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Real Leadership
vs.
The Naysayers
Many affluent people in Colorado believe that their personal freedom in terms of the "right" to drive when and where they want is significantly more important than the environmental stewardship and sustainability of the incredible Colorado high country and other valuable US public land assets.
Their selfish (greedy) mobility and so called "economic development" interest in maintaining the status quo of highway expansion as their only means of transportation freedom is jeopardizing Colorado's natural environment and the ability of future generations to enjoy it.
The transportation decisions made by the new Ritter Administration over the next 4 to 8 years will significantly impact the future of Colorado and set the pace for environmental stewardship and sustainability for many years to come.
The vast number of Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq, and yet our elected policy makers continue to support automobile and oil dependent land use and transportation initiatives that make our presence in not just Iraq, but throughout the Middle East a necessity.
Instead of designing our future to accommodate people, our political leaders are designing our future to accommodate more cars. In essence, cars have become more important than people in our planning process.
How can such political behavior from both sides of the aisle be considered leadership?
Highway expansion results in the irretrievable consumption, exploitation and destruction of our natural resources and environment. Unanticipated consequences of highway expansion such as Global Warming, worldwide terrorism incidents and escalating political conflicts fueled by shrinking oil supplies, will not only eliminate personal freedoms for future generations, but possibly jeopardize the future of the Human Race.
The current Colorado political leadership agree with the typical highway proponent’s definition of "Multimodal" which assumes highway expansion is a given and that only after highway expansion is selected as the priority improvement for any highway corridor, should anyone in their right mind even consider a transit solution, bicycling facilities or pedestrian facilities.
I-25 TREX in Colorado is the highway proponent's definition of multimodal. Add two lanes in each direction and a rail line and you have a multimodal solution. Forget that you already had a multi-lane highway and no transit, pedestrian or bicycle facilities to start with.
Multimodal means to include pedestrian, bicycle and transit facilities in a transportation corridor and not necessarily add roadway capacity. It also means that pedestrian, bicycle and transit modes are on a par with the automobile in terms of creating access and mobility for people. Instead, the highway proponent envisions transportation solutions that only accommodate cars instead of providing accesss and mobility for people.
Real multi-modal transportation solutions treat pedestrian, bicycle and transit modes as not just an equal with the automobile, but in terms of sustainability and livibility, more important than the automobile.
The transportation discussion in Colorado is in desperate need of real leadership. Instead we are relying on concensus building processes that favor the status quo of roadway expansion.
Consensus building is not necessarily leadership. In order to achieve exceptional results, leadership demands the vision and courage to challenge the status quo and seek out truly innovative solutions.
The future of Colorado and the protection of our wonderful natural resources for future generations to enjoy may trump the immediate gratification of our citizens and businesses. Colorado's political leaders need to be looking at a very big picture and a much longer planning horizon than the next few years and next quarter's profits.
Colorado organizations are already pushing very hard to "blackmail" the general public with the concept that if you don't tax yourselves significantly to pay for more highway infrastructure, then the State's economical development and your well-being/quality of life will suffer. They are looking for a rapid plan to infuse massive dollars into our State highway system without consideration of the implications to future generations.
Virtually every organization involved in the Colorado transportation financing discussion has accepted (hook, line and sinker) the Norton/CDOT 2030 Billions and Billions and Billions "Build Highways and Add Lanes Everywhere" scenario, which predicts massive transportation funding shortfalls by 2030 - to the tune of $100 Billion or more.
It is unreasonable to expect that Colorado voters will ever agree to tax themselves at the rate necessary to fund this magnitude of highway infrastructure expansion.
The truth is that a significant amount of the CDOT projected 2030 highway projects are in fact, NOT needed; if effective land use and growth policies are implemented that discourage Vehicle Miles Traveled.
Travel System and Travel Demand Management programs that make better use of our existing transportation facilities, Compact Land Use Tax Incentives, Regulations and Enforcement along with significant Transit Development can make a big difference in reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled, reducing our energy consumption, reducing our dependency on foreign oil and reducing the number of highway lanes needed by 2030.
