\
   

INTEGRATING  DEVELOPMENT   AROUND STATIONS 
     
Transportation investment has historically generated multiplier investment in adjacent real estate property. With our existing transportation systems all over loaded, an elevated transportation network is needed for continued growth. Automated Guideway Transport (AGT) offers the potential to unclog existing systems and cause new growth of pedestrian villages around stations. For each AGT route  thousands of development jobs will be created and these could grow into millions as the routes interconnect.
     

Initial Types of Stations
Click on these pictures to enlarge. See examples how stations serve existing buildings, parking 
lots and curbside. These are single bay stations

Public Stations

 Private Stations Outside   Private Stations Inside 

 

Typical Public Station

 Initial Infrastructure Model

Pedestrian Villages

Since Skyways stations are above the ground level, this technology will grow transit oriented pedestrian concourses appealing to retailers, entertainment, advertisers and other travel venders.  These are examples of how stations can be integrated into new pedestrian development and attract people to live on-line without owning a car by offering very convenient access to more options. For example in the 57 mile metro route people could get to75% of all the the happenings in Denver, malls, hospitals, campuses, office parks, amusements and recreation - all within a 2 block walk. Many of life's necessities could be in each little village and accessible with a short walk for common errands to the post office, bank, cleaners, grocery, hair salon, bar and restaurants. With metro rates of only $100 per month for unlimited use, people could be attracted to give up their car ownership and garages in exchange for this old fashioned pedestrian lifestyle.

Click on the picture to open the file.

 Future Pedestrian Villages

A typical station can serve mixed land uses within a 2 block radius (850') which encompasses 15 blocks averaging 100,000 square feet each. This represents 1.5 million square feet of buildable land around a station for  density with a mix of uses including condos, hotel, retail, offices, restaurant and recreational. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denver Mixed Use Zoning
 Denver currently allows 5 to 1 
building density with 1250 feet 
of a transit station.


 

 

 

Most of the benefits of a new walking pedestrianism are in losing the costs of modern things like: our weight, designer diets, expensive gym memberships. car ownership, insurance, repairs, parking, and gas. Improving our health would mean fewer doctor visits, tests, specialists and less medical insurance.

 

OPEN SPACE
Someday the coordination between land planners, transport planners, builders and lenders may make it possible for clustered development with much more open space in our cities than at present. In the extreme futuristic example as shown right, there are fewer cars, and people move mostly by transit.

Station Parking-In order to attract riders, parking will need to be developed at many stations. This is usually a  problem with developers because it often doesn't pay for itself and take up a lot of very expensive land. Over time, parking garages can be built on the outside of the village freeing the inside for a car free zone. These cars zones would interface with city street grids. Tax increment financing can be used to off set the cost factor. Because of increasing congestion and rising land values, automated parking is poised to become the next big trend in parking.

 Station Rental Cars by The Hour

This European concept is based on the premise that households don’t need to own or long-term lease  cars to maintain mobility. This is a mobility systems with several to many cars and subscribers. Subscribers reserve and use the cars for some or all of their trip-making needs. Each car is used multiple times per day by different subscribers. Thus the proportion of cars to subscriber households is smaller, as much as a factor of 10 smaller, than if every subscriber household had its own car. This means the amount of land dedicated to parking cars can be reduced substantially because there are many fewer cars to be parked. It requires a reservation and billing systems, fleet management systems, vehicle access systems, and other hardware and software. 

 New Land Uses 

At station stops there is a tremendous amount of development that can take place within one block walk as shown below in the graphic. This development will most normally support a mix of uses. The highest density is closest to the station and then into gradually diminishes down to single family homes. SmartSkyways is shown (in red)  using the median of a major street like Colorado Blvd. From the station people can be distributed around the site using an at grade site circulator (yellow) that runs from the edge into the middle to the stations and parking. The site circulator also can link the multi family areas allowing for a car free environment around the stations.

 

 

Intermodal Stations

The Platte Valley Intermodal at DUT
As shown here DUT is the cross roads for metro and State wide travel. It lies between downtown and I-25 which is the main traffic arterial for Denver with over 250,000 cars per day. There is room behind DUT for many types of terminals whether stacked vertically or spread out horizontally, serving 100,000+ riders per day from all sources such as:

1. RTD Metro Loop with 50,000
2. Our PV Parking Loop with 23,000
3. Future  I-70 transit 15,000
4. Mall Shuttle with 10,000
5. RTD Bus loading 5,000
6. Auto, van taxis drop off 

 

                        RTD is illustrating the plan below for a second level platform over a rail station 

 

Skyways can fit into the DUT Intermodal by docking above the   platform behind DUT  Such a platform can be part of the costs of the local route. It could also generate revenues from other venders such as ticket offices and pre-boarding gates for the airport. Retail could be included.

Future Intermodal

This is an illustration of a very futuristic cargo  Intermodal
using Hoover Craft, Helicopters, Trucks, trains and automatic
Handling.

 Economic Impacts and Consequences (Coming Soon)

    Land Uses: clustered & mixed: housing, retail, office, hotel, parking, entertainment, recreation

    Growth: density clusters as an alternative for 50% of new growth instead of sprawl

    Taxation: district and private instead of government and general taxation

    Open Space: high density vertical spaces at stations  vs existing low density parks

    Stations: Intermodals at DIA, DUT and DTC

 

Summary   |   Corporate   |   Technology   |   Routes   |   Market   |   Interact   |   Search

 
 

Alternative Transit | Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) | People Movers

  
 

Contact Us   |   Beyond Oil   |   Demonstration Model

  
 

Copyright © SmartSkyways, LLC. 2006. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED