Originally Posted by
Summit
Sanctimony. Nobody should whine because we aren't throwing BILLIONS at infrastructure that likely won't do a ton for peak tourist traffic? There are no major infrastructure plans on the table that will solve the problem of EB I70 backing up into mountain towns during peak traffic. If 109 and 110 had raised taxes and taken out billions more in bonds, NOTHING would have been done to address this problem and the vast majority of the money stays in the front range. CDOT's project on the table for Eisenhower-Golden is one to make it theoretically easier for more people to get TO the mountains by taking I70 to 2.5 with a half toll lane WB.
Yes, there is a crowd management problem.
There are low cost solutions that MAXIMIZE our current infrastructure, but we are doing them half ass or not at all. Some traffic management would go a LONG way, and it is CHEAP, but oh my gosh... there might be some politics involved... well how about the politics of spending billions on projects with 4-20 year leads? Why is the latter so facile in your mind but not the simple, immediate, cheap solutions?
Yes we could talk about doing BOTH, and I believe in infrastructure investment, but when we talk about solutions like scheduled traffic segregation at peak (heavy vehicle hold), peak tolls, and vigorously enforced snow tire laws, we are talking projects with huge effect that cost mere millions and can be put into place as soon as the political will pushes bureaucracy to action.