Time to Sue Colorado?
For decades, Colorado has done no meaningful public transit build-out, while continuing to blame those who have to drive to work due to planning failures by the government.
A group of young plaintiffs recently won a suit against the state of Hawaii. The suit centered around the failure of the Hawaii DOT to reduce transportation-related emissions. Now, someone should do Colorado.
Colorado might claim that they are trying to cut down on people having to drive. While failing to mention that it is due to the state’s and municipal failures of planning that so many people have to drive to their jobs.
Regional Transportation District (RTD) has been in existence since 1969 (so, since before many of us were born) and it (along with CDOT) has failed to implement, maintain and adapt a transportation system comprehensive enough to eliminate the need for most to drive on a daily basis. Why did the RTD and Denver, and Colorado state legislature fail to secure the rights of way for future transit build-out decades ago, when the land cost the proverbial pennies on the dollar?
Some will say that in the 80’s Colorado stagnated and maybe that was part of the reason for under-investment in… well everything. Munich and Humburg were bombed during World War II and both boast some of the nicest public transit options I’ve been on. What’s Colorado’s excuse?
In the early 1900’s the U.S. was the envy of the world when it came to public transit and yet, has regressed since then. Denver Tramway was incorporated in 1886.
Not only did the German (and other West and East European) cities recover and rebuild (yes, in part thanks to the Marshall Plan) after the horrific conflicts of the last century, but they continue to achieve amazing feats of engineering to this day, continually expanding the transportation network, excavating under historical buildings, without disturbing them.
(Clean, efficient, ubiquitous and, functional - a typical underground train in Germany or any number of European and Asian cities.)
In the mean time, Denver spends nearly as much money servicing debt as they do on Transportation and Infrastructure (Denver Budget - Page 68).
Denver, also, spends nearly 0% of their outlay on Economic Development. Something that could be used to drive further diversification and vibrancy of the local economic engine, thereby attracting high caliber employers on a large scale. Maybe there is a reason why the wholesale areas of Denver are becoming nothing more than rental “chicken coops”, instead of becoming economically diverse and vibrant?
Extracting thousands of dollars for rent (and metro district fees) from the Colorado residents seems to be what many local governments consider “economic development” and “affordable housing.”
If there is no comprehensive economic development, there are no high-paying, high-tech jobs, with places where the high-skill professionals go. Then, there is no build up of the transit to link those places with places where people live. Rinse and repeat. Instead, large parts of Denver and the surrounding areas are now nothing more than high-priced rentals, with no robust infrastructure, parks and other amenities to bring a higher quality of life to those who live there. And due to the incompetence (or is it corruption?) of the government bodies in Colorado, all of those “chicken coops” are built without any setback from traffic and one has to wonder what does more harm to those who live in them – the air pollution or the noise pollution?
And why are municipalities not requiring mandatory park land dedication as well as a dedication of funds (properly adjusted to today’s dollars) by the developer toward the build out of public transit to ferry the residents of the development they will be making the profit from?
Some will say we just need more money (so, do away with the TABOR) and it will all be alright. Apparently, they missed the part where for almost two years, RTD could not get the train crossings to work in Arvada. Or, where after just a couple of decades, portions of rail had to be torn up Downtown and replaced. Maybe someone in the RTD, and Denver, and the state level is doing a poor job of managing the funds and building and engineering things. Maybe?
RTD’s budget is nearly a billion dollars as of 2024. A very telling part in the RTD budget breakdown (page 12) is the amount incoming from rider fairs – about 5% of the incoming revenue. Yet, RTD claims that all these people are riding the trains… It would seem that RTD can not give the service away for free. In other words, the service is so undesirable that people are not willing to pay for it.
RTD has done a horrible job of planning the rail network. Try to estimate how long it would take you to get from Lakewood to the Denver Tech Center, utilizing the RTD LightRail. Almost 1.5 hours. And that would be not counting the time to get to the station. While the former Mayor of Lakewood, Adam Paul, would laugh it off when asked if there would be a train line along 470 from Golden to the DTC. Why would anyone pay for such poorly implemented service?
Another point to note – PUC has allowed Xcel to become a de-facto monopoly for large parts of Colorado. If there was a power utility interested in innovation instead of just extracting profit from the locked-in users, maybe, by now we would have nuclear-power-produced electricity running the trains (and trams, and electric buses), resulting in one of the greenest transit systems possible with today’s technology. This is another self-created issue due to the shortsightedness of not only the corporations, but the governing bodies of Colorado.
Furthermore, it turns out 70% of the homeless are experiencing drug-abuse-related issues. Which, without the proper framework (such as mental care) is also rippling out into other areas, such as making public transit less desirable due to safety concerns.
And the residents of Boulder are still waiting for that line that was promised to them over a decade ago by the RTD. They are still paying for it, too, via the additional tax collected.
Colorado in particular, and the U.S. in general, frankly, has no clue what true public transit looks like. “The rest of the world is building subways like crazy. The U.S. has pretty much given up.” Not my words. Colorado is decades (not years) behind in public transit and may never catch up. While foolishly allowing the densification for the benefit of corporate rent seekers, without the needed infrastructure (for which the said rent seekers don’t pay their fair share).
So, the next time you are being told not to drive to work, ask yourself, and then, your “representatives” about what they have done to build a community where people don’t have to drive? In the meantime, if someone does decide to hold Colorado accountable for its failures in providing viable alternatives to people having to drive, remember the points above.
2025-04-14: Just to remind the poseurs in Colorado, pretending to be all first-world-like:
And Amtrak can’t even hold a candle to some of the most rundown rail systems in Eastern Europe. And the shit-show that is RTD is worse than Amtrak. Keep it up, “progressive” Colorado.