Blight at the End of the Tunnel
As the Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks program begins to materialize, RTD is colluding with several Denver-area urban renewal entities to redevelop areas around new and existing light rail stations. Taxpayers and property owners should beware.
I-70 Train Plan Will Lead to More Congestion
The Colorado Department of Transportation recently announced how it plans to try to fix the capacity and congestion problems in the Interstate 70 mountain corridor. The plan has two major problems. First, it’s going to take 20 years or more to implement, and second, it will do nothing meaningful to relieve the worst area of congestion from east of Idaho Springs to west of Georgetown.
Colorado Transit: A Costly Failure
Public transit is often portrayed as a low-cost, environmentally friendly alternative to auto driving. In fact, transit is much more costly than driving, and requires huge subsidies to attract riders. Moreover, transit systems in the vast majority of American cities use more energy and emit more greenhouse gases than the average car.
For every dollar collected in fares from transit riders, the average transit system in America requires more than $2 from taxpayers for operating subsidies plus more than $1 for capital improvements and maintenance. So it is not surprising that transit systems in Colorado require large subsidies. What may be surprising is that most are far less environmentally friendly than a typical sports utility vehicle.