Last year, as one part of the mission of Common Sense Alliance, I prepared a report to the Colorado Transportation Legislation Review Committee, a group made up of state legislators charged with overseeing state transportation projects. The general perspective of the report was that the state... Read more →
Collapse of Federal Funding Oversight
It was in 1970 that an Aspen city council first asked the State of Colorado to hold off on the expansion of Highway 82 to four lanes so that they could study mass transit as an alternative to highway construction. Forty years later there will still be a traffic jam at the entrance to town – despite... Read more →
An Open Letter to the FTA (The federal agency that doles out money for mass...
In recent years much ado has been directed towards “earmarks”, expenditures which members of Congress insert into spending bills without going through the normal review and evaluation process. The premise seems to be that spending proposals that do go through the normal review and evaluation... Read more →
Discussing Mass Transit Part X – Where do we go from here?
Now that the voters have approved the $180 million capital expansion of RFTA, and the associated doubling of annual expenses to $40 million, public officials are obliged to honor this mandate and move forward with the creation of the full Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. The opportunity for the public... Read more →
Discussing Mass Transit Part IX – More things that make you go hmmmm.
The use of percentages for analysis can reveal much that is valuable, but even when the math is correct it is the context which determines whether the results are more misleading than informative. If you sold two widgets last year, and four this year, you’ve gotten a 100 percent increase in sales! ... Read more →
Discussing Mass Transit Part VIII – Things that make you go hmmmm.
The information collection process for this series of articles began more than a year ago, and RFTA has been very patient and generally responsive to our requests. However, the data which has been most difficult for them to produce is the information which is most critical to our analysis. After several... Read more →
Discussing Mass Transit Part VII – Which BRT features make sense?
The core premise for a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system on the Highway 82 corridor is that improved travel times will lead to huge ridership increases. There is no guarantee that one will lead to the other, so the real question is what we should gamble, and on which ideas, to find out. Improved travel... Read more →
Discussing Mass Transit Part VI – To BRT or not to BRT?
The term “Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) is probably best understood as a menu of potential mass transit features rather than as a complete package or a particular system. Some of these features are straightforward efficiency improvements that can be applied to any bus system or route. A separate dedicated... Read more →
Fun Facts – A minor recap of previous articles before moving on.
RFTA wants to embark on a major transit expansion plan over the seventeen year period from 2009 to 2025. Total capital costs of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan are in the range of $180 to $190 million, and annual operating expenses are projected to more than double, from a current $20 million or... Read more →
Discussing Mass Transit Part V – What is RFTA Proposing?
The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan for the Highway 82 corridor has a large number of parts and pieces, but we need to look at the big picture before moving on to the fine detail. RFTA wants to embark on a major transit expansion plan over the seventeen year period from 2009 to 2025. Total capital costs... Read more →