RTD’s death spiral
Much of RTD’s problem stems from its mania for an obsolete form of transportation: trains.
Getting serious about housing affordability
Although many cities across the country are facing serious housing shortages, the efforts they are making to fix the problem are doomed to failure. Their so-called affordable housing programs address symptoms, not causes, and apply band-aid solutions when far different (but less costly) tools are needed. Median home prices in most American cities are less […]
Swift condemnation for Boulder climate lawsuit and DC think tank
“That was fast,” writes Energy in Depth’s Rebecca Simon regarding how quickly leading Coloradans and others denounced the city of Boulder and its “especially unfortunate” climate change lawsuit against the oil and gas industry. Her excellent summary includes commentary from the Denver Post, former Attorney General and Secretary of Interior Gale Norton, former head of […]
Cities must end the economic apartheid of ‘growth management’
Boulder residents would bristle at claims they are racist, but the nation’s most progressive cities tend to be the ones that have adopted policies that make housing unaffordable and push low-income people out. Since black per capita incomes remain about 60 percent of whites, they are some of the first to leave such cities.
Congress should approve Trump’s effort to stop funding local transit boondoggles
by Randal O’Toole President Trump has proposed to stop funding new New Starts projects. New Starts, along with its subsidiary program Small Starts, is a multi-billion-dollar fund created by Congress, and funneled through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), that gives cities incentives to build the most expensive transit systems possible so they can get “their […]
Congress should approve Trump’s effort to stop funding local transit boondoggles
President Trump has proposed to stop funding new New Starts projects. New Starts, along with its subsidiary program Small Starts, is a multi-billion-dollar fund created by Congress, and funneled through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), that gives cities incentives to build the most expensive transit systems possible so they can get “their share” of the “free” federal dollars.
Using Disparate Impact to Restore Housing Affordability and Property Rights in Colorado
Fair-housing advocates should question policies that increase housing costs by intruding on private property rights. These include growth- management tools such as urban-growth boundaries, the use of eminent domain for economic development, rent control, inclusionary zoning, and excessive impact fees, all of which benefit a few at everyone else’s expense. In approving the disparate- impact doctrine, the Supreme Court has offered a tool to both affordable-housing advocates and property-rights advocates for undoing these rules and policies that make housing less affordable.
Colorado transit doesn’t need state funding
The misleading data are part of a report by a Boulder group known as the South West Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP), which is urging the state legislature to spend more money on transit.
O’Toole: Blame Urban Planners
Blaming the highways for planners’ poor ideas is the same as blaming a two-by-four for an architect’s poor building design.
Why rapid-buses are preferable to rail transit
Transit agencies from Baltimore to San Diego and from Seattle to St. Petersburg are planning new light-rail lines. Yet light-rail is not only vastly more expensive than buses, it is slower, less comfortable, less convenient and has lower capacities than a well-designed rapid-bus system. Being expensive to build, light-rail can only reach parts of a […]
How Congress can avoid the “transportation cliff”
President Obama’s recent visit to the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York was intended to push Congress to approve billions of dollars in infrastructure spending increases. But throwing more money at transit just puts more cash into the hands of government contractors, while doing little for commuters. The federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to […]
Vehicle miles traveled fees and privacy
Randal O’Toole: Compared with [technology police officers have to scan license plates], privacy concerns over such things as self-driving cars or [vehicle miles traveled] pricing seem tame.
