Transportation plan to focus on maintenance, safety, options

On Thursday, Colorado’s transportation commission approved guidelines for developing the state’s plan for the next decade. It’s called Policy Directive 14.

Good news – the plan will prioritize:

• Safety
• Maintenance and repair
• Expanding options like bus and rail service. 

I joined a number of groups in applauding the Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) planned focus.

Here’s why.

Safety

When it comes to safety, we cannot accept that the cost of traveling around our state is the thousands of crashes and hundreds of fatalities we experience on our roads. In 2022, 764 were killed in crashes involving motor vehicles and in 2023, 720 were killed.

That’s why I’m applauding CDOT for setting a goal and laying out a metric to cut traffic related fatalities and injuries across the system by half, and setting a goal of cutting fatalities and injuries for vulnerable users (like pedestrians and bicyclists) by half.

We have the tools to achieve this goal if we have that as a focus when building the state’s 10-yr transportation plan.

Fix It

When it comes to maintenance, we’ve seen too many state transportation departments invest billions in high-priced road expansions at the expense of maintaining what we already have.

Prioritizing upkeep for our roads and bridges is the right priority.

Expanding Options like Transit

Finally, I’m glad that transportation choice will be the 3rd priority for CDOT.

Quality of life is better when you have options. And with a growing and highly visited state, the best way to move additional people is with a range of transportation options including trains and buses.

The CDOT policy directive highlights the pollution benefits from expanding choices – setting a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our transportation system by 60% by 2037 with a focus on cleaner options.

Beyond climate pollution, it’s hard to see us eliminating the dozens of ozone pollution days in Colorado without giving people good options to get around without always having to drive.

But choices can also fuel safety. 

We know too many crashes and fatalities come from situations where a person should not have been driving. Too many Coloradans get behind the wheel of a car because they don’t think they have a choice.

Expanding transportation options will be a better use of money than sinking billions in new highway lanes – a lesson too many states have failed to recognize, which we document in our highway boondoggles report series.

Highway congestion isn’t just expensive – it often fails to solve congestion and can result in more cars on our highways and interstates, which ultimately results in more congestion in our local communities.

Many Colorado mountain towns invest big in local transit so they don’t drown in cars. CDOT needs to support them by expanding statewide transit options that connect to them.

That’s why it’s great that CDOT’s set a goal of increasing the number of transit revenue service miles by 66 million. 

From Plan to Action

CDOT does not have enough money and resources to do everything. Prioritization is critical.

That’s why we should take a moment to celebrate the approved focus on safety, maintaining the system and expanding options.

The next part is critical.

We need to take this focus and ensure the plans and projects that come together over the next year to form CDOT’s future plans align with these priorities.