At a time when both promoting multimodal public transportation and diverting passenger vehicles from I-70 are high priorities for CDOT, the Colorado Department of Transportation is targeting the well-used and ideally situated El Rancho Park-n-Ride lot for disposal. The area that would be removed from their system is less than a half acre, but that entire facility at the intersection of U.S. 40 and SH-74 would be lost to the public. The fate of this taxpayer-built, well-maintained asset that has served the community for more than three decades could be decided by the Transportation Commission of Colorado in May.
The El Rancho Park-n-Ride lot is the only public parking in the El Rancho Activity Center. The ERAC is the largest commercial area in greater Evergreen, itself home to the largest population in the Foothills. It is at the intersection of two highways, the location of public housing and in the service area of five Front Range public transit routes. County planning says this is where public transportation belongs.
Nowhere else in the Foothills do RTD and CDOT transit services intersect. There is no reason to believe that transit stops will not return to this location in the future, and there is nowhere in the vicinity where this lot could be replaced. The lot continues to be heavily used by drivers from Evergreen and the west Metro area for carpooling to Denver and the mountains.
Because RTD no longer leases the lot (see Letters: RTD, Canyon Courier, Oct. 5, 2022), CDOT has inherited it for free. For the costs of building and maintaining another lot like the one CDOT just completed at I-70 exit 251 for the Floyd Hill Project, meant to serve its Pegasus shuttle, CDOT could maintain the existing, centrally located El Rancho Park-n-Ride lot for 62 and a half years.
Evergreen continues to contribute to the Regional Transportation District’s budget through sales taxes whether it receives service or not. Our public transportation options can certainly be improved for the future. Ridership is a combination of the routes that are provided and the actual use of those routes by the people. But without infrastructure (like places to park and ride) to serve this dispersed community, ridership will falter and the services will not stop here. RTD and CDOT both espouse greater transit connectivity. This existing lot serves those agencies’ goals, and it should remain. To keep the El Rancho Park-n-Ride lot open, see openpetition.org/!vdrpd.
— Kathryn Mauz,
Evergreen