Denver's Streetcar Legacy and its Role in Neighborhood Walkability

1	Streetcar Routes

16th Street, 1910's. Notice the base of the Daniels and Fisher Clock Tower (*Denver's Street Railways*).

Introduction to the Map Series

Many people, even longtime residents of the city, would be surprised to learn that Denver once had a world class public transportation system in the form of streetcars. These street railways existed for 78 years of the city's history and at its height their tracks once densely covered a large portion of the modern city proper.

Although long gone today, evidence abounds of the streetcar's presence in the city, mainly in the form of old commercial strips lining arterials like Colfax and Broadway, and embedded in neighborhoods on streets like South Pearl and Tennyson.

This legacy in the built environment is not only valuable for its history and aesthetic. It also contributes to the walkability of Denver's neighborhoods. Because these developments are scattered in close proximity to residences, more people are within walking distance to many types of businesses and services than they otherwise would be.

The streetcar, its legacy, and the impact of that legacy on neighborhood walkability is the subject of this Story Map. First up are the streetcar routes.

Streetcar Routes

Map Explanation

To the right is a map of every streetcar line that ever existed within the modern boundaries of the City and County of Denver. A streetcar as defined here is any carriage that runs on rails built into the right-of-way of the street. Not all these lines existed at the same time. By using the blue time slider control located at the bottom of the map, you can animate this network to show what routes existed in any particular year from it's inception in 1872 to its end in 1950.

Time Slider:

If the blue time slider icon is clicked, all but the very first streetcar route will vanish and a time slider control interface will appear. The year currently displayed is indicated on the top and a long horizontal line with a blue circle on its left is directly below. By dragging the circle along the line, you can change the year displayed.

You can also move forward or backwards one year at a time using the two buttons immediately to the right of the line, or click the play button at the far left of the interface to have it automatically advance year by year. To speed up or slow down the play animation, hover over the 1X button on the far right and make a speed selection.

1933 and Modern Aerial Imagery:

By clicking the green button at the bottom of the map, you can change the basemap to either a historic 1933 aerial of the city or a modern aerial. To go back to the normal map, click topographic.

History of Denver's Streetcars

A horsecar (*Denver's Street Railways*).

Denver was founded in 1858 as a mining town and grew rapidly. Walking and private horses were the main ways to get around, but soon the town grew too large and busy for those to be practical for all trips. In 1872 the Denver Horse Railway Company built the city's first streetcar line from the modern Auraria Campus to Curtis Park and began the era of the streetcar.

32nd and Lowell, 1940's (*Denver's Street Railways*).

The streetcar system expanded rapidly and became a mainstay of Denver's transportation system. Modes of propulsion evolved from horse drawn, to cable pulled, to electric powered. Some routes also used stream engines. Multiple companies built and operated lines until 1900, when the bulk of them consolidated into the Denver Tramway Company. Growth continued until 1923, when the last new streetcar line was built.

Competition from the automobile in the 1920's, 30's, and 40's led to a long term decline and by 1950 the ultimate demise of the streetcar system. The rails in the streets were pulled out or paved over, and the Denver Tramway Company moved to the operation of busses. It was absorbed by the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in 1974.

Methodology

These streetcar routes were digitized primarily using the written narrative and maps contained within Don Robertson's Denver's Street Railways Volumes 1 and 2. The three pictures in this section of the sidebar also came from these books.

Other Map Functions

To pan around the map, click and drag. To zoom in and out, use your mouse wheel or the + and - buttons near the top left. To find a location or address, use the search bar at the top left. To find your current location, click the target button near the top left. To return the map to the default extent, click the home button. Finally, to measure distances and areas, use the orange ruler button at the bottom.

Reference:

Robertson, Don, et al. 2004 Denver's Street Railways, 2 vols. Denver, CO: Sundance Publications Ltd.

User Guide

A user guide for this application is available here.

Note about Data Accuracy: The data presented in this map was curated to the best of my ability but it may not necessarily be 100% accurate. I am not liable for any errors. Occasionally I may update the data to improve its accuracy. A changelog may be found here.

Contact: rwk005@gmail.com

2	Streetcar Legacy

The Legacy of the Streetcar in the Built Environment

Have you ever noticed that many of Denver's neighborhoods have pleasant, quiet, pedestrian friendly commercial areas tucked within? Some are merely corner stores, while others are multi-block main streets. All of them developed in symbiosis with the streetcar. As people disembarked after coming home from downtown or across the city, they would patronize these businesses before walking home. These commercial districts are a beloved part of the city and greatly enhance the walkability and appeal of neighborhoods in which they are situated.

Streetcar Neighborhood Commercial Development

There is no official term that describes these developments. Therefore I have come up with my own term: Streetcar Neighborhood Commercial Development (SNCD).

