Niwot park and ride to receive renovation

Buses are a common sight for those living in Boulder and Longmont, but they are easily forgettable since they seem to simply blend into the daily landscape of Colorado traffic. For those living in Niwot, perhaps the primary source of exposure to public transit may come from the park and ride lots on either end of Niwot Road, at Highway 287 and Highway 119.

So, it may come as a bit of a surprise to discover that Denver's Regional Transportation District serves close to 3 million people across eight counties in the Denver Metro area.

"We work with cities and their transit plan," explained Lisa Trujillo, project outreach manager for RTD. "There's a lot of moving parts," she said when asked how locations for bus stops and park and rides are determined.

Much of the consideration behind location has to do with safety. Knowing street business--from both pedestrians and vehicles--is crucial to keeping people safe. Ultimately, it depends on the area to determine if a park and ride is established at any location.

When it comes to safety, however, it often extends past the simple aspect of location in relation to traffic around it. Safety and accessibility of the space, which is generally tied to age, is a consideration for if and when a particular park and ride or bus stop might be renovated.

"Really, it's the age of the infrastructure at the facility. Maybe it could be expanded or needs a few more ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] spaces, there are a lot of different reasons," said Trujillo.

Money became available within RTD's budget, which led to Niwot's park and ride on Highway 287 being chosen for an upgrade. As such, crews have been sent to the location to update it for the community's growing needs.

"We want to be mindful of the folks who mind our system. We don't want them pulling out into traffic, but we want to be mindful of our construction crews too." As an unexpected silver lining from COVID, since construction is considered an essential service and ridership/general traffic has decreased, RTD has been able to renovate the stop with a relatively limited impact to its patrons.

That said, RTD has also updated its guidelines for its riders. In a press release from Sunday, it announced that service will be reduced by 40% and there will be rider limits to promote social distancing. They have gone so far as mandating buses to skip stops if these rider limits are reached.

"We still want to provide safe, reliable service to our patrons to get them to where they need to be," Trujillo said.

For more information and updates, visit http://www.rtd-denver.com.