
good luck affording to live here lmao, the cost of living here is wild
You went to denver after they sweeped the "drug addled homeless warzone" out of the center primarily and to the outskirts. It used to be super intense but now its still there just on the periphery.
As someone from Denver originally and a huge Denver sports fan the meme at 6:32 had me Rotfl. Overall great video and presentation
The issue with the meme is that it implies the Broncos are good 😂
@@dawicalook at least they are better then the Rockies right now. And the Nuggets and Aves are actually good so we have that at least
I've lived in Colorado for 8 years now and have yet to step foot in Denver. I just don't see a need for me to go there. It's over-priced, the people are snobby as f**k, anything that isn't a main attraction to tourists sucks because of filth and crime. Denver is worried more about solving future problems, than it is fixing the current problems it has. Instead of regulating the $2000/mo rent for a 400sq ft apartment, they voted to release wolves that haven't been here in over 80 years. Instead of making sure people are compliant with vehicle registration, which matters when 80% of the people will hit you and run away, they issued a Sugar Tax. It's not run by good or smart people, but greedy people who care nothing about helping people. It's so expensive there that they get their own special minimum wage laws the rest of the state doesn't get in order to combat this. Instead of just fixing why things are so costly to begin with. It's $4/hr higher there, than the rest of the state because they are so specially stupid there that they can't fix the issues. But those in charge know that the more income people make, the more tax they can take. Why fix prices? Pay people more, then you can take more.
Please do a video on RTD's death spiral: Decreased frequencies, terrible leadership, bad route planning, etc. It's so bad that Polis is trying to restructure the board to change things up, and I think that we may see some additional service cuts as their budget problems worsen to the point where it's unusable.
Yes! Are people blind as to how ineffective and corrupt rtd is? Or are other cities just worse?
Denver native - You did a great job explaining this. I’d love to see you tackle the light rail next and detail how it could be improved.
I live in Denver and it sucks. Still thank you for visiting LOL.
Fantastic video dude. Really cool to see this quality and effort coming from a smaller creator!
Appreciate it a lot - thanks for watching!
Babe wake up the flying moose just posted
stop it i'm blushing
I'm from Denver and I've lived in Washington D.C. I used the Free Mall Ride _every_ weekday. I used the Green line in Washington. Great videos!
Speaking of learning a thing or two, here’s a note for Ellen:
I spent a week at the convention center, and was only LUCKY enough to catch the mall ride bus once.
1) It’s important to know that if you’re not waiting at a stop, the bus does not stop and wait even a few seconds.
2) When the bus does stop, being “right there” running to the stop, easily within view of the driver’s mirrors, arms waving, suitcases clattering, won’t cut it.
3) The “6 minute wait” is fantasy, so I suppose by not stopping and waiting they’re always trying to achieve it.
4) I was in the Hyatt Regency for a week, and honestly, it was better to just walk everywhere, including the 12 blocks back to Union Station to catch the airport train. $10.50 and a stone-cold bargain.
Wow, it's so weird seeing something I've come to take for granted as a Denver resident, being showcased as something unique.
Try taking the shuttle at noon every day! :-) Is very congested,but the good thing is that everybody gets where they need to go fast. I wrote it too many times, and I loved it!
Denver is underrated asf
Denver is a hell hole. You have low standards.
Colorado is amazing, but Denver is a very average city.
Denver is a shithole. In the rest of the state, we hate the city and it's people.
the bus that provides free ride through 10 block straight road and this video says it solves car problem in the downtown lol... Free mall ride is merely a tourist attraction and does not provide a function as a transit mean. When we hang out in the downtown we often just walk down the mall street and race with the free ride bus who gets to the next stop first. Denver downtown and greater Denver metro is notarious for having terrible public transit. We jokingly say that you need a car to get to the public transit (true story) is a testament to how broken Denver public transit is.
@5:22 "mind numbing amounts of parking" ... it really is!
i live near two Premier League football grounds in London ... and although we complain about London being car centric ... there's (thankfully) hardly any dedicated parking for the stadiums !
Thoroughly enjoyed this video till the end. Thanks for sharing my city and teaching me something new.
LOL, back in 2018 maybe. 16th Mall has been a torn up, fenced off, disaster zone of a construction site for years. The last time it looked anything like this video was maybe early 2022. The street is currently considered one of the city's biggest shitholes, is absolutely infested with fentanyl zombies, and is avoided by anyone who knows the area at all. Seriously, people DO NOT go to 16th to hang out. Most storefronts are closed down as local businesses have left, so it's basically just a bunch of chain stores and restaurants that have stuck around. These red busses still run down another street, and cover about 1 mile of downtown. Not 1 square mile, 1 straight line mile of 2 parallel roads downtown.
This video uses 3-4 year old footage, and is very misleading about the current state of downtown Denver, which as I mentioned previously, is an absolute disaster.
