Entrance Solution Shows The Way

April 17th, 2007 at 04:53am Post Staff 43

Jeffrey Evans and his entrance-to-Aspen group Entrance Solution are sending this mailing to voters before the May 8, 2007, ballot item on the entrance to Aspen:

Ø Bus Lanes will not reduce congestion.  The same merging of two lanes into one – which creates the current traffic jam in both directions - will still be in place.  Idling cars stuck in traffic are not good for air quality, and this situation will not be temporary.  In the current “preferred alternative” plan, this traffic jamming design is intended to be permanent.�
We need a different alternative, not Bus Lanes.

Ø Bus Lanes will delay a real solution*.  There would be no reason for the State of Colorado to consider a different alternative for the Entrance to Aspen during the two years they will spend building the current preferred alternative’s Bus Lanes in response to voter approval. It could be five years before the next reevaluation takes place.
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Ø Providing funding is the key to finding a solution.  After voters reject the Bus Lane idea, the state and federal governments will want to review a new preferred alternative only after a funding source is identified.  Funding is the key, because if construction doesn’t start on that new alternative within three years, the approvals become obsolete and we start over.  We all want immediate action to resolve the whole problem.

Ø The real solution to relieving the traffic jam is within reach.  Entrance Solution is encouraging RFTA to adopt a ballot initiative process into their charter.  This would allow the public to directly propose the use of about three-tenths of a percent (3 pennies per $10 purchase) of sales tax for a new entrance. We can fund construction of the ENTIRE entrance from Buttermilk to Main Street.

Ø There is more than one way to fund the real solution.  If RFTA does not adopt the ballot initiative process, Pitkin County voters still have the opportunity to approve a use tax or a property tax increase – about the same mil levy of tax which currently funds the library – in order to build a new Entrance to Aspen. Local taxes used for highway construction may be reimbursed in future state budgets.

This really isn’t as complicated as some would have you believe.
You just need to vote NO on the preferred alternative’s Bus Lanes.
We can then move forward with proposals to fix the whole problem.

Say No to Gridlock
VOTE  NO  ON  1
Paid by Entrance Solution, Box 374, Snowmass, CO  81654�
*See the real solution:  entrancesolution.com�

Entry Filed under: Politics, Transportation, Basalt, Snowmass, Carbondale, Aspen, Pitkin County