SNCDs are clusters or corridors of pedestrian oriented commercial buildings (POCBs) located adjacent to an abandoned streetcar line on a road with fewer than four vehicle lanes.

So let's break down the term. The "streetcar" refers to how the buildings once depended on the people who rode the streetcar. The "neighborhood" means that they are neighborhood serving. Therefore big streets like Broadway and Colfax are excluded. Finally, the "commercial development" refers to how the buildings must contain some sort of business, whether it is a store or an office.

Pedestrian Oriented Commercial Buildings (POCBs)

So what is a pedestrian oriented commercial building? I have defined them two grades.

Grade one: A commercial building built up to the sidewalk with no off street parking setback. Side parking and lawns must consume less than 40% of the lot. Rear parking must not be larger than double the building footprint.

Grade two: A commercial building with a sidewalk to building entrance parking setback less than or equal to the length of the building starting from the main entrance.

All other buildings are AOCBs, or automobile oriented commercial buildings.

SNCD Classes

Because they come in so many shapes and sizes, I have come up with a classification scheme based on the size of the SNCD and the pedestrian friendliness of their buildings.

1. Exceptional Main Street: These are the largest and most pedestrian friendly SNCDs. They are similar in form to historic small town main streets.

(At least 75% of a full long block on both sides of the street, or any other equivalent continuous area, consisting of Grade One POCBs.)

2. Quality Cluster: A small commercial node consisting largely of pedestrian friendly buildings.

(They consist of 75% Grade One POCBs with insufficiently large dimensions to qualify for Exceptional Main Street. Must have at least two Grade One POCBs.)

3. Mixed Main Street: Small town main street feel, but with more automobile oriented buildings mixed in.

(Same as Exceptional Main Street but does not meet the Grade One POCB percentage requirements. Must have at least one POCB.)

4. Mixed Cluster: A small commercial node with a mixture of pedestrian and automobile oriented buildings.

(Same as Quality Cluster but does not meet the Grade One POCB percentage requirements. Must have at least two POCBs.)

5. Corner Stores: Isolated pedestrian friendly commercial buildings.

(Any SNCD consisting of one POCB with multiple businesses. Buildings with only one business are unaccounted for.)

6. Degraded: An SNCD that has been destroyed, consists entirely of vacated POCBs, or have most POCBs converted to residential use. Not comprehensive.

In the interest of brevity, the definitions provided here are not comprehensive. For my more in depth criteria, as well as my methodology for creating this dataset, see this PDF, pages 2 and 7.

SNCD Counts

Total: 101

Exceptional Main Streets: 7

Quality Clusters: 35

Mixed Main Streets: 15

Mixed Clusters: 18

Corner Stores: 19

Degraded/Destroyed: 7 (not comprehensive)

Map Explanation

SNCD Legend:

To the right is a map of the Denver with the SNCDs overlaid on top of the streetcar lines. They are symbolized according to the classes outlined earlier. To view a legend of the symbology, click the orange legend icon at the bottom of the map.

SNCD Pop-Up and Google Street View:

If you click on an SNCD outline, you will be presented with a pop-up window of some of information about it. Scrolling down within the pop-up, you will see a photograph of the SNCD. Clicking on it will open a Google Street View of the SNCD in a new browser tab. This allows you to explore the SNCD from a ground based perspective.

SNCD Parcels:

If you zoom into the map far enough, the SNCD outlines will disappear and the parcels within will display. They are color coded by land use. Click on the legend icon at the bottom of the map to understand the symbology. Like the SNCD outlines, clicking on a parcel will yield a pop-up window showing some of the attributes of the parcel.

You will also notice two grey exclusion zones. These areas around downtown and Cherry Creek have high land use diversities that render the concept of the SNCD meaningless. Therefore you will not find any SNCDs mapped within either one.

Other Map Functions

The rest of this map's functionality is the same as the Streetcar Routes map. Click on the “Streetcar Routes” sidebar tab above and read its sidebar to learn about that functionality.

Contact: rwk005@gmail.com

3	Streetcar Neighborhood Walkability

Neighborhood Walkability: A Look at Northwest Denver

This map shows the results of a walkability analysis for two census tracts in northwest Denver. The purpose is to compare a census tract with a strong presence of SNCD's to one with a weaker presence. This analysis is a pilot project and may eventually be expanded to cover the entire city.

Seven categories of neighborhood amenities that could conceivably be contained in an SNCD are evaluated. The categories are grocery stores, convenience stores, retail stores, restaurants, services (eg. barbers), entertainment venues, and schools/daycares. You can find the NAICS codes for these categories on page 11 of this PDF.

