All three of these Denver suburbs stand to benefit from recent transit expansion in the region, so our second workshop focused on how to create strong first-mile/last-mile connections between the places where people live and work and the new regional light rail stations. One vital ingredient of creating these first-mile/last-mile connections to public transit is land use. The teams from Aurora, Arvada, and Westminster learned about how mixing residential, retail, and office uses and placing transparent building facades closer to the sidewalk can create a safer, more inviting experience for people walking, biking, and even driving to public transit.
We put these principles into practice through an interactive exercise based on a real example in Aurora where a large, underused parking lot separates a neighborhood from a soon-to-be bus rapid transit corridor. The exercise made use of state-of-the-art land use simulation technology—LEGOs! Each team filled in the parking lot with a mix of new residential, commercial, and office space using different colored LEGOs to represent the different types of land use. The teams paid particular attention to how they could reconnect the space to the existing street grid, and they also got creative by incorporating trees, green spaces, and bus rapid transit lanes into their designs.
.@cityofarvada @CityWestminster @AuroraGov test our better approaches for #mixeduse #firstmile #lastmile connections with a fun group activity pic.twitter.com/wVwyc8lUaf
— Complete Streets (@completestreets) June 14, 2018
Our @cityofarvada @investinarvada friends explaining their amazing concept of Colfax Ave. Wait for it….Engineers want a nice roundabouts! Score! #completestreets #coconsortiumseries @SmartGrowthUSA pic.twitter.com/54hvUY4jGe
— Gabriella Arismendi (@PlannerGaby) June 14, 2018
Westy’s Deputy Fire Chief & Sustainability Off and CDOT reimagining Colfax. #COconsortiumseries @SmartGrowthUSA #completestreets #Colorado pic.twitter.com/oeentFhI6z
— Gabriella Arismendi (@PlannerGaby) June 14, 2018
Putting our developer and architect hats on for #CompleteStreets Consortium with @SmartGrowthUSA and/or just playing with @LEGO_Group ~ @cityofarvada @cityofaurora @westminsterco @investinarvada @ArvadaRenewal #legos #redevelopment pic.twitter.com/oAnsrxQQa0
— Daniel Ryley (@DanielRyley) June 15, 2018
Proud moment … Westy’s deputy fire chief explaining land use transitions from medium mixed use to residential and speaking about the importance of walkability 😊 #COconsortiumseries @SmartGrowthUSA #CompleteStreets pic.twitter.com/Gnb3j3RwIU
— Gabriella Arismendi (@PlannerGaby) June 14, 2018
During the workshop, we also got a chance to visit Aurora’s new light rail station and experience first-mile/last-mile connections (or lack thereof) for ourselves. We visited 13th Avenue where the sidewalks were too narrow for such a large crowd to walk along comfortably. The corridor also didn’t have any dedicated bike lanes or sharrows, but those of us brave enough to ride directly in the road with traffic borrowed dockless Ofo bicycles.