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Riding the Rails, Paving the Trails - The People Decide

By Craig Altschul
May 01, 2006

That's the solution of the non-visionaries of Tucson, Ariz., where I live, as just one example, where voters are being asked to vote in mid-May whether to ransom their firstborn babies so they can be bonded to indebtedness forever by widening a couple hundred streets. No light rail. Only a few blocks of trolley. My vote (already mailed)? No. That means it will pass.

The mountains know better, of course. Right? Apparently not. The Vail Daily's Allen Best is reporting that a coalition of environmental groups are yelling - wisely, I suspect - that a study called "a programmatic environmental impact statement" used by the Colorado Department of Transportation to solve the notorious I-70 corridor travel headaches from Denver to Eagle (and past all those glorious mountain resorts) is flawed.

Best quotes Gary Frey, a representative of Colorado Trout Unlimited, as saying there needs to be more consideration given to a rail option, or "at least given the same hearing that the highway and bus alternatives are given."

Why is the solution always to make more room for more cars (read: SUVs) to clog our roadways even more? Sure, there are the environmental issues. Can all those vehicles possibly be helping the environment? Hardly. All that fuel use at $3 per gallon? Who will be able to afford a lift ticket even if it is purchased at King Sooper?

At issue - and this is not intended as a detailed analysis - is NEPA. That means, if you're not in a guessing mood, National Environmental Policy Act, which is triggered whenever fed money, land, and agencies get involved. Frey, and others, want to understand the impact on what happens to wetlands, wildlife, and the ecology when tons more asphalt are poured and a gazillion more busses and cars are piled onto it. Imagine the nerve.

Why can't we look at the conventional monorail and other kinds of rail options - suspended, upended, through the trees, through the woods, in the medians, wherever? The Euros figured out how to do it. Our transportation "experts" say those ideas cost too much? Maybe they do. But, how much is too much? Can't it be done right? Just once?

Do we want to get these cars, megacars, smelly busses, asphalt scars off our most scenic highways or not? When do we pay the piper? Now, or when our firstborn can't get to the mountains in the first place?

It's not only Colorado and the I-70 nightmare. How about a monorail from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe, or at least Reno to the pond? How about a fast rail in the Green Mountains of Vermont from Stratton-Magic-Bromley in the south to Stowe in the north. From Killington to Sugarbush? Boy, wouldn't it be fun to be a fly on the wall at those Act 250 hearings?

How about Seattle to the mountain passes? Portland to Mt. Hood? Enough of widening roads, adding cars and busses, and keeping all of us - cars and people - fuming.

BART in the Mountains? Where are you? Hell, I'd take the Lexington line if it were there. What do you think?

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Comments

	This is a discussion whose time has come. Enough already! We're paving over paradise and nobody seems to know how to stop... Why can't we inspire ourselves from the past in order to move into a sane and sustainable future? The ski trains of the '40's and '50's introduced a social tone to our sport that has never been matched. It's not to late to learn from that experience...
	Posted by: Michel Beaudry Michel Beaudry Communications | May 2, 2006 09:37 AM

	Yes, it never ceases to amaze me how countries with far less than the U.S. manage to do so much more. Better transportation, better planning. It amazes me that the Number 1 country in the world cannot get its act together long enough to build (or rebuild) a rapid rail system and get people out of their cars. But that time is coming... just watch.
	Posted by: Siobhan Kearny | May 2, 2006 10:06 AM

	It's simple - if we had a $5.00 tax on a gallon of gasoline for a total price around $7.00, we would have both the motivation and the finances for improved rail systems. As long as we STILL have cheap gasoline we will continue to drive.
	Posted by: Mark | May 15, 2006 10:52 AM