Highways are more resilient than transit because they don’t require billions of dollars in operating subsidies.
The Regional Transportation District (RTD) has a severe driver shortage. The result has been service cuts, leaving passengers waiting at bus and rail stops wondering when or if their ride
Not only does Denver have the highest one-way fares of any major city in the country, the system’s operating budget has ballooned by 46% since 2014 and 81% since 2010.
It is not hard to imagine that RTD wants to go back to the voters with another tax increase.
Prop 109 focuses on road and bridge infrastructure, without a tax or fee increase, while Proposition 110 uses roads as a hook for a massive sales tax increase, a slush fund for cities and counties, and mystery transit projects mostly aimed at Metro Denver.
The massive tax that RTD already rakes in should be retargeted only to those without mobility choice.
The March data show all major forms of transit are declining: buses, commuter rail, light rail, and heavy rail.
RTD’s ridership peaked three years ago, with the first eight months of 2017 seeing 5.1 percent fewer riders than the same time period in 2014.
“Over the course of the last three months, the eastern part of the West Line has an increased amount of complaints from patrons, and official incident reports.” Natalie Menten, RTD District M Director.
“It’s a good reason why tax increases and debt measures like this should go to the voters where they get vetted in public,” Menten said.
By turning market transactions into political transactions, the government takeover of transit has made it a creature of special interest groups, not a vehicle for mobility for people who need it.
It turns out that, outside of Manhattan and possibly Chicago, there is no urban area in America that needs any kind of rail transit at all.
