Toll roads in Colorado
Re: Toll roads are pricey answer to budget ills,” Oct. 17 editorial.
Your editorial taking issue with the unconditional promotion of tollways was quite insightful, but it missed one important point.
You stated that “We also like adding toll lanes to existing expressways, thus providing fast travel for drivers willing and able to pay for it, while easing congestion on the remaining free lanes.” It is a fallacy to assume that retrofitting an existing highway by adding toll lanes will relieve congestion on the adjacent free lanes. In order for drivers to choose to use and pay for toll lanes when they have access to free lanes, the free lanes must be burdened with some degree of congestion. In other words, the success of toll lanes depends upon maintaining congestion for decades into the future. Managed lane pricing for the new toll lanes is designed to create the requisite level of congestion.
Moreover, that intentional congestion on the free lanes comes at an environmental cost, particularly a cost to air quality. Also, when new toll lanes are built, drivers look for free alternatives, diverting cars to existing roads not capable of handling the added traffic. New toll lanes on existing highways can cause more problems than they solve.
Duane Fellhauer, Douglas County Director of Public Works, Castle Rock
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The Post’s editorial knocks Denver’s current and proposed toll roads for having tolls of around 21 cents per mile. It contrasts this with the 1 cent per mile that motorists pay in state gas tax to drive on other Colorado roadways. Actually, when you add in the federal gas tax we all pay, it’s a bit over 2 cents a mile to use “free” highways.
But what this comparison actually illustrates is how much it really costs to build and operate new urban expressways these days. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that new urban expressways cost $7 million to $10 million per lane-mile – if they are built on flat terrain without major bridges, etc. When you crunch the numbers, that works out to about 20 to 30 cents per mile to build, operate, and maintain – right in line with the kinds of tolls now being charged on Denver tollways.
America’s highways have been built and operated on a user-pays basis for nearly a century. It’s a very sound principle. But the only way to maintain it is to charge people what it really costs for new expressway capacity.
Robert W. Poole Jr., Director of Transportation Studies, Reason Foundation
Referendums C and D on November ballot
I have heard many say that among the reasons they are opposed to both Referendums C and D is because they feel that government is wasteful. Voting “no” does little to penalize government agencies and much to penalize the most vulnerable of our citizens: children, the sick and the elderly.
I urge everyone who is planning to vote “no” to consider voting “yes.” Then, get more actively involved with whichever entity that you feel is not spending money appropriately and work for positive change.
Please consider that our children have not gotten new school books for several years now and must buy book covers to keep the books from falling apart.
The elderly must make choices between medications and food in order to pay property taxes. We need funding to help our public servants protect us from fire and crime.
The list is endless. Our governor and virtually every public service organization in our state is begging the public to vote “yes” on both measures. The small rebates that you will give up will help countless citizens of our great state.
Please put aside politics and think about the people who need help the most. Vote “yes” on C and D.
Jennifer Dingman, Pueblo
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My wife and I just received our ballot. I am appalled that the official wording is a direct and blatant attempt to influence the outcome. Both referendums start with a “commercial” in favor of passing Referendums C and D. Who wouldn’t vote for education and healthcare? Who wouldn’t vote to support our firefighters and police? And all “WITHOUT RAISING TAXES”!
I believe the official wording on a ballot should lay out the facts. Whether these initiatives represent a tax increase is a matter of spin. What the money will be used for is a matter of positioning.
Clearly, the governor and most of the state legislature want our money. Fine. But at least on the ballot, the facts should be front-and-center; not buried at the end of the descriptions.
Thomas Ryan, Parker
Race and schools
Re: “Cherry Creek School District’s talks on race,” Oct. 20 Open Forum.
Gil Caldwell writes that we should talk more about race. Caldwell offers a race-based teaching that white people should be less self-centered and people of color should be more willing to alert white people of this shortcoming. Martin Luther King has a different message. King taught that people should be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
The No. 1 indicator of whether a child will grow up in poverty is not the color but the marital status of the mother. A majority of black babies in the U.S. are born to unwed mothers. It is time to start talking about morality.
Jim Jones, Parker
Bush as Nixon
Re: “Bush ripped Rove over CIA leak,” Oct. 20 news story
Let me get this straight: George Bush is not so angry with Rove about his role in discrediting Joseph Wilson by exposing his wife as a CIA undercover agent as he is with the “ham-handed” manner in which it was done. How Nixonian can this White House get?
Gerald J. Higgins, Denver
