One of Colorado’s great truth-tellers is Jon Caldera at the Independence Institute. I especially admire Jon’s viewpoints on transportation in Colorado.
Jon’s latest article criticizes Colorado’s transportation planning for prioritizing underused transit projects, particularly trains, at the expense of road improvements. Despite only 4% of Denver commuters using transit, most transportation funding goes to it. Caldara highlights the costly failures of projects like RTD’s FasTracks and warns about future rail systems, like the proposed Front Range Train, which would require more taxes. He argues that transportation funding should focus on reducing auto traffic, rather than “mobility malfeasance” that wastes resources on impractical transit schemes.
Full article here.
Jon’s article doesn’t mention recent legislation from the Colorado General Assembly that will essentially arm sweep funding for capacity projects on Colorado’s roads into the Guv’s plans for the shinny choo-choo known as Front Range Passenger Rail.
To add insult to injury, Colorado’s Transportation Commission – all appointees of the Guv – just adopted Policy Directive 14. It’s a paper that essentially directs the policy of CDOT in the provision of transportation. Regrettably, the recently adopted PD14 removes any mention of capacity improvements and makes CDOT’s main mission the reduction of greenhouse gas.
Look, I get this is wonky and way down in the weeds. But this stuff matters. Anyone who drives a Colorado roadway knows that what is most desperately needed is improved maintenance and an increase in capacity, i.e., widen the damn roads. But the enviro shills entrenched in the Polis administration won’t allow for that.
I like to use this simple example: July and I moved to Johnstown on April Fool’s Day, 1998. The population was about 3,200. The two main roads in and out of town were State Highway 60 and County Road 17. Both of them two lane roads. In 2024, Johnstown’s population has gone north of 20,000. The two main roads in and out of town are still State Highway 60 and County Road 17. Both are still two lanes wide.
As Colorado’s population continues to boom, what we need is more lane miles. Period. But the Guv, the State Legislature, the Transportation Commission, and every enviro that funds them are hell bent on building more buses and trains. Which, as Caldera’s article indicates, doesn’t solve a damn thing.
This only stops when you make a legislator’s life miserable with your emails and phone calls. So, when do you start?
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