originally posted by shirah on August 9, 2005

If we Americans love our cars and the call of the open road, the same cannot be said for the process of building those roads. But this week Unbossed is going to show you why we should be paying attention.

originally posted by Bob in Loveland on August 8, 2005

An editorial by the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank that advocates toll roads, says, "A new traffic signal that hastens traffic flow produces economic benefits. Similarly, one that hinders more than hastens, cause[s] economic damage."

Free-market think tanks also argue that toll roads benefit everyone because they reduce traffic on existing roads, causing traffic on existing roads to flow more efficiently.

It is therefore no small irony that local governments in Colorado have agreed to deliberately impede traffic on existing highways near a toll road in order to protect the toll roads' investors.

originally posted by shirah on August 9, 2005

In 1995 and 1996, the Colorado E-470 Public Highway Authority entered into noncompete agreements with several cities and counties. The purpose of the noncompete agreements was to make free public roads so unattractive that drivers would feel that paying a toll was preferable.

The Hidden Costs of Toll Roads described some parts of those noncompete agreements. This piece continues the story.

FYI. Excerpts from the key documents relied on by this post are at the end. They are not otherwise available on-line.

originally posted by shirah on August 9, 2005

The new federal Highways Bill that was passed by the Senate and House July 29, provides $15 billion in funding for public-private partnerships to build roads and bridges.

Support for public-private partnerships has been signaled for years by the Federal Highway Administration and through a number of studies by the FHWA and the Congressional Budget Office. Colorado’s E-470 has often been included in those studies and reports, often referred to as a model for future roads.

This post includes excerpts from those studies that should be helpful to those who want more information on E-470. These reports are often quite long, so these excerpts will take you quickly to those parts most relevant to E-470. For those who want more, the links will take you to the studies in full.

originally posted by environmentalist on August 9, 2005

We’re all taking on roads at Unbossed this week. Me? I’m going to tell you why, in certain places, we don’t need roads AT ALL!!

As I demonstrated last week roads on the American landscape severally damage our ecosystem. For that reason only, our society should protect assure the existence of large amounts of roadless areas and congressionally designated Wilderness.

But, is there an economic reason to protect these areas?

As with the entire Progressive movement in America, one of the major failures of the environmental movement throughout the past 30 years has been the failure to link our conservation goals with economics with the economic needs of real human beings. Trees with people, so to speak. For a time, this was glossed over by successes such as the Clean Water Act, the Wilderness Act and so on but it inevitably has come back to haunt the environmentalists and the Progressive community as a whole. By far the majority of Americans yearn for clean water, clean air, protected landscapes and the conservation of wildlife. But if we as a nation and as Progressives don't tie the protection of water, land and air to economics and jobs then we will surely fail in our quest. The Right-Wing has been WAY too good at framing this issue as jobs vs the environment. The conservation movement has been WAY too lame at walking right into this trap by forgetting that local communities and local economies are the bulwark against the excesses of exploitive capitalism and the environmental degradation thus associated.

We can have clean air, clean water, wild wilderness AND healthy economies. Wilderness is Step I:

originally posted by em dash on August 10, 2005

Guest post by Rob Dougherty at Stupid Slab

One proposal in Colorado to help alleviate traffic congestion is a passenger railroad that would run north-south through the state to give travellers an alternative to driving. That sounds fine to me if people will use it. If not it will lose money and the taxpayers will have to bail it out. The same question applies to toll roads. If people won't pay to use it then we'll all be saddled with the debt.

originally posted by shirah on August 10, 2005

The Colorado State Transportation Legislative Review Committee has a meeting scheduled this week with both the Northwest Parkway and E-470 toll road authorities from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 112 at the State Capitol on Thursday, August 11. The public is not given a chance to testify, but is welcome to attend.

To leave a comment, please go to the original post here. Comments close within 3 days of the original posting to block URL spammers and prevent slashdotting.

originally posted by Bob in Loveland on August 11, 2005

In Hidden Costs of Toll Roads, we saw that local governments sometimes impede traffic on free, public, highways, in order to protect the interests of a toll road's investors.

Why would they do this?

originally posted by em dash on August 11, 2005

Colorado Transportation Legislative Review Committee proceedings.

Click on the link to House Committee Room 0112.

According to the agenda, the director of the E-470 Authority is scheduled to speak at 1:30pm MDT.

UPDATE: Reuters is covering the Roads Scholar series here with a mention of the "inquisitive Colorado resident" that blogs at Unbossed. Kudos Bob!!!

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originally posted by shirah on August 11, 2005

Unbossed has spent the week reporting on how an existing public-private partnership - E-470 - actually behaves. In other words, we have collected data that can be used to test these theories.

Even though we have covered a lot of ground, we end this week with more questions than we have answered. These and more are questions that we, as citizens of this great country must discuss.

originally posted by shirah on August 15, 2005

This week President Bush signed the new highway act, legislation that provides $15 billion in funding for public-private roads as demonstration projects. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate the superiority of the private sector over government. The theory is that competition forces businesses to provide the best services at the lowest price. Government is supposed to be monopolistic, corrupt, and grossly inefficient. When it taxes us, we can be certain it is misusing our money.

That is the theory in a nutshell, one that is widely accepted these days.

Some even go so far as to believe we can tax-cut our way to prosperity.

originally posted by shirah on August 12, 2005

We've been focusing on Colorado and on just one road in Colorado. But we know that this is not just about one road, one state, or one legislative hearing. Thanks to EMRosa for her notes, photos, and play-by-play comments on her blog.

So for the non-Coloradans out there, tell us what is happening in your neck of the road. And tell us why. How does it fit or not fit with the story unfolding in Colorado? What role does state tax policy play? Are you a TABOR state? Are there plans to make you a TABOR state? Who are your allies? Are there ways you can make use of the information we have put together? What is missing?

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originally posted by shirah on August 15, 2005

This past week readers of Unbossed have been with us for a great ride, and we have gained many new friends. On Monday we began a series of stories, starting with The Hidden Costs of Toll Roads that revealed details of an investigation into overreaching. By Thursday, our work was in a Reuters story. That same day, the issues we were raising played were posed as questions in a legislative hearing.

Not bad for three days’ work. That left a few days in the workweek to set more things to rights. Well, not quite. There was more to the story than this.

Before the series appeared, there was a lot of work and planning. Some of what we learned in putting this series together may be useful to other bloggers.