#Denver traffic solutions drivers#
If it’s underused, the toll goes down and more drivers pull in. If a toll lane jams up, the toll goes up and some drivers drop out. The strategy is, let drivers who are in a hurry pay for improvements that make hurrying possible. Soon, it will be on eastbound I-70 from Empire to Idaho Springs, and eventually on C-470, I-70 to DIA, and more of I-25 north to Fort Collins. It’s just starting now on the Boulder Turnpike. Not tollways like E-470, but paying a price, a toll, to ride in the fast lane while other lanes - theoretically more congested - cost nothing. And like everything from the veterans hospital to Denver International Airport, those figures might be on the low side.Ī lot of Coloradans are complaining now about a fairly new concept in our state: toll lanes. Right now, the price tag for an asphalt fix along the mountain corridor of I-70 alone - absent any alternative form of transportation, like rail, which would cost more than half of the entire state budget for a whole year - is somewhere between $3 billion and $5 billion.
Meantime, the longer we do nothing, not only do our own frustrations grow but also the further we fall from any affordable solution.
But we can’t do that, and “they” will come whether we expand our highways or not. Deflate the mountains and shield the sun, maybe Colorado won’t be the utopia it is and the growth will slow. Our population is growing at a rate twice the national average. So how about adding new lanes until then? The common comeback to that controversial concept is the pessimistic projection, “Build it and they will come.” Technology is on the cusp of achievable alternatives, but we’re not there yet.
CDOT’s Communications Director Amy Ford calls them “absolutely critical priorities.” But they also are the biggest chokepoints in the state. They are Colorado’s indispensable spinal columns. The two biggest imperatives for improvement are Interstate 70 and I-25. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
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