Just about anywhere that public dialogue is happening in Denver right now — at neighborhood meetings, on social media, or in the conventional media — the topic of traffic congestion inevitably comes up. Anyone who wants to move beyond complaining to understanding potential solutions doesn’t have to look too far. Decades of research provides clear evidence of what does, and does not, reduce traffic congestion.
First, what doesn’t work: building more road capacity. Experience has repeatedly shown that in cities with healthy economies like Denver, new capacity quickly fills up. People who previously drove different routes, or at different times of day, or took transit, or just took fewer trips each day change their travel patterns. Almost immediately, the roads become just as congested as they were previously — exactly what happened to Interstate 25 after the T-REX widening project was completed in 2006. Road building requires a major investment of taxpayer dollars, consumes land that could otherwise be put to more productive use, and more often than not results in minimal public benefit.
Limiting density doesn’t help, either. People are moving to the Denver metro area, whether we like it or not. If we don’t increase the housing supply in close-in neighborhoods through infill and redevelopment, people will simply move further out to the suburban fringes, where driving is the only viable form of transportation. Residents who might have been inclined to take public transit are forced to use their cars, and everyone has to drive farther to get where they are going. Instead of traversing a mile or two in slow-moving conditions, drivers face miles of congested roadways, resulting in significantly more delay and wasted time.
What does reduce congestion? Only two things have proven effective: an economic downturn, and congestion pricing. Higher unemployment rates mean fewer people driving to work, or for shopping trips, or for recreation. Detroit is a prime example of this form of involuntary congestion mitigation.
For cities like Denver that are blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view) with a growing economy, the only remaining option is to impose a fee for driving in congested locations or at congested times of day. London, for example, has charged a fee for driving downtown since 2003. Not only has congestion abated, but air quality has improved and the overall impact on downtown businesses has been positive. The Denver region is just starting to dabble in congestion pricing on the U.S. 36 corridor, but it seems unlikely that Denver residents will find more widespread pricing schemes palatable anytime soon.
Solving congestion might be out of reach for Denver, but ultimately, congestion isn’t the problem we should be trying to solve. The bigger problem is that many Denver residents don’t have any options other than driving to their daily destinations. Automobiles have long symbolized freedom in the American imagination. Yet in our devotion to building communities oriented around driving, we’ve engineered the ability to walk, bike, or take transit out of many of our neighborhoods. Now here we are enslaved to our automobiles, obsessed with fueling them, parking them, and making sure they don’t get too crowded on the roadways.
Not only does this lack of options make it impossible for Denver residents to avoid congestion, it disadvantages the most vulnerable members of our community.
One-third of Americans don’t or can’t drive, including all children under the legal driving age, about one-fifth of older adults, people with disabilities, and households that can’t afford a car. When driving is the only way to get around, those who can’t drive become dependent on the goodwill of others, or imprisoned in their own homes.
Unlike congestion, the solution to our unhealthy dependence on driving is within our grasp. Compact, mixed-use development patterns that locate homes near work, shopping and other destinations are part of the solution.
Blueprint Denver together with the new zoning code is already encouraging this type of development. The other part of the solution is better transit, pedestrian, and bicycle infrastructure. Our region’s investment in FasTracks is a good start, but we still have a long way to go before transit, walking, and biking become viable options throughout the city.
So let’s stop worrying about congestion, and focus on the more important task of setting ourselves free by creating real transportation options for all of Denver’s residents.
Jill Locantore is policy and program director for WalkDenver.
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