The Wisdom of FasTracks

The FasTracks program is working its way from planning to implementation stages along the various transit corridors. A range of issues and challenges are emerging from cost overruns and service cut backs, to engineering challenges and community opposition to the noise and disruptions associated with rail service, to the fear and pain experienced by individual property and business owners whose land is in the rights-of-way which will be acquired to build the transportation network. In the face of all these issues, it is very easy to forget the long term region-wide benefits of building such an extensive public transport system.

In the age of $100 per barrel oil and gas prices approaching $4 a gallon, growing concerns about global warming, and ever increasing world-wide economic competition among metro areas, the FasTracks investment looks wise indeed. I found this article about the growing use of public transportation based on a study by the American Public Transit Association to be a powerful reminder of the foresight of metropolitan Denver voters in approving the plan.