PAGE 2 | THE VILLAGER • February 11, 2021
Smart Cities Alliance proposes autonomous circulator vehicles from GV light rail stations BY FREDA MIKLIN GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
At the Greenwood Village City Council study session on January 25, Tyler Svitak, executive director of Smart Cities Alliance (SMA), and Tom Brook, president and CEO of Denver South (formerly Denver South Economic Development Partnership), presented “EZ Street,” a plan to run five autonomous fully-electric six-person circulator vehicles along an approximately two-mile pre-mapped route from each of Greenwood Village’s two light rail stops, Arapahoe Station and Orchard Station. The vehicles would come at seven-minute intervals and each round trip would take about 25 minutes. The shuttles would be free of charge and could handle 50 to 60 passengers per hour. Both SMA and Denver South have long been focused on the challenge of “first mile/last mile”
(FLM) related to the light rail system throughout the I-25 corridor south of Denver. FLM is the term generally used to describe how light rail users get to their destination from their train stop and how they get back to the train stop from their destination efficiently. Other cities with well-developed public transportation systems often have frequently running busses for that purpose, but metro Denver does not. Svitak told the city council that, in addition to attracting and retaining local employers, these vehicles could improve the quality of life in Greenwood Village, where residents have long told their elected officials that their number one concern is traffic congestion. GV has a population of just over 15,000 and it will not grow under the city’s current policy to not allow any significant residential construction in any location in the city where land could be redeveloped to accommodate it. Still, the number of people in
the city swells to up to 60,000 every weekday (during nonCOVID times) because 40,000 to 45,000 come to work in GV, then go home. According to SMA’s research, 88% of GV commuters drive alone. For many, there is no simple and efficient way to get from the light rail stops to area offices that are not extremely close by. Many residents and elected officials of GV have long believed that these commuters are significant contributors to traffic congestion in the city. Svitak and Brook shared that, when asked, 38.5% of 1,000 workers who responded to the 2019 Denver South annual transportation survey said they would use an FLM service if it was available. They also pointed to research from Denver South that projects 74,000 additional jobs in the area by 2035. As envisioned, the maximum cost to GV for the total project would be around $600,000 the first year, after a significant con-
This is an earlier version of the type of vehicle proposed for this project. Photo courtesy of Smart Cities Alliance
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This is an illustration of the proposed routing from the Orchard Light Rail Station. Photo courtesy of Smart Cities Alliance
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This is an illustration of the proposed routing from the Arapahoe Light Rail Station. Photo courtesy of Smart Cities Alliance
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who said, “Some employers have asked if we have this service or if we are considering getting this type of service,” Then they asked GV’s public works director, who said that it would not be difficult for the city to install the needed technology. At that point, the city council decided to think about the proposal and discuss it again at their next study session on February 1. At the February 1 meeting, Councilor Jerry Presley said, “FLM is vital to the long-term survival of light rail so it seems like RTD should be the leader in this.” Councilor Anne Ingebretsen offered, “The question is whether we should get involved in… transportation issues. When I think about what our residents tell us in our citizen surveys that they are concerned about, one of the biggest issues we get is traffic. What Continued on page 5