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- cross-posted to:
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- [email protected]
- [email protected]
In Colorado, that new vision was catalyzed by climate change. In 2019, Gov. Jared Polis signed a law that required the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent within 30 years. As the state tried to figure out how it would get there, it zeroed in on drivers. Transportation is the largest single contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, accounting for about 30 percent of the total; 60 percent of that comes from cars and trucks. To reduce emissions, Coloradans would have to drive less.
This is the first step to ensuring it meets demand. If Colorado is going to make you junp through loads of hoops to add highway lanes, it becomes a lot easier to sell public transport like light rail and trains. I had a great time last year when i flew into Denver and took the light rail to my hostel downtown and walked around everywhere i needed to go. Forcing urban planners to consider alternatives to cars is good.
The issue I have with the Toll lanes is that private business fronts the money (since the state can’t get enough to do so), so they get to profit from it. ~~ E470 was supposed to be a Toll lane until everything was paid off. So when it was paid off, did they remove the tolls? No. They are still private.~~ All new tolls (3 or 4 in the last few years) are all doing the same thing.
You are right that alternative transportation is needed, but RTD is very very far from that. There are some circumstances (like from the Airport to Downtown, or several Suburbs to Downtown) that the light rail works well. RTD is setup as a Hub/Spoke model, so as long as you are going To/From downtown, and are close enough to a station, it can work, and work well. For the vast majority of people in Denver, it doesn’t work (forcing them onto the overcrowded highways which lead to the toll lanes).
Wasn’t 470 all funded by municipal bonds, paid for by tolls and some vehicle registrations and governed by a board of local governments? And last I heard they still had like $1.2B to pay off. I don’t necessarily like the model, but I’m sure the alternative models where federal funds, general taxes, etc are used for growing roads forever aren’t any better. I’m not for profiteering, but I am for road users paying the actual costs instead of begging for subsidized roads as per usual.
As to RTD, yeah it’s a mess but for a lot of different reasons, with the top one imo is the dog shit land use policies in the entire service area. They were dealt a damn near impossible hand given the horrible sprawl and shit development, which tragically is still going on right now (barfs in general airport direction).
I thought I had read years ago that it was paid off, but looking it up now, you are right. I need to retract that part of it.