21st Century Transportation for Colorado

GIVING COLORADANS TRANSIT OPTIONS

Our current transportation system has many of us stuck on crumbling roads and bridges endlessly waiting in traffic, all the while spewing air pollution and consuming billions of barrels of overseas oil.

Light rail, clean bus systems, and other public transit should play a greater part in Colorado's transportation future. Efficient public transportation systems reduce the number of cars on the road and increase our options for getting around.

We’re working for more and better transit by encouraging public support for new projects and improved service, like the completion of the metro Denver FasTracks light-rail system, and the construction of passenger rail along I-70.

Sign up for our email list to stay up to date on CoPIRG's campaign to bring 21st century transportation options to Colorado.

TRANSPORTATION SOLUTIONS FOR COLORADO

FasTracks: Back in 2004, Denver-area voters approved a 4-cent sales tax to construct a nine-spoke light rail system to reduce traffic congestion and provide alternative ways to travel around the metro area. Unfortunately, the economic downturn has created a shortfall for the project funding, and construction on several of the lines has fallen behind. So CoPIRG is working to secure full funding to complete this important project.
I-70 Rail: I-70 is a critical artery for our state, whether it’s the goods coming from the West Coast or the skiers and hikers coming from the Front Range. Unfortunately, it’s choked with traffic and worn down. Fixing I-70 will be extremely costly, but ignoring it is not an option. The Colorado Department of Transportation has announced they are taking a critical step to pursue the comprehensive solution of both upgrading the safety of sections of the road while also investing in rail options that get people out of their cars. But there are many more hurdles to overcome before this becomes a reality.

CoPIRG will continue our campaign, with grassroots support from Coloradans like you, to move forward passenger rail options along I-70.

Issue updates

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Media Hit | Transportation

Group pushes for details on high speed rail from Colorado Springs to Denver

Imagine a 35-minute trip to downtown Denver from downtown Colorado Springs on a train that hits a top speed of 250 mph. The landscape blurs by. The coffee is piping. And gas prices are not a bother. It's an image that - at least conceptually - Colorado Springs residents like.

Colorado Public Interest Research Group wants to take that message to the Colorado Department of Transportation and Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Media Hit | Transportation

CoPIRG Study Shows Coloradans Driving Less

According to a new study released by the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, the number of miles being driven by Americans is on the decline for the eighth year in a row.

Media Hit | Transportation

Younger generation shifts away from automobile transportation

The youngest generation of drivers is pulling Americans away from cars and into a different future of transportation, according to a recent nationwide study.

Media Hit | Transportation

Young Americans Lead Trend to Less Driving

For six decades, Americans have tended to drive more every year. But in the middle of the last decade, the number of miles driven — both over all and per capita — began to drop, notes a report to be published on Tuesday by U.S. Pirg, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

Media Hit | Transportation

Millennial generation looking for new means of transportation

America's love affair with the car is dying and being replaced by a new generation's obsession with technology and different ways of getting around.

Pages

Media Hit | Transportation

Group pushes for details on high speed rail from Colorado Springs to Denver

Imagine a 35-minute trip to downtown Denver from downtown Colorado Springs on a train that hits a top speed of 250 mph. The landscape blurs by. The coffee is piping. And gas prices are not a bother. It's an image that - at least conceptually - Colorado Springs residents like.

Colorado Public Interest Research Group wants to take that message to the Colorado Department of Transportation and Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Media Hit | Transportation

CoPIRG Study Shows Coloradans Driving Less

According to a new study released by the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, the number of miles being driven by Americans is on the decline for the eighth year in a row.

Media Hit | Transportation

Younger generation shifts away from automobile transportation

The youngest generation of drivers is pulling Americans away from cars and into a different future of transportation, according to a recent nationwide study.

Media Hit | Transportation

Young Americans Lead Trend to Less Driving

For six decades, Americans have tended to drive more every year. But in the middle of the last decade, the number of miles driven — both over all and per capita — began to drop, notes a report to be published on Tuesday by U.S. Pirg, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

Media Hit | Transportation

Millennial generation looking for new means of transportation

America's love affair with the car is dying and being replaced by a new generation's obsession with technology and different ways of getting around.

Pages

Result | Transportation

Preparing The Way For 21st Century Transportation

In 2009, CoPIRG worked with a broad coalition to secure $16 billion of federal stimulus money for transit projects that will create jobs.

Report | CoPIRG | Transportation

New Direction

The Driving Boom—a six decade-long period of steady increases in per-capita driving in the United States—is over. This report reveals why and what the implications are.

Report | CoPIRG | Transportation

Transportation and the New Generation

From World War II until just a few years ago, the number of miles driven annually on America’s roads steadily increased. Then, at the turn of the century, something changed: Americans began driving less. By 2011, the average American was driving 6 percent fewer miles per year than in 2004. The trend away from driving has been led by young people.

Report | CoPIRG | Budget, Tax, Transportation

Do Roads Pay for Themselves?

Highways do not – and, except for brief periods in our nation’s history, never have – paid for themselves through the taxes that highway advocates label “user fees.” Yet highway advocates continue to suggest they do in an attempt to secure preferential access to scarce public resources and to shape how those resources are spent.

Report | CoPIRG | Transportation

Transportation Freedom Day 2010

To highlight the differences in transportation costs per city, CoPIRG released data from the Center of Neighborhood Technology that calculated each city’s Transportation Freedom Day - the date in which a typical household has earned enough to cover its annual transportation costs. That day tends to arrive earlier for residents of cities with more car-alternatives to getting around.

Report | CoPIRG | Transportation

Colorado's Transportation Crossroads

Colorado’s transportation network does a poor job of meeting the needs of the state’s residents.

Expanding public transportation can provide more Coloradans with alternatives to driving, while laying the foundation for an efficient transportation system for the 21st century.

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