Nitc final Report Prepared by Shima Hamidi and Philip Stoker

The Stations

Located between three different neighborhoods, North Capitol Hill, The Central Business District, and Five Points; the station at 20th and Welton boasts the smallest block size of all three stations we studied. With a new high rise building just steps from the station, and more possible development in the future shown by the amount of surface lots located around the station, this area is primed for TOD, but was not what we were expecting as far TOD is concerned. Yet, the station does offer an interesting look into a downtown station that as Patrick McLaughlin described as one the next big TOD projects that Denver is planning.

The station is most notably different than the other two because of its very high population density and job density, which ultimately led to its selection along the Welton Loop. This area was seen as an important case study in the downtown because of how it varied from Union Station and many other TOD sites were not completed. Despite lower than average marks than almost all national averages. Figure 2 shows the one category that 20th and Welton was higher than the national average was the based on interaction question in the built environment survey and fare price in the transit survey. However 20th and Welton averaged lower scores than the other Denver stations, both surveys when checked for analysis of variance, the difference was not statistically significant. Meaning that the dissatisfaction is within the expected levels of the survey results and this station was statistically speaking no different than the other Denver stations or the national averages. Figure 3 shows a similar pattern of lower than the national average satisfaction scores but is also not statistically significant. We found it to be somewhat comical that a station with so much surface parking present and such low car ownership would be so unhappy about the parking available around the station.

Union Station is one of Denver’s most prominent and ambitious projects involving TOD. Located just west of the CBD and south of the Lower Downtown neighborhood (LoDo), Union Station is one of the best examples of TOD in the mountain west. With the highest destination accessibility scores of all three stations it is no wonder so many people are flocking to this inter-modal hub that will soon have the new airport line finished, whereby connecting it to one of the farthest destinations as well. Given the fact that Union Station is located so close to the CBD it is no surprise that as figure 7 shows, it has a very poor transit share score. But has a high walk score. Between the 3 stations the correlation between walking and driving has an r value of r=-1.0, and it shows in the built environment. When people can walk more, they will give up driving. Smaller blocks and higher intersection density enables people to walk more, such was the case at both Union Station and 20th and Welton