Voters in two localities--one city and one county--voted to take transportation issues into their own hands this week.
The city of Denver will move its transportation function out of the Department of Public Works into its own cabinet-level entity, if preliminary votes counts hold. According to denverite.com, Denver will create the stand-alone Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, complete with an executive director who reports to the mayor. The report suggests the move will give "walking, biking and transit an elevated role in the city bureaucracy while paving the way for city-owned transit systems."
According to the report, the mayor has committed to double the share of trips on foot, bike, bus, and train by 2030 while reducing solo driving by 50 percent.
Due north on I-25, in Larimer County, voters rejected a tax increase the would fund transportation and facility needs, according to the Loveland Reporter-Herald. Some 65 percent of the revenue generated by the half-cent tax increase would have gone to regional transportation projects including widening of I-25, bike ways, and pedestrian routes, according to the report.
