Advocates of the Regional Transportation District’s so-called FasTracks plan claim rail transit will attract huge numbers of people out of their cars, thereby reducing congestion and cleaning the air. These claims fade away when exposed to the harsh light of a recent analysis of the plan prepared by the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
READ MOREWhen I was on the RTD Board of Directors seven years ago, the board passed one of my resolutions. Miracles do happen. (Actually I got several things passed, including funding for Boulder’s Skip service)
It was an election year and the Regional Transportation District was pimping for a 67-percent tax increase. (Everything old is new again.) And you wouldn’t believe who was pumping nearly all the money into the campaign to make your taxes skyrocket. The companies that would directly profit from it.
READ MORERTD’s FasTracks boondoggle is about much more than wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and the implementation of destructive policies. It is about increasing government control over people and redistribution of wealth. The damage caused by similar authoritarian policies has resulted in death and impoverishment for millions.
READ MORE1. It won’t relieve traffi c congestion
2. It won’t relieve rush-hour congestion
3. It’s far too expensive
4. It isn’t fast
5. It won’t relieve air pollution—and may make ozone worse
6. Most people will rarely or never use it
7. We can relieve congestion without a tax increase
8. We can have far better transit service without a tax increase
9. It forecloses options
10. Congestion will get far worse if it is built
READ MOREThe first tastes of freedom often come in very tiny bites. And a little, and I do mean a little, sliver of freedom has found its way to Colfax Avenue in Denver.
Toure David and Modest Kouame came to America a decade ago. When it took them an hour and 20 minutes to get to where they were going by bus, compared to 40 minutes by car, they knew their business would succeed. And they are gambling their entire life savings on it.
READ MOREIt was fun to watch RTD go into anaphylactic shock this week when the Independence Institute released a study that merely publicized federal data. Unfortunately that data showed that Denver not only had the most deadly light-rail system in the nation, but the most energy-inefficient.
READ MOREA Rail Livability Index shows that rail transit has reduced the livability of every urban area that has it. The index assesses the impact of rail transit on transit ridership, congestion, taxpayers, safety, energy consumption, and other measures of urban livability. The results show that urban areas that are building rail transit would be better off spending their limited transportation funds on road improvements and bus-rapid transit.
READ MOREDRCOG’s 2025 transportation plan would increase the amount of time the average metro-area commuter wastes in traffi c from 50 hours a year in 2001 to 87 hours by 2025. Even with FasTracks, the time wasted per commuter would increase to 83 hours. As an alternative, the Center for the American Dream proposes a Mobility Plan for Denver that would reduce annual delay to less than 45 hours per commuter. Without increasing taxes, the plan would also reduce air pollution, increase transportation safety, and provide greater mobility for low-income and transit-dependent people.
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