These programs will save Colorado's taxpayers billions compared to the exponential cost of continued highway expansion and the continued congestion that auto-oriented low density development and highway expansion creates.
Do we have the political will to recognize the flaws in our current transportation and land use planning process and the vision to challenge the "business as usual" approach?
Or will our future be just more of the same old thing?
Highway Expansion - Creating Tomorrows Transportation Today
The DPEIS Highway Expansion alternatives stimulate the vicious self sustaining automobile and oil dependent cycle as noted above by the Federal Highway Administration. Colorado needs a better option to continued highway expansion and CDOT must do better!
Colorado needs Rail Transit in both the I-25 and I-70 Mountain Corridors.
New Mexico Rail Runner - Giving Congestion the bird!
Who isn't familiar with the weekend traffic on Colorado Interstate 70 as it winds through the mountains of Jefferson, Clear Creek and Summit Counties?
The popularity of Colorado's High Country has created a weekend traffic crush on I-70 as Colorado residents and visitors alike flock to the mountains almost every weekend of the year. Many have become frustrated with the accidents, construction, traffic and congestion and have turned to midweek trips to avoid the traffic or avoid the mountain corridor altogether.
The Colorado Rocky Mountains provide recreational opportunities that are nothing short of world class. Outdoor enthusiasts travel from all over the world to enjoy what the Colorado Rocky Mountains have to offer. Colorado Front Range residents and businesses also enjoy access to these same recreational amenities and the high country is a major reason that they choose to live and locate here.
Click Here to Learn about a World Class Transportation Solution for the I-70 Mountain Corridor
Colorado Department of Transportation
Highway Expansion - Creating Tomorrows Transportation Problems Today
Unfortunately the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) under the Owens/Norton Regime has prioritized Highway Expansion solutions for the I-70 mountain corridor in the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS) released in December 2004. CDOT Officials have proudly adopted the slogan, "CDOT doesn't do transit".
I-70 highway expansion will be a net loss for Colorado as it will create more problems than it will solve.
A mountain highway is an extremely variable transportation medium and only as good as the quality and consistency of the vehicles and drivers using it.
Most I-70 motorists have seen significant multi-vehicle accidents and even roll-over incidents when there is just a dusting of snow. Even sun glare can cause significant delays and multi-vehicle accidents.
For most I-70 Mountain Corridor motorists, the most lengthy traffic delays they have or will experience are a result of highway construction, snow or rockslides, avalanche control, accidents and/or bad weather that cause substantial traffic interruption and even complete road closures.
Often the traffic ripple effect of an accident or construction activity can last for hours, well beyond the actual clearing of the vehicles or clearing of the construction equipment involved. Passing motorists may never actually see the accident or construction activity, but can experience the delays they caused for several hours.
A six lane I-70 will simply put more vehicles and drivers into the mountain corridor. A significant number of I-70 mountain corridor motorists are outdoor recreationists or casino patrons who tend to be fairly aggressive drivers. A six lane I-70 will invite more careless driving, more reckless driving in bad weather, more road rage incidents and more accidents, the impacts of which result in six lanes of congestion istead of four lanes of congestion and little or no improvement in travel times.
A six lane I-70 is just as vulnerable to bad weather, avalanche control, poor driver behavior, accidents and highway construction, as a four lane I-70 and will provide no option to these events, but to sit in traffic and wait with everyone else.
A highway expansion alternative is also the most destructive solution (environmentally, economically and socially) to Corridor Communities, Corridor Resorts and Colorado in general.
The "Preferred Alternatives" in the Draft PEIS will just bring more vehicles, more accidents, more asphalt, more traffic, more construction, more congestion, more noise, more back country sprawl, more road rage and more pollution to the beautiful Colorado High Country and will fail to provide Colorado's residents and visitors with an option to sitting in traffic.
Escalating world conflicts over our shrinking oil and gas supplies, global climate change, world peak oil production, auto-oriented sprawl, arterial congestion, drought, decreasing water supplies and increasing water and air pollution are significant and detrimental consequences of highway expansion nation wide.
Our political leaders need to learn how to just say no to roadway expansion instead of business as usual.
NEW FEASIBLE ELEVATED RAIL ALTERNATIVE
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