Community Editorial Board: Considering transit-oriented housing

Members of our Community Editorial Board, a group of community residents who are engaged with and passionate about local issues, respond to the following question: Colorado legislators’ push for compact, transit-oriented housing is facing potential trouble in the form of RTD’s lagging train and bus system. Your take?

Twenty years ago when we approved the RTD Northwest rail expansion, seven depots were planned from Denver to Longmont. After paying for nearly a quarter century, a single station has been built (Westminster). One. Out of seven. That shows a pathetic misunderstanding of the issues. Only in government can such folly continue.

Transit-oriented communities are designed so that people live, work and play either within walking distance or are easily accessible by public transit. This is a nice fantasy, but for us Coloradans, not a likely reality. We are spread out in the west. We don’t just recreate at the local park. We go to the mountains often. Most of us drive to work, not because public transit isn’t possible, but because it isn’t convenient. The time public transit takes is taxing, even accounting for traffic. Time is our most valuable commodity and it is finite for all of us.