Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Transportation

TABOR Didn’t Build the Potholes
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Substack, Top Stories

TABOR Didn’t Build the Potholes

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack Bureaucracy and pet projects did — and it’s time to realign our priorities. Colorado’s roads crumble, our classrooms overflow, and every budget cycle we hear the same refrain: “It’s TABOR’s fault.” Critics of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights insist that this constitutional guardrail has starved government of the resources it needs to educate children, maintain infrastructure, and keep the state running. But what if the potholes and crowded classrooms aren’t a symptom of too little revenue, but of misplaced priorities? The truth is, Colorado’s budget has grown steadily for years. Billions more flow into the state’s coffers than a decade ago. Yet the very areas citizens rely on most—roads, schools, public safety—continue to lag. TA...
Can Colorado local or state governments be held liable for car damage from potholes?
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Can Colorado local or state governments be held liable for car damage from potholes?

BY TYLER HICKMAN | THE COLORADO SUN A road crew can repair a pothole in 30 minutes or less, at the cost of about $60 per square yard, officials say Yes. Colorado local and state governments can be forced to pay for car damage resulting from dangerous road conditions, including potholes. Anyone whose vehicle is damaged by a pothole on a public road can file a claim with the state, county or city that manages the property. Public entities can only be held responsible if they were previously notified of the pothole and had the resources for repairs and sufficient time to fix it, but didn’t.  After damage occurs, drivers have 182 days to file a claim, though it’s rare for claimants to be paid out. A 2024 news report revealed that of 1,300 pothole damage claims filed with th...
Denver Closes Online Parking Ticket Appeal Portal Amid Budget Cuts
kdvr.com, Approved, Local

Denver Closes Online Parking Ticket Appeal Portal Amid Budget Cuts

By  Nicole Fierro | KDVR FOX31 DENVER, Colo. (KDVR) — Denver layoffs are now going to impact your ability to dispute parking tickets with the city online, which went into effect on Thursday. Denver court officials told FOX31 that with the city and county of Denver’s projected budget deficit, the county court had to lay off 10 employees on Aug. 27th. Five employees of those were from the parking magistrates’ office, which was a team of five. In 2024, the Parking Magistrate’s Office processed 66,378 parking appeals and 10 final parking hearings. The spokesperson with Denver court officials also told FOX31, the team worked collaboratively with a variety of city stakeholders, including Right of Way Enforcement, the Parking Violation Bureau, Denver County Vehicle Impound and Passpor...
Rising car costs take toll on Colorado families
Fox31, Approved, Local

Rising car costs take toll on Colorado families

By Heather Willard | Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) — For many, the monthly car bill is a fact of life, but for one Denver metro city, it’s a bit more of a financial weight than it is in most. Wallethub took a look at the median auto-loan balance of over 2,500 U.S. cities, noting that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest report on household indebtedness showed auto-loan balances increased by $13 billion in the second quarter of 2025. The organization used TransUnion data as of March 2025 to divide the median car-loan debt by residents’ income in each of the cities. The median income in each city was based on 2023 earnings of individuals over 15 years old who worked full-time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The top cities where resident...
Lawmakers pitch new insurance fee for wildlife and bike lanes, rural Coloradans cry foul
Approved, State, The Post Independent

Lawmakers pitch new insurance fee for wildlife and bike lanes, rural Coloradans cry foul

By Ali Longwell | The Post Independent Colorado lawmakers are looking to add a fee to car insurance policies that would raise funds for road infrastructure aimed at reducing vehicle collisions with wildlife, pedestrians and cyclists.  The idea is being floated as part of a bill co-sponsored by Reps. Andrew Boesenecker, a Larimer County Democrat, and Meghan Lukens, a Steamboat Springs Democrat, and Sens. Faith Winter, a Front Range Democrat, and Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat.  “This bill creates a sustainable solution to a serious public safety problem,” Lukens said. “This bill will save lives, prevent injuries, reduce insurance costs, and protect the wildlife that defines our state. It’s a responsible investment that pays for itself many times over.”  The “Mot...
Gazette editorial board: CO drivers footing the bill for transit dreams amounts to highway robbery
Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Gazette editorial board: CO drivers footing the bill for transit dreams amounts to highway robbery

The Gazette editorial board | Denver Gazette A lot of motorists aren’t crazy about driving our crumbling and congested traffic corridors. But only a handful actually hates motor vehicles. Unfortunately, that unrepresentative handful is overrepresented in our state legislature and the Governor’s Office. In some city halls, too. And they’d like nothing more than for the rest of us to quit driving and ride a bus or light rail, instead. Or ride a bike. Which explains those empty bike lanes you see squeezing cars and trucks aside on busy transportation thoroughfares and neighborhood streets. It also helps to explain the abysmal condition of Colorado’s highways, bridges and other basic transportation infrastructure. It’s getting worse by the day. Although the powers that be wouldn...
Train conductor who revived ski train wants to fix I-70 traffic with ‘rail bridge’
Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Train conductor who revived ski train wants to fix I-70 traffic with ‘rail bridge’

By David O. Williams | Denver Gazette A longtime Amtrak train conductor credited with crafting a business plan that helped revive the mothballed Winter Park Express ski train in 2017 now has a plan to get at least 60% of the commercial truck traffic off of Interstate 70 and free it up for skiers, snowboarders and other mountain travelers. Brad Swartzwelter, 60, retired as conductor of the ski train last spring after 30 years with Amtrak, the federal rail agency that runs the popular, seasonal and recently expanded ski train service between Denver’s Union Station and the city of Denver’s Winter Park Resort. “I-70 congestion has cost us dearly in the snow sports industry, and it is my absolute mission in life … to get people safely, conveniently and economically up to our economic e...
Mesa County Commissioner advocates for fair share of transportation dollars
Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Mesa County Commissioner advocates for fair share of transportation dollars

By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice With an ever shrinking budget, and an ever increasing demand for state money for road repairs and construction due to increasing population and use on the Western Slope, Mesa County Commissioner, Bobbie Daniels went to the state legislature to put a spotlight on the needs of western Colorado. Her testimony highlighted the growing disparity between urban and rural infrastructure funding and the critical need for investment in the roads that keep Colorado moving. Rural communities, which already face resource limitations, are disproportionately affected. Large-scale infrastructure projects in these areas rely heavily on state and federal funding. Yet, much of the transportation budget is allocated to specialized urban pro...
Highway signs on C-470 honor Kendrick Castillo, 2019 STEM School shooting hero
Approved, DENVER7, Local

Highway signs on C-470 honor Kendrick Castillo, 2019 STEM School shooting hero

By Jeff Anastasio | Denver 7 News Drivers on C-470 will notice a change to overhead highway signs to reflect the renaming of the former Lucent Boulevard to Kendrick Castillo Way, honoring the hero student who charged a gunman and ultimately lost his life during the 2019 STEM School shooting in Highlands Ranch. The highway signs are expected to be swapped out this week after Castillo’s family and officials unveiled Kendrick Castillo Way back in November. READ THE FULL STORY AT DENVER 7 NEWS