God Thank you so much for this video. it makes me feel alot better about living in Denver and lowkey forgot how far the free mall ride went. I actually am gonna use it alot more. Thanks man!
i live in denver, and have for 13 years, and i have literally no idea what everyone in the comments is talking about. the rtd is horrible. yes, riding under 19 for free is great, but what y’all don’t know is everyone in colorado has to pay $365/year to re-register your vehicle, even if the rtd doesn’t service you. also, the rtd is constantly late, and cancelled all the time due to tracks being offline or being repaired. it’s a good idea, and i do support it, but the implementation is really poor and needs so much work.
Agreed! I lived without a car in Aurora because living closer to Denver proper was way too expensive. Unless you’re taking the 16 right from Colfax directly downtown, it takes hours to get anywhere. So many transfers and lots of late and canceled buses, as you mentioned. And some of the rail stops are in weird, remote places. It’s just tough to get around without a car.
Last time I rode the 16th street mall bus, a homeless guy pissed on the entire back row then got arrested
Too bad anyone that lives in the Denver metro area knows RTD is an absolute dumpster fire
Ik I’m late but yeah. Like why is bus 0 arriving 35 minutes late and the other one arriving at the same time 3 minutes early💀
There’s also another ride that’s free called “Free MetroRide” but was discontinued when Covid-19 happened to limit ridership and to this day, its still not open yet… yikes!
every city is a drug infested warzone to the people who never go to said city
Yep
Been here all my life. It's improved, but Union Station a couple years back was literally an open air drug market with dozens of people shooting up in public, and dangerous at night.
As someone from dallas, the AT&T district has actually gotten even better than you think. The DART transit mall (light rail) is only a 15 minute walk along very pedestrian friendly streets. I believe there is also a decent number of bus lines that connect around the district.
$15 million a year just for a bus to drive in circles all day 💀
I'm glad you enjoyed my hometown, its great free Mall Ride, and you've seen it's much nicer than some people say. 👍
I lived in Denver for school and still live in the area. 16th Street was always quite interesting, and it was fun to walk it after going to a movie or something similar.
Happy to show you our public transportation services here in Bern, capital of Switzerland
Your voice is beautiful btw :) love the video! Learned something new about Denver! Hope we get a pedestrian only street here in Seattle.
Yess his voice is very very nice
Came for the Transit vid.
Stayed for the vicious Rockies jabs.
my target audience has been reached 🫡
Here in Colorado, something like 97% of people who commute to work use personal cars. Yes Denver has some shuttles & mass transit has its niche but it will NEVER replace the personal car. Keep in mind Denver has large, sprawling suburbs & exurbs that are far too low density for mass transit to make any sense & Colorado also has large rural areas far outside the Denver metro area.
At the state level there has been a problem with politicians & transportation officials being far too fixated on pie in the sky mass transit goals and not allocating enough resources to build, expand & maintain the roads & highways that the very extreme majority of us depend on.
Love how on the thumbnail there is a reflection of a car on the bus but the title says something about car-free
This is great coverage of an important issue. I love Denver and the Mall ride has always been super useful. I'm hoping we can get much more transit and less cars all over the city.
Highlighting success stories is an excellent way to approach this topic. Well done.
Also if you don't know sometimes Denver shuts down traffic on Broadway on the weekends to show people what a carless and walkable city would be like. It would be fantastic to get another mall ride up and down Broadway.
I stayed at a hotel in downtown Denver and rode the shuttle quite a few times, it is kind of like a "hop on hop off" transit... So easy!
Within Denver city proper, the transit system is alright. However, the larger RTD throughout the metro area is... Not good. Yes, suburban transit is hard. But RTD tends to build lines where it is convenient for them, rather than where people actually need to go.
I grew up in Denver and spent the last 7 years of my life in DC and I unfortunately also love baseball. it's like your content is specifically catered to me lol
jokes aside this is top tier stuff. keep this up you're crushing it
haha sounds the algo has reached the intended audience 😎 glad you enjoyed!
I'm a Denver native, while I think this is a great video and good journalism, I think perhaps it would've been a good idea to interview people that don't live in downtown. The people living downtown are almost never natives, and moved to Denver because of the 'dude weed lmao' SanFran type reputation it has. They're a very specific kind of person that doesn't represent the natives. We've basically been colonized haha.
I'm just here for the Rockies edits.
The ideal audience 😎
Your content is amazing. I’ve lived in Denver my entire life, and what strikes me about Denver’s public transit is that it goes “around” the city to Aurora and Centennial, but no transit on Colfax or near anywhere remotely residential. I’m a new subscriber after your DC metro video, so it’s awesome to see a new video about my city. Keep doing what you’re doing, I love seeing new videos :) One idea for a transit system to cover the PRT at West Virginia university - it’s really interesting!!
Really glad you liked this one - Denver is growing on me the more time I spend there :) And the PRT has popped up before as a suggestion - not sure if it was you but it'd definitely be a fun topic to look at
15 and 15L run EB on Colfax and 16 WB do you mean there is no Transit on Colfax?
