Colorado transportation gleanings

Roundabouts as a way to trim GHG emissions

The New York Times in December had a front-page story about traffic roundabouts, focusing on the Indiana city of Carmel. It has 140 roundabouts, with more than a dozen still to come.

“No American city has more,” the Times said. “The main reason is safety; compared with regular intersections, roundabouts significantly reduce injuries and deaths. But there’s also a climate benefit.”

The Times story noted that each roundabout saves about 20,000 gallons of fuel annually, meaning fewer emissions, and they have no need for electricity and keep functioning after bad storms.

The story made no mention of Vail, one of the very first municipalities in the United States to employ the modern roundabout in which traffic arrives at the circle at a slant instead of perpendicular fashion, as in the older traffic circles. That allows traffic to ease into the circle more easily, expediting flow.

Vail was flummoxed in the early 1990s by growing traffic at its main intersection adjacent to Interstate 70. The four-way stop groaned during high-traffic times, such as Christmas week, with waits up to 45 minutes to get through the intersection. The traffic count there was 3,500 vehicles an hour, a high count for an intersection sandwiched by an interstate highway and a resort village.

Roundabouts were virtually unknown then in the United States. Greg Hall, then and now the public works director, remembers research that included getting video footage from several locations where the modern roundabouts had already been built. The most important video came from Norway, because of the snowy conditions. Another one came from southern California, either Santa Barbara or Long Beach.

The proposal in Vail was hotly contested by some, who predicted utter mayhem. The reality was anything but. When the first one opened at Thanksgiving 1995, it was an instant hit.

Hall remembers no discussion of greenhouse gas emissions in that choice or the others that soon followed. Tailpipe emissions were a consideration. To have cars waiting to get through the intersection or up to 45 minutes did nothing to improve the air quality in the Gore Valley, where Vail is located. The town about the same time began to put an end to traditional wood stoves, which were creating an air pollution problem. Other mountain towns had the same problem.

Upon completion of that first roundabout, Vail’s wasn’t the 10th in the nation. Its prominence as a major resort and its location along an interstate highway, made it a powerful influencer, though.

Now, Vail has seven roundabouts and is considering one or two more. As for that original intersection, traffic has been reduced because of the addition of another path off and onto I-70, but it still accommodates 3,100 vehicles an hour and handles the traffic well.

Transportation has become Colorado’s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Photo/Allen Best

Why environmental groups hailed transportation rule adopted by Colorado

The praise from environmental advocacy groups was almost effusive in December after the Colorado Transportation Commission voted 10-1 to approve a new rule that shifts how Colorado will go about transportation planning.

“Colorado has been building communities around cars for decades,” said Travis Madsen, transportation program director at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.

“When you build for more cars, more cars are what you get.”

Coal-fired power plants were the easy target for reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases. Colorado will move fast in the next 8 years to close down the plants.

Transportation is already the No. 1 source of emissions in Colorado.

Madsen and others expect the new process will increase investment in less polluting models of transportation, including mass transit, biking, and walking. They also say it will promote more transportation-efficient land-use patterns to shorten travel distances between houses, jobs, and other services.

The rule applies to CDOT planning as well as those of its five major metropolitan planning organizations.

Becky English, chair of the Sierra Club’s transportation committee in Colorado, said only a handful of states have taken a step like this.

The rule also takes note of the disproportionate impacts of transportation on lower-income communities, which tend to be people of racial and ethnic minorities.

Whether the rule will prioritize benefits for disproportionately impacted communities remains to be seen.

“While we wish the rule did more to meaningfully protect disproportionately impacted communities, we are glad that it requires CDOT and planning organizations both to recognize and begin taking responsibility for transportation infrastructure that deeply affects such communities,” said English.

Colorado expects to spend more than $30 billion on transportation infrastructure between 2022 and 2050.

Transportation agency now has leader in Environmental Justice and Equity Branch

As per Colorado’s 2021 comprehensive transportation funding and modernization law, CDOT has a new department called the Environmental Justice and Equity Branch. The person hired to lead that department is Marsha Nelson, who formerly led a similar effort within Denver’s municipal government.

“Achieving equity requires intention,” said Nelson in a December press release. “It requires collaboration and respect of different perspectives and the lived experiences of others. I am eager to begin the work, both internally and externally, to advance transportation equity, environmental justice, and in shaping future generations of transportation leaders.”

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