UPDATE!
The essay below was published today, Thursday, January 12,2010, in the print edition of YourHub.com for Arvada, Wheat Ridge and Westminster.
However, as I predicted, DRCOG voted to include the "Arvada Tollway" on its Metro Vision transportation plan. See: DRCOG adds Jefferson Parkway to long-range road plan - Denver Post.
Here's a question. How many of my Arvada neighbors will pay at least $3.00 for the privilege of driving to shop at the Flat Irons mall? Or round trip, $6.00? Or will even more of us pile onto Wadsworth Blvd. so that we can take U.S. 36 to avoid the toll?
During a time of increased environmental awareness and fiscal restraint, driving further and paying more seems like an antiquated idea. But that is what we would get if the unconnected toll road segment of the metro beltway gets put on the map at the behest of the Arvada, Jeffco and Broomfield governments.
On Wednesday, January 20, 2010, the board of directors of the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) is scheduled to vote on whether or not to include the Arvada tollway in its 'Metro Vision' transportation plan.
Last month I attended a DRCOG hearing on the tollway issue and was gratified to hear broad-based and diverse opposition to the public-private plan offered by the Arvada and Jefferson County governments. Individuals and organizations from around the metro area spoke against the old fashioned tollway notion and in favor of improving existing roads and for more environmentally and fiscally responsible transportation alternatives.
This tollway idea is not a good one for Arvada residents. First of all, as noted, drivers will seek alternative routes to avoid paying tolls and that will increase traffic congestion on Arvada streets. Secondly, we are going to pay big-time for this tollway.
The Arvada tollway plan will directly cost taxpayers a billion dollars -- a "public" subsidy to the "private" part of the road. As noted in a document prepared by Boulder city council member Macon Cowles:
The Parkway does rely on public funding. The Parkway application to DRCOG assumes that “CDOT and/or area governments” will construct arterials and connectors at both the southern and northern ends of the Parkway. See JPPHA Application to DRCOG at 3. The connection and interchanges that will have to be financed by CDOT and/or area governments are circled in red at the map to the right. CDOT has documented their cost at $1 billion.Most Americans and Coloradoans have had just about enough of government bailouts and handouts to private interests.
As for the Broomfield government's advocacy for an extension of their "Northwest Parkway" tollway? It can be discounted on obvious grounds of self-interest: Brisa, the Portuguese corporation that leases the Parkway, is obligated to give Broomfield $100 million if a southern extension is built.
Furthermore, let's not forget that Broomfield's Northwest Parkway provides us with an example of what happened to the most recently constructed tollway in the metro area. Facing serious economic shortfalls, Broomfield had to lease the highway to the above mentioned foreign company for 99-years.
Now, it would be nice if the Arvada city council would join the 21st century and finally give-up this outdated highway scheme. But since the Arvada council is now composed of a majority of members who hearken back to the 1990s and earlier, their stubbornness in clinging to the tollway concept comes as no surprise.
So what will happen at the January 20 DRCOG board meeting? The DRCOG board of directors is composed of mayors and council members from around the metro area, so the likelihood still is that backroom, 'good ol'boy' political horsetrading will win out and Arvada and Jeffco will get its tollway plan put on the regional transportation map.
However, there is a chance that common sense and the impact of the majority opinion from the public hearing might carry the day. The board of directors of DRCOG have to make this decision: a parochial choice or a forward-looking choice. It can placate a few board members like Arvada, Jeffco and Broomfield by giving them a line on a map, the "Arvada Tollway" -- or it can accept economic reality and reject a scheme that would ultimately cost taxpayers a billion dollars.
Let's hope that a fresh 21st century view of progress prevails in the end and our local governments understand that the best prospects for the future -- for our economy and the environment -- lies in maintaining and improving the roads we already have.
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