Fight! RTD Chair Versus The Independence Institute

Denver Regional Transit District Chairman Lee Kemp does not like the Independence Institute very much. After Independence Institute Director Randal O’Toole wrote a column in the Denver Daily News, Lee Kemp penned a response letter published yesterday.

While the recent spikes in gas prices have helped propel the most recent push to ride RTD, this is not a new phenomenon as RTD’s ridership has increased over the past couple of decades. 

It is very important to note that the record-high gas prices have negatively impacted virtually every segment of our economy and our population, leaving this nation economically and strategically weaker, and requiring ever-greater dependence on foreign oil with much of it from countries that are less-than-friendly to the U.S.

To continue supporting a highway-only agenda ignores the fact that the U.S. would be putting its proverbial eggs in one basket, a strategic and economic blunder.

Lee Kemp must not understand that the majority of his transit system (busses) runs on the highway infrastructure. In fact, the existing light rail lines parallel major highways outside of downtown, and run along city streets in downtown. From the “eggs in one basket” point, his busses can modify their routes in case of emergency closures. Light rail puts its “eggs in one basket,” as the routes are limited by the railroad track infrastructure.

Our light rail trains are standing room only during many hours of the day, especially during rush hours, special events and inclement weather. Yet the Independence Institute column attempts to make the nonsensical argument that light rail is a failure because it doesn’t run completely full around the clock. This bizarre logic would also apply to highways, which have plenty of capacity at midday  and through the night. Yet you won’t ever hear the pro-highway Independence Institute using that same twisted standard to call highways a failure. That would not sit well with some of the special interests that help fund the Institute.

Lee Kemp’s capacity argument is dishonest, if not a downright fabrication. The Independence Institute is anti-light rail and pro-highway to a point. The Institute favors adding high-occupancy vehicle lanes and bus rapid transit to existing highways. The excess capacity of these HOV/BRT lanes can be sold to the general public using congestion-variable tolls, and priced to keep the lanes moving at a certain level of service. If a private concessionaire were to purchase operational rights to these toll lanes, the extra capacity would come at little cost to the taxpayer, as the roadway toll financing will pay for its own construction. Let Lee Kemp try to sell his extra light rail line capacity; it is worthless.

RTD is receiving bad press right now from its cost overruns and bullying on the light rail line extension to Lakewood and Golden, buying overpriced land in Weld County, and the fact that increased ridership causes the fare revenue to go down due to “Eco Pass” and its exorbitantly low yearly prices. Lee Kemp and the Regional Transportation District mismanage their funds due to their misguided, myopic vision of the holy grail of transit: light rail.

It is time for a new direction at the Regional Transportation District. RTD needs to return to its primary focus of moving people on busses, not expanding rail infrastructure that can be used by nothing except train cars. Bus rapid transit with excess capacity sold as high occupancy and toll lanes is a solution to this transit problem. If the current leadership cannot get its finances and priorities under control, perhaps metro area voters should elect new, fiscally responsible members to the board.

Hopefully, this new board would answer criticism with facts and figures, not deflections and insults as Chairman Lee Kemp uses.

by Civil Sense

Comments

[Allen]

RTD's performance is best shown by the information they don't readily give the public. They don't like to talk about their capacity. They don't like to talk about the number of riders they have compared to that capacity. They don't like to tell us about the number of passenger miles.

To bring it down a level, they still only have something like a 1/3 of their LRT cars counting passengers. Why don't all the cars count all te passengers getting on and off? At some point you can't help reach the conclusion they just don't want to talk about how poorly they're actually doing.