@@lamarishere2225also the W line runs right by Colfax through Lakewood
I lived on Colfax in Aurora and took the 15 often, but the other 2 places I lived in Aurora required lots of walking and transfers. It took so long to get to work that my starting point was too early for any of those buses. You can get lucky if you live close to a line that’s going where you need to go, but the suburbs are definitely underserved.
I just gotta say, your videos are fantastic! It feels way more personal than a lot of the videos I see online now. Incredibly well made! I’m excited to see more. Also the baseball clips are amazing.
Thanks a lot! And yes, these videos are all an excuse to share baseball clips 😈
The Mall Ride is so handy, and a lot of people don't give it credit for how much service it does for that part of the city. It's nice to see it getting some love.
I'd LOVE to see you do a video on the Montreal subway, because it has so many super cool features (old F1 tires, wooden brakes, passive cooling on train cars) that I'd love to learn more about.
Also, for Chicago, you gotta mention how the city scooted a whole historic building a little bit east to make improvements to one of the light rail lines.
The first problem with the mall ride is that since it's just a little over a mile long, you end up walking almost all of it if you mis-time a bus, going from one end to the other. The next problem is that's a microcosm of all Denver/Boulder transit. Unless you happen to accidentally be near the light rail or 36, and going to somewhere near a light rail stop or along 36, walking or plain old bicycling (not even e-bike) will probably get you there faster than any combination of transit, even up to 3 hours of biking. All light rail, for some reason, must go through Union station. Which means there's no way to go from 1 suburb to another by train without having to transfer in the literal heart of Denver.
Or you could drive, which will be 30 minutes or less unless it's rush hour. Even then, it's still probably twice as fast as RTD.
I went on vacation in Denver. My family vacationed there and had a rental car. We still used the free bus it explore downtown. It’s awesome.
Thanks for explaining the Mall Ride. I live in Toronto and took the RTD Aline to Union Station from the airport this summer. There were no signs for the Mall Ride bus at Unon Station and I wound up mis-directed into the bus terminal where the Mall Ride does not go. I went behind Union Station where the Mall Ride buses hang out. The first stop out of there went right next to Union Station near the A-Line platform. Since 16th Street is still under construction, the buses have a shortened loop that's a guess to where you will wind up. Incidentally, the RTD app is very worthwhile - you buy a "ticket" in the app (a QR code) for the A-Line and sometimes a person "collects" it. Otherwise it stays valid until the next time you want to use it.
I love the RTD so much. People complain about it here but its genuinely the best public transport ive ever used, shoutout the HOP in Boulder
Awesome video! Walkable and bikeable cities are the best!
If Denver or any other city makes driving more expensive, they need to use extra revenue to pay for public transportation. This is what Vancouver does
Thanks for visiting our city! Sorry the 16th reno wasn't done when you visited, guess you'll have to return :)
If you’re going to Chicago then take a train to Milwaukee. It’s a short trip. Lots of history and controversies with transit in Wisconsin. Urban desires vs the rural state ran government stories
Omg thanks for coming to Denver! So cool to see my city covered
Love these videos, very informative and great storytelling.
I think a good idea for a video would be a cost breakdown of driving vs transit. That is, taking all the costs of both owning and driving the car, but also the money spent on car infrastructure. Then comparing it to transit infrastructure and riding transit
Hi I am going to school in St. Louis and I am very curious about our metro - in specific, there is pretty much no regulation of tickets for the metro, so everyone rides for free. How does the city afford to do that? Also, they are opening a new line for the first time in ~20 years next year. Why is our metro system so small?
Have you looked in Grand River Transit in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario?
Just wanna say first time im seeing your channel pop up, absolutely love your video style. keep up the good work, you going places king
Too kind too kind 😌
I live in Lakewood but me and my girlfriend go out to Denver a lot and it’s really helpful to plan out all our stops along 16th street so we can just take the light rail down there and avoid driving altogether. Driving in Denver sucks so it’s great to be able to access the city without the hassle.
Been living here for a few years, and even with all the little oddities, it's been far more reliable than other transit systems within the country that I've experienced. I haven't had to own a car which helps with my cost of living immensely.
Also downtown denver is HELLA tame especially when you've grown up in the seattle area.
I actually like that transit does still make it out to the less populated areas.
This is a really well produced video, dawg. Subscribed after watching this.
too kind, glad you enjoyed 😌
We have something like this in Rutland Vermont of all places where The Bus (it's actual name) is free and can travel between the city, surrounding towns, and the local ski resort. It's very nice.
First time viewer. I really enjoyed this. A good blend of information, a little bit of humor, and good baseball references :) Consider me subscribed!
Glad you enjoyed - there'll be more!
That single frame of CO's sports teams as a 4-headed hydro had me rolling!
Keep it up man you've got fantastic videos and amazing thumbnails
thank you :)