Ten Reasons to Vote "No" on FasTracks, Measure 4A

10. Because FasTracks is corporate welfare.

Why should Denver increase a regressive sales tax whose only real impact will be to make wealthy businesses even richer?

9. Because it won't relieve congestion.

DRCOG says FasTracks will take only 1/2 percent of cars off the road, only 1.4 percent of rush-hour traffic off the road, and increase rush-hour traffic speeds in FasTracks corridors by less than 1 mile per hour.

8. Because FasTracks trains will be slow.

FasTracks light-rail trains will average just 24 miles per hour, while Diesel trains will average just 41 miles per hour. That's why so few people will ride them.

7. Because buses are faster, better, and need no new taxes.

RTD says bus-rapid transit can go 51 miles per hour, operate more frequently than any rail line, and still cost less per passenger.

6. Because you shouldn't mortgage your children's future just to take an occasional train to the Rockies game.

DRCOG says the average Denver-area resident will ride FasTracks just 6 times a year in 2025. Yet taxpayers will pay $24 to subsidize every new ride, partly because of the $3.65 billion in finance charges on the debt required to build Fastracks.

5. Because "we have to do something" is not a reason to do something stupid.

FasTracks supporters point out that the Denver area is expected to gain 900,000 more people by 2025. But DRCOG says FasTracks will attract only 72,000 new transit rides a day in 2025, which (since most rides are round trips) means just 36,000 people.

4. Because a world-class folly does not make a world-class city.

New York is a world-class city and has rail transit. But people go to New York to see a Broadway play, Rockefeller Center, and the Empire State Building, not to ride the subway. Do you think millions of tourists will come to Denver just to ride a 24-mile-per-hour light-rail train?

3. Because it isn't safe.

For every billion passenger miles carried, light rail kills almost three times as many people as buses or urban freeways and Diesel commuter rail kills twice as many people. FasTracks will have 135 grade crossings, as shown on this map.

2. Because a choice you can't afford is no choice at all.

FasTracks supporters will reluctantly admit that FasTracks won't do much to reduce congestion, but say it will give people a "choice." But that "choice" will require billions of dollars of capital subsidies plus tens of millions of dollars of annual operating subsidies. A fraction of this money could do more to reduce congestion if it were spent on things such as traffic signal synchronization, bus-rapid transit, and high-occupancy/toll lanes -- leaving the rest in the taxpayers' pockets.

1. Because it costs too much and does too little.

Is it really worth $8.3 billion -- enough money to buy every Denver-area family a new car -- just to get 1.4 percent of cars off the road during rush hour?

For more information, including documentation for all of these statements, see the FasTracks Index and other documents in the Downloads and Research sections of this web site.

All data are from RTD or DRCOG. For complete references, download the FasTracks Index