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New Denver focus on transportation heading to voters in November</h1>
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New name but no new money for city department</h2>
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<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/author/andrew-kenney/" title="Posts by Andrew Kenney" rel="author" data-reader-unique-id="53" class="byline" style="text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; font-weight: bold; color: var(--body-font-color); max-width: 100%; font-size: 1em !important; display: inline !important;">Andrew
Kenney</a><span class="delimiter" style="margin: 0.07em 0.45em 0px; padding: 0px; max-width: 100%; font-size: 1em !important; display: inline !important;"></span><time datetime="2019-06-25 00:46:01" data-reader-unique-id="54" class="date" style="margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; font-size: 1em !important; display: inline !important;">June
25, 2019 at 12:46 am</time></div>
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<div data-reader-unique-id="49" style="max-width: 100%;" class=""><img alt="" title="" data-sizes="auto" data-src="https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=501" data-srcset="https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=501 620w,https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=630 780w,https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=824 1020w,https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=759 940w" sizes="800px" srcset="https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=501 620w, https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=630 780w, https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=824 1020w, https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=759 940w" src="https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TDP-L-Electric-buses-RJS-2126.jpg?w=501" data-reader-unique-id="50" class="extendsBeyondTextColumn" style="max-width: none; margin: 0.5em auto; display: block; height: auto; filter: invert(); width: 760.5px; margin-inline-start: -70px;"></div>
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<div style="max-width: 100%; margin-top: 0.4em; margin-bottom: 0.4em;" class="">RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post</div>
Electric buses move pedestrians down the the 16th Street Mall in Denver on May 13, 2019. RTD pays nearly twice as much per mile to power its electric buses as it does its conventional diesel fleet. The price disparity could slow the transit agency’s embrace
of zero-emission technology at a time when air quality and climate change have become ever larger topics of conversation in Colorado.
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Denver residents will decide Nov. 5 whether to create a city transportation department.</p>
<p data-reader-unique-id="4" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font;" class="">
It’s a bureaucratic change, but it signals a bigger shift: The city may take on more responsibility for bus and train service amid a new urban era.</p>
<p data-reader-unique-id="5" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font;" class="">
The Denver City Council on Monday decided to put the measure on voters’ ballots.</p>
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If approved by voters, it would turn the existing Department of Public Works into the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.</p>
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“What we’ve been working on is essentially a culture shift, and it’s a pivot toward a new mentality and philosophy,” said public works director Eulois Cleckley.</p>
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Currently, the public works department handles transportation projects for the city, including the upcoming bus-rapid transit project for East Colfax Avenue, as well as sewer and trash service.</p>
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<strong data-reader-unique-id="12" style="max-width: 100%;" class="">RELATED:</strong> <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2019/06/24/denver-parks-spending-plan/" data-reader-unique-id="13" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%;" class="">Here’s
where Denver will spend $41M in new parks money</a></p>
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The new department will keep all those responsibilities, but the reorganization would show a “commitment to expanding mobility options and improving existing transportation infrastructure” and focus more on transportation. Previously, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2019/04/02/denver-department-transportation-infrastructure-november-ballot/" data-reader-unique-id="15" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%;" class="">the
city considered creating a standalone transportation department</a>, but officials decided that would be inefficient.</p>
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The practical parts of the reorganization are already finished, a city spokesperson said. That includes, for example, the creation of a new planning division.</p>
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The vote would not bring any new money or new hires for transportation. But the transformation refocuses the existing staff. Previously, the city had about 127 people working on transportation, but now it has 1,100 employees — the bulk of the existing Department
of Public Works — “that are focused on transportation and mobility,” Cleckley said.</p>
<p data-reader-unique-id="20" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font;" class="">
Mayor Michael Hancock has outlined <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/10/michael-hancock-denver-mobility-action-plan/" data-reader-unique-id="21" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%;" class="">up to $2 billion in
proposed transportation spending,</a> but hasn’t identified sources for all of that money.</p>
<p data-reader-unique-id="22" style="max-width: 100%; caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font;" class="">
The recent <a href="https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/elevate-denver.html" data-reader-unique-id="23" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%;" class="">“Elevate Denver”</a> debt package includes about $431 million
for transportation and mobility projects, including $55 million for the bus-rapid transit on East Colfax. But the city would need much more to fulfill its long-term plans, which include transit lines up and down the major corridors and better connections within
the city.</p>
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Most transit in the metro area is handled by RTD — the Regional Transportation District. Its landmark project over recent years was FasTracks, a set of rail lines that largely converge from the suburbs into Denver’s city center. Continued rail construction
helped to grow rail ridership by about 3.5 percent in 2018 — but, at the same time, bus ridership fell by about 3 percent.</p>
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The city’s new department could supplement RTD’s service in a couple ways, including by building the physical infrastructure for bus-rapid transit and by paying for additional RTD service in the city.</p>
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