The stampede to plan and build rail transit lines in American cities has led and is leading to a series of financial and mobility disasters.
READ MOREWhat would Martin Luther King, Jr. say about RTD’s SlowTracks rail transit tax increase? Rail transit’s professed goal is to attract middle-class drivers who own one or more automobiles out of their cars and onto transit. Yet RTD’s plan is likely to reduce mobility for low-income people.
READ MOREScribd file: IB-2004-B By The Center for the American Dream Renewable energy- wind, solar, hydro, and biomass – is advertised as superior to coal, gas, and other non-renewables. But renewable energy comes at a high environmental and economic cost. Moreover, government subsidies to renewables may actually stifle innovation. Market forces will do a better job
READ MORERTD’s so-called “FasTracks” plan will cost billions and do nothing to relieve congestion or increase mobility.
READ MOREBus-rapid transit is a new type of mass transit that relies on buses that operate on schedules similar to rail transit lines, with greater frequencies and fewer stops (and therefore faster service) than conventional bus transit. A recent report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) compared bus-rapid transit with light rail and found that bus-rapid transit capital costs are as little as 2 percent of those of light rail. Further, bus-rapid transit costs less to operate and goes significantly faster than light-rail service.
READ MOREFor more than a decade, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has been evaluating alternatives to relieve congestion and improve mobility in the 118 mile I-70 Mountain Corridor (C-470 to Eagle County Airport). During the last four years, they have been preparing a federally mandated Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that is supposed to evaluate reasonably available and financially feasible alternatives. From day one, rail transit advocates from corridor communities, and environmental groups, and smart growth planners have steadfastly maintained, that rail transit (a passenger railroad on tracks or fixed guide way) is the only solution. This is despite the fact that practical rail transit technology hasnt advanced much in the last century and that no realistic source of funds to construct a rail system has ever been identified. In the I-70 PEIS Summary of Preliminary Findings,[1] CDOT reported that maybe $1 billion dollars could be available for corridor improvements in the next 20 years. The cost of a rail transit system is at least $4.4 billion, according to CDOT.[2]
READ MORERail transit ballot measures usually lose unless proponents outspend opponents by more then one hundred to one.
READ MOREBy using the power of the market to help the T-REX project, congestion-free, free-flow traffic travel can be made available to both carpoolers and single occupant drivers. Further, $600 million can be pocketed by the state. By contrast, a decision to forego over a half billion dollars of desperately-needed transportation revenues will doom travelers to sit again in traffic congestion in the not-too-distant future.
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