(The Associated Press circulated the following article on June 20.)
DENVER — Motorists in the Denver metro area — fed up with clogged roadways and rush-hour traffic — apparently are willing to dig deep to ease congestion and cut down commute time. FasTracks, a 12-year plan to expand bus service and add 119 miles of rail lines, has been called extraordinary not because of its scope, but because voters in a car-worshipping red state approved a $4.7 billion tax increase to pay for it.
”It’s not going to get any better as the metro area grows,” says Richard Feuerborn, who has taken a bus from the suburbs to his downtown Denver job for seven years. ”We have a window of opportunity here to help.”
The proposal is already being viewed as an example of how to boost mass transit around the nation. Despite opposition from the governor, nearly 58 percent of voters in Denver and six surrounding counties last fall accepted the argument that their investment would pay off with reduced congestion.
In fact, ballot initiatives nationwide proposing public spending on mass transit fared well last year, with voters approving 42 of 53 proposals worth some $55 billion, according to the Washington-based Center for Transportation Excellence.
Voters in Denver approved FasTracks seven years after rejecting a similar proposal. The Regional Transportation District initially tried to put it on the ballot in 2002, but was turned away for technical reasons. After that attempt, backers put together a plan the transportation center has since incorporated in a campaign-strategy guidebook.
One of the keys was showing residents exactly what was going to be built and when, and that the light rail lines in the Denver area had become so popular that parking was hard to find, FasTracks campaign manager Maria Garcia Berry said.
Denver’s light rail transit service has seen steady use since its introduction in 1994.
”Opponents were totally disconnected as to what’s happening in the region,” Berry said. ”There is no magic bullet any more to congestion and growth. You have to have a combination of things. You have to have enhanced roads but you also have to have transit.”
More local governments and residents are committing funds to ease traffic congestion, said David Schrank, co-author of the Texas Transportation Institute’s latest Urban Mobility Report. The annual study found that time lost to traffic delays in 2003 hit 3.7 billion hours, with the nation’s roads congested an average of 7.1 hours per day.
Denver Gov. Bill Owens and Jon Caldara, president of the conservative Independence Institute, feared the FasTracks project was too expensive, and the same goals could be better accomplished with highway projects and expanded bus service. Transportation Department Executive Director Tom Norton also said it would pull money from road-widening projects.
Some opponents thought residents simply would not want to give up the independence of driving to work. Supporters point to a rising population, with many people coming from cities with established transit systems.
Recent success of mass transit projects stems not only from fed-up motorists, but also from concerns about diminishing global oil resources, said Patricia Nelson Limerick, board chairwoman at the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West.
”Every congested urban highway at rush hour is a seminar, it’s a workshop, a chance to say `Well, look what we’ve gotten ourselves into as a nation, as a society. Is this the best way to live?”’ she said.
That was the case for Brian Carmichael, who supported the FasTracks measure even though he probably would never give up his 35-minute commute to downtown Denver.
”It’s a better luxury having my own car and coming and going as I need to without worrying about the schedule,” he said.