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Our country has a 20th century transit system that is wasteful, inefficient and expensive. Colorado is not the exception.
- Our national transportation system consumes more oil than any other entire economy in the world, except China’s.
- Our nation’s growing addiction to oil is increasingly costly and leaves us dependent on often-unfriendly foreign nations.
- Transportation is responsible for a third of our nation’s global warming pollution.
- The number of miles Americans drive has doubled over the past generation leading to increasingly gridlocked roads.
- Commuters waste an average of 38 hours a year stuck in traffic delays, compared to 14 hours in 1982.
This is not surprising since the federal government has spent 9 times more money on building highways and roads over public transportation. In addition, due to a number of fiscal constraints on the state, state funding for any sort of transportation is nearly nonexistent. With dollars tight some local communities have sold off their roads to private toll operators which can have disastrous consequences for consumers.
It does not have to be this way.
Public Transportation is a proven way of addressing the problems associated with our 20th century transportation system by reducing oil consumption, traffic congestion, and global warming pollution.
- A full bus, for instance, replaces fifty cars on the road.
- Right now America’s rail and bus systems reduce oil consumption by 3.4 billion gallons annually
- Right now America’s rail and bus systems save Americans 540 million hours of traffic delays,
- Right now America’s rail and bus systems avoid 26 million tons of global warming emissions.
With Colorado’s population set to double in the next 20-30 years, we need to fundamentally change the way we move around Colorado. We need a vision that allows Coloradans to move around the state and in their local communities without a car. That vision includes the following:
- High-Speed Rail along the Front Range I-25 corridor.
- Rail and Alternative Transportation along the I-70 corridor from DIA to the Mountains and Ski Areas
- Completion of Denver’s light-rail and rapid bus regional transit network
- Sustainable and Fully-funded transit agencies in urban and rural areas of the state.
- Regional transit routes connecting the four corners of Colorado with Denver
- Rebuilt and modernized roads that include pedestrian, bicycle and transit-friendly-upgrades.
- Road privatization deals that are protect consumers.
Colorado is on its way
The good news is, Colorado is well on its way to making this vision a reality. On March 26th, Colorado could take a critical step forward in building High-Speed Rail. In addition, local transit projects like FasTracks, the proposed nine-line, light-rail system in Denver will be seeking funding to complete its project.
So this semester we will be working to promote these important projects and make sure they get completed. We’ll be taking an Alternative Spring Break Tour of the state to build support for public transportation. In addition, we’ll be building support by gathering video testimonials and engaging the media.
Sign Up for the Alternative Spring Break Tour!
