In Sunday’s Denver Post, Jeffrey Leib had an interesting article about the future of Downtown Denver’s 16th Street Mall. Here it is in case you missed it: 16th Street on Road to Future

The article discusses one of the key problems with the Mall in its current condition: the wear and tear on the granite pavers in the bus lanes. One of the solutions RTD is considering is replacing the pavers with concrete. Now, I can appreciate the desire by RTD to find a simple and cost effective solution to this problem. But, if there’s one place in our city where we should demand the use of the highest quality materials, it’s along the 16th Street Mall, the premier public space through the heart of our Downtown. Replacing the pavers with concrete would cheapen the entire aesthetic quality of the Mall. I wholeheartedly agree with Tyler Gibbs on this one–no concrete, RTD! That would be like remodeling the state capitol façade and using fake stucco.

Another solution discussed in the article is replacing the Mall shuttle busses with streetcars. This is ultimately the best solution for several reasons. Installing a streetcar line along Colfax has been gaining strong momentum over the past few years, and upgrading the Mall shuttle to a streetcar line would be the logical first step in that direction. With the 16th Street Mall ending right at Colfax, future streetcar extensions east and west along Colfax from Civic Center Station could easily follow. Next, the proposed Downtown Circulator along 18th, 19th, Broadway and Lincoln, could be implemented as a streetcar or, at least, upgraded to a streetcar line as soon as possible, as has been discussed. RTD is also considering replacing the Welton Street light rail line with a streetcar line, running from the planned 40th & 40th Station down to the 20th & Welton Station, if not all the way to Civic Center Station. RTD also proposed (but dropped from the FasTracks program) a transit connection between the Broadway Station and Civic Center along Broadway/Lincoln. An extension of the Downtown Circulator streetcar line from 12th Avenue to the Broadway Station would be a no-brainer.

With there being so many potential streetcar lines criss-crossing Downtown, starting off with an upgrade to a streetcar line along the 16th Street Mall would send a clear messsage that Denver plans to take the next step beyond just suburb-to-Downtown rail transit: intra-city rail transit. Finally, since the Mall shuttle busses would be gone and the streetcars would ride on their own tracks, there would be no further degradation of the granite pavers. After the new Mall streetcar tracks are installed, the existing granite pavers could be used to fill in the gaps between the tracks, thereby maintaining the design integrity of the original Mall. I also agree with the idea of eliminating the wide median in the central section of the Mall and expanding the sidewalks on either side.

Portland, Oregon is currently upgrading their Downtown 5th and 6th Avenue bus transit malls with a brand new light rail line. This is in addition to their existing Downtown light rail and streetcar lines. Here’s a photo of the construction from my visit last week. In the distance is their historic Union Station:

One of the main differences between streetcars and light rail is that, unlike light rail, streetcar lines share a lane with vehicular traffic and don’t require the removal of the curbside parking lane. Here are two images from Portland showing how comfortably a streetcar line blends in with the rest of the public right-of-way:

Sharing the road with cars obviously won’t be an issue along the Mall, but it would be along the proposed Downtown Circulator route, as well as along Broadway/Lincoln to the Broadway Station, along Colfax, etc. Note to the South Broadway merchants who previously opposed a transit line along Broadway: With a streetcar, you get to keep your on-street parking!

The big problem, of course, is that no one has any funding for a 16th Street Mall upgrade to streetcar, let alone most of these other potential Downtown streetcar lines. We can’t afford to wait until after FasTracks has been implemented (2017) and then whenever metropolitan voters find themselves in a mood to increase their taxes to pay for streetcar lines that would primarily benefit Denver citizens. Such a scenario may never happen. Consequently, Denver citizens need to independently find a funding source to allow us to begin implementing an urban streetcar system as an integrated complement to RTD’s busses and rail transit systems.

I agree with Mark Najarian, one of the good guys over at Public Works. If we’re going to tear the Mall up, we ought to think big, plan for the next generation, and put in a streetcar line while we’re at it.