this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
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TABOR has fucked up the finances of the state for decades, making roads/highways/bridges/etc all crumbing, and not enough money to deal with it. Due to Colorado growth, the roads are not big enough to keep up. All "widening" in the last decade as become "Toll Only" lanes on highways, in a public/private partnership deal. These are, in effect, wealthy people cheater lanes.
I'm okay with limiting the widening of highways, as long as public transportation can meet demand, but as stated above, RTD (local bus/light-rail) has been VERY badly manage, and they just aren't expanding, even when they have to funding to do so.
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.
Tell me about it, I loved light rail when it first opened, and it's better having it than not, but even as a kid I could tell they only really cared at opening and during big events downtown. Last free month in August I saw people smoking meth to and from the art museum, and the time table on the new expansions are a joke.