Colorado is facing a transportation crisis, both in the amount of funding available to maintain our current system and in the way we have traditionally spent that money. Our state’s population is growing at one of the fastest paces in the country, and the number of miles we drive is increasing at twice the rate of population. At the same time, the gas tax that typically funds transportation projects has remained the same since 1992.
All of this has created immense pressure on our roads and highways in the form of traffic congestion and crumbling bridges, and on our environment in terms of the global warming and air pollution caused by all that driving Coloradans have been doing. In fact, the Colorado Climate Action Plan, which is Governor Ritter’s strategy to address global warming, says transportation contributes 23% of Colorado’s global warming pollution and directs that Colorado
The traditional approach of raising gas taxes to add more lanes to existing roads will not solve either of these problems. Both experience and research show we cannot build our way out of congestion; as soon as new lanes open traffic increases to fill them. Further, adding more lanes will just cause people to drive more and more, further exacerbating our global warming crisis.
At the same time, the price of gas has skyrocketed and people are looking for transportation choices, alternatives to the single-occupancy vehicle. Polling shows Coloradans want more public transportation options, and the ability to bike and walk to more of their daily destinations. They are crying out for alternatives to paying at the pump.
Colorado is at a crossroads in terms of its transportation funding policy. In recognition of this crisis, in 2007 Governor Ritter established a panel to explore funding and implementation options. The panel's recommendations to the Governor in January 2008 were that Colorado needs $1.5 billion per year in additional transportation funds, to be raised through increases in vehicle registration fees, the motor fuel tax, visitor fees, the sales and use tax, and the severance tax. This recommendation would allocate $500 million to fix our current roads and bridges and an additional $1 billion to expand and upgrade the system, through both increased highway capacity and increased transit options. In fact, the panel recommended a historic level of spending on transit- between $400 and $500 million per year to upgrade and increase transit services throughout Colorado.
The panel also presented the Governor with a Vision Statement and Policy Statements to support and explain its recommendations. The Vision Statement contains language that makes it clear that the vision for Colorado's transportation future includes multimodal alternatives that reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Among the Policy Statements submitted to the Governor were recommendations on increasing our transit system, increasing monies for bike and pedestrian programs, promoting environmental stewardship, the use of environmental mitigation measures during and after highway construction, and reducing Colorado's contribution to global warming and air pollution.
Because nothing was passed to implement these recommendations during the 2008 legislative session, Governor Ritter reconvened his Blue Ribbon Panel this summer to craft more specific proposals to be considered during the 2009 session and to embark on a public education campaign about the state's transportation funding crisis. CEC is participating in this process and working to ensure that any proposals that go forward place a big emphasis on funding alternative transportation, such as transit, bicycle and pedestrian travel, and contain incentives to get Coloradans to drive less and use alternative transportation when possible.
