Summit game players map transit future

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

Pass Go, spend $1.3 billion.

That's the essence of the "Connections" exercise that brought together 225 players from across the region to build a model mobility network at the North Front Range Transportation Summit.

In a raucous exercise resembling Monopoly, they spent a morning affixing game pieces to flip-chart-sized maps depicting the vast planning area extending roughly from Fort Collins on the north, Berthoud on the south and Greeley on the east.

The pieces, with bright colors that mimicked properties in the popular board game, represented potential transportation options. Red represented widening Interstate 25; yellow extending commuter rail to Longmont; pink establishing rapid bus transit routes; and blue creating regional bus routes.

Despite similarities to the game, there were some distinct and important differences. Rather than competing against each other to amass the greatest personal fortune, the players huddling around tables were charged with spreading the wealth to build what they believed would be the best transportation network with the money available.

To accomplish that goal, each table had $1.3 billion--the amount expected to be generated during the next 20 years from a 1 percent regional sales tax and a $10 annual vehicle registration fee. That's the current proposal for financing a Rural Transit Authority, a proposal supporters hope to put before voters in November 2007.

While such revenue would be a big leap from the comparative pocket change Monopoly players start with, it still would fall far short of the amount expected to be needed for transportation improvements to serve the North Front Range - the fastest-growing region in the state.

"It will be very difficult for (the Colorado Department of Transportation) to help us up here," state transportation commissioner Bill Kaufman said in an address to the participants. "We have to come up with some way to fund the transportation needs."

That reality required the players to make hard decisions, which was the primary point of "Connections," an appropriate name for the elaborate effort sponsored by the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization on June 13.

The transportation summit was aimed at developing the consensus and momentum necessary to hand the proposal off to an independent advocacy group to further refine the RTA proposal and press for its adoption.

Whether the RTA develops that traction toward action remains to be seen. But the summit did seem to confirm broad support for making it easier to get there from here by better linking the region before reaching toward the metro area.

The maps created from "Connections" will be analyzed for consistent themes, recommendations and regional activities. The results will be summarized and released on the web site, www.nfrSummit.com.

While that summary won't be available until later this month, there clearly was some common ground apparent to John Daggett, regional planning manager for the North Front Range MPO.

Daggett after the exercise said he saw apparent preferences for better maintaining current roads, increasing regional connections and developing mass transit--particularly regional bus service.

"I've seen more [interest in] transit than I've ever seen before," he said.

Despite the tension between those favoring better north-south connections and those preferring to improve east-west mobility, Daggett said he also witnessed a growing acknowledgment of the North Front Range area as a region of shared needs and interests - particularly in terms of transportation among the municipalities.

"I saw people filling in the gaps," he said. "This is our region."