|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||
 |
 Custom Search
|
Rocky Mountian News C-470 light rail, not toll lanes, is the solution The metro area is now debating what to do about C-470, the congested freeway to the south and west. The current proposed solution is a bad one: toll lanes for drivers who want to avoid crowded lanes. From personal experience on the 91 Freeway between Riverside and Orange County in Southern California I know that drivers don't use such lanes. The failures of toll road projects around the nation, including Denver's vaunted Northwest Parkway, have been ably reported. The fact is, drivers simply won't use toll roads when they can drive for free on good alternative routes. Toll roads work only when there is no alternative, as is the case in many places back East. Coloradans don't use toll roads but they do use light rail, as the packed trains on the Regional Transportation District's existing transit system demonstrate. So instead of building toll roads, why not build a light rail line along C-470 from the Tech Center to Golden? Such a line could connect with RTD's existing system at Mineral Avenue, the T-REX at the C-470/E-470/I-25 Interchange and the proposed West Corridor in Golden. Such a rail line could also connect to a light-rail line up E-470 to Denver International Airport and the northern suburbs. E-470 was designed to co-exist with light rail tracks. I know such rail lines aren't in RTD's FasTracks plans but they could easily be added. Polls indicate that drivers are willing to pay extra taxes to expand C-470, so why not a T-REX-style project to use gas or property tax revenue and federal funds to pay for extra lanes, a light-rail line and park-n-Rides on C-470 and a light-rail line on E-470? Rail lines that the public would actually use would make a lot more sense than toll lanes nobody would drive on. The question is, do our public officials have the sense to see that or not? Daniel G. Jennings |
|
The following organizations endorse CINQ’s position: Colorado Environmental Coalition, Jeffco League of Women Voters, Plan Jeffco, Friends of the Foothills, former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, Canyon Area Residents for the Environment (CARE), Blue Mountain Land & Homeowners Association, Apple Meadows Homeowners Association, Village at Mountain Ridge Homeowners Association, Meadow Run Homeowners Association, and Harmony Village Community Association. |