The New York Times reported today that legislators and environmental advocacy organizations are up in arms over a disparity between two federal regulations - one that urges commuters to reduce the amount of time they spend in their cars, and one that simultaneously gives them incentives (tax breaks) for driving to work. If you missed the article link in the first sentence, here it is again.
This is exactly why I can be an advocate for states rights so often... These policymakers and talking heads don't think (or, perhaps, care) about local issues in all of that overlooked space between New York and San Francisco.
The Denver-Metro region was planned, designed and built for cars and the drivers who love them. It is an expansive, spread-out city built at the intersection of two major interstates, with wide roads connecting flat neighborhoods that stretch from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the ranches and farms of the Eastern Colorado plains.
On top of that, we have downtown parking fees that are on par with most major Midwestern and Pacific metro regions (Chicago, etc), but virtually no equivalent rail system, and only a sub-par bus systems, to bring commuters to and from their jobs in the city (like the CTA, BART, Metro, etc).
We may drive because we want to - but we drive to work because we have to.
Our nascent rail system, the RTD Light Rail, serves only a small fraction of suburbs and outlying areas that house Denver's Commuters. And it would be faster for me to crawl on my lips than use RTD's convoluted and disjointed bus system.
But legislators and, worse, interest groups, on both coasts (but especially the East) decry commuter tax breaks - like allowing employees to use pre-tax deductions from their income to pay for the high cost of parking in downtown garages to get to work every day - as "perverse" in the face of carbon emissions, higher gas prices, and congestion.
All I ask of them is that they spend one month in Denver, commuting from the suburbs to downtown, before they try to pass Federal legislation ending tax breaks for commuters. They might direct their attention to more useful endeavors that ultimately support their cause - like expanding the Denver light rail system to more areas in less time, so we actually have the option of taking the train to work, before we lose a tax break that is just as important to the middle class as flexspend for health care.
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