In case you didn’t see these in the Daily Camera, both Steve Pomerance and Bob Greenlee responded to my opinion piece, “Rising Above the Transit Paradox.”:

FasTracks derailed (Greenlee): http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/jul/13/fastracks-derailed/

Funding transit with market forces (Pomerance): http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/jul/06/funding-transit-with-market-02/

You will notice that Bob takes the opportunity to offer another criticism of the FasTracks program, tying the tax revenue for that program to RTD’s current operations funding challenges.  He says: “One solution is to eliminate the Northwest heavy rail plan.”  Bob and I have our differences over the FasTracks plan, that’s for sure.  However, I am very certain it is not appropriate to group revenues from the FasTracks tax with RTD’s general operating revenue.

Steve Pomerance, on the other hand, recommends that RTD raise farebox rates to align them with actual service costs at the same time that drivers are forced to pay the real cost of supporting our roadway system:

Rather than immediately thinking about increasing taxes, our Legislature, RTD, and CDOT officials need to make the cost of driving more accurately match the miles driven and fuel used — in other words, they should help the market work.  Without changing the total cost and tax burden, travelers would save even more by not driving, and RTD could increase its farebox collections without negatively impacting demand, thereby simultaneously reducing its need for a tax subsidy and allowing it to expand service.

I am sure such a strategy will take a long time to institute, and RTD has immediate budget challenges to overcome.   However, Steve raises some very interesting concepts that are worth exploring further.