Each property parcel is symbolized according to whether or not these services can be accessed by sidewalk within a half mile distance. The darker and redder the color, the more services can be accessed. The idea is to see if all the places someone would want to go in their daily life are within walking distance of their residence.

Map Explanation

Sum of Categories

There is a lot going on with this map. At it's core are property parcels symbolized with hues of light yellow to dark reddish-brown. By default, these parcels are symbolized to show how many of the the seven neighborhood amenity categories can be accessed within a 1/2 mile walk. For example, one property parcel may have one school, five retail outlets, and two restaurants within walking distance. The value for that parcel would be three, because three categories are represented.

Amenities within Categories
The symbology of the parcels also be changed to show the number of establishments within each of the individual amenity categories as well. To do this click the blue layers button at the bottom of the map. Deselect "Sum of Categories" and check the box of one of the other categories. These other symbology options show a count of the number of amenity locations accessible to each property parcel via a 1/2 mile walk. BE SURE TO ONLY CHECK ONE AT A TIME. Otherwise they will overlap and obscure each other.

Map Legend

To understand the symbology of all the items on the map, click on the green legend button at the bottom. Notice the scroll bar. The neighborhood amenities are symbolized as various shaped and colored points. The census tracts that contain the parcels under analysis are shown as two black squares. The red buffer contains every neighborhood amenity within a half mile of any of the parcels under analysis. SNCD outlines are shown in green.

Parcel Values

At the bottom of the legend box are the values for the parcel colors. This will change depending on what is selected in the Layer List. For the Sum of Categories, the numbers represent a count of the categories accessible to each parcel. For all other layers, the numbers represent a count of the number of establishments accessible to each parcel. Again, you should only have one item checked in the layer list at a time.

Clicking on the parcels will also yield a pop-up containing attribute information, including the counts for each category.

Other Map Functions

The rest of this map's functionality is the same as the former two. Click on the “Streetcar Routes” sidebar tab above and read its sidebar to learn about that functionality.

Analysis Background

Amenity Characteristics of the Census Tracts

This map is centered on two census tracts in northwest Denver, outlined as black squares. The northern tract contains an Exceptional Main Street and a Quality Cluster on 32nd street. There are also SNCDs nearby but outside the tract on Tennyson, 32nd Street, Eliot, and 29th. The southern tract has one Corner Store SNCD in it's boundaries and is also proximate to ones at Eliot and 29th.

Both tracts benefit from amenities located on Federal Boulevard but the southern tract has significantly more on it's portion of Federal. The northern tract benefits additionally from amenities on 38th Avenue. Overall the northern tract has a slight advantage in terms of adjacent arterial road amenities with about 65 while the southern tract has about 53.

Methods

The methods I used for this analysis can be read about starting on page 10 of this PDF.

Results

Below are the average number of amenities accessible within 1/2 mile per parcel by census tract. Green shows that the tract has more amenities relatively, red means that it has less.

Northern Tract Averages

Sum of all Categories 5.55

Grocery 0.10

Retail 16.1

Restaurants 23.02

Convenience Stores 0.95

Services 9.90

Entertainment 2.38

Schools and Daycares 1.98

Southern Tract Averages

Sum of all Categories 4.94

Grocery 0.28

Retail 6.66

Restaurants 8.30

Convenience Stores 0.60

Services 4.25

Entertainment 0.85

Schools and Daycares 2.71

It is clear from these results that the northern tract largely has better access to neighborhood amenities save for grocery stores and schools. The effect of the SNCD's are clearest in the restaurant, retail, and service categories.

Story Map Conclusion

This Story Map application looked at the history of the Denver's streetcars, their effect on the urban form of the city today, and the role that legacy plays in the walkability of one of Denver's neighborhoods.

Today most American cities, including Denver, are highly automobile dependent. This state of affairs creates many negative externalities. They include high traffic fatalities, pollution, loss of community social capital, captive driving, and health problems. The City and County of Denver has recognized this and has set goals to reduce this dependency.

By learning from our history and studying its remnants on the landscape, we can make progress in this direction. We can see how the SNCDs developed in tandem with the streetcar to inform the planning of modern Transit Oriented Developments. We can look at the distribution of SNCDs across the city in order to plan for new ones in neighborhoods that are lacking walkable, accessible, commercial centers.

It is my hope that this Story Map will help us learn more about the history of Denver before it became car dependent, that the information it presents will be useful in planning a better Denver for the future.

Capstone Project Report:

My MSGIS Capstone Project Report is available here for more details about the background, content, and creation of this Story Map.

Contact: rwk005@gmail.com

Streetcar Routes

Streetcar Legacy

Streetcar Neighborhood Walkability