One toll road that is exceeding expectations
Re: “NW Parkway an object lesson,” April 15 editorial.
In light of The Denver Post’s recent editorial on the Northwest Parkway’s unmet traffic and revenue projections, I wanted to provide you information on another toll project that is far exceeding its original projections, as I’ve not seen The Denver Post pay the same attention to this overwhelmingly successful project.
The Interstate 25 HOV/tolled express lanes opened in June 2006, marking the first time solo drivers could legally access the existing HOV lanes (along I-25 from U.S. 36 into downtown) by paying a toll. Carpools, buses and motorcycles continue to use the lanes toll-free.
The Colorado Tolling Enterprise projected 500 toll-paying vehicles would use the express lanes each morning and afternoon peak period by the end of the first year. Currently more than 1,400 toll-paying vehicles are using the lanes in each peak period. In fact, just 10 months after opening, toll revenues are nearly double what was projected, as more than $1.6 million has been collected – far exceeding our $800,000 original projection.
The lanes carry approximately 33,000 people per day, representing between 10 and 15 percent of the total person trips along that stretch of I-25, and these vehicles travel at full highway speeds, as compared to congested rush-hour traffic.
Ironically, the goal of the project was not to generate revenue but rather to cover expenses that would previously be paid for by taxpayers. The underutilized HOV lanes are now being maximized, giving motorists another option to escape traffic congestion. It’s too bad something so positive doesn’t receive similar coverage.
Steve Parker, Chairman, Colorado Tolling Enterprise Board, Durango
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Skeptical of funding plan
Thank goodness the state House is taking action to address the crisis in Colorado school funding. The Colorado Children’s Amendment will be a good start towards correcting Colorado’s K-12 funding woes. The billions of dollars of automatic spending increases under Amendment 23 weren’t adequate to fix the crisis. Referendum C’s additional billions ($2 billion more than expected, by the last estimate) weren’t enough to solve the crisis. No, the crisis requires ever more tax dollars for K-12. The State Education Fund created by Amendment 23 will reportedly be insolvent in a few years if the crisis isn’t solved. Of course the current version of the Children’s Amendment doesn’t help the State Education Fund; it provides billions of all-new spending on preschool and all-day kindergarten. But it’s not a tax increase. It’s simply a plan to “stabilize” property tax rates by ensuring that your residential property taxes will go up every year. When will the K-12 funding “crisis” ever be resolved? Never. When will the education lobby ever have enough of your money? Never. After all, the Children’s Amendment is just a start.
John Neiley, Glenwood Springs
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Fair health care
Letter-writer Pam Lacey writes that “health care should be a right” (April 26 Open Forum). If health care is a “right,” people can claim the time, energy and wisdom of doctors and taxpayers who provide the care, whether the providers consent or not. This turns the providers into indentured servants and violates true individual rights of self-ownership and voluntary association.
The U.S. is “the richest country,” as Lacey notes, because its governments have mostly respected individual rights. Lacey wishes to ensure health, housing, food and education. A free market grounded in individual rights best ensures our ability to obtain such values.
While a (relatively) free market in food and housing provides those goods in abundance to rich and poor, the government-run education system fails the poor especially. Last year the American Institutes for Research reported that one in five college students lack basic math skills and half lack complex literacy skills.
If politicians and bureaucrats provide health care by “right” at others’ expense, both our health and our liberty will suffer. For effective and just health care reform, see my proposal, “FAIR: Free-markets, Affordability, and Individual Rights,” at the website of Colorado’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Healthcare Reform.
Brian T. Schwartz, Boulder
