To help solve transportation extension problems from Constitution Avenue to I-25, the Colorado Springs City Council will be building a park.
They have signed off on the planned construction of a greenway along part of Constitution Avenue. This decision comes after decades of back-and-forth throughout Colorado Springs over whether to extend Constitution Avenue to Interstate 25 to ease traffic congestion.
With this greenway planned, opponents of the perennially argued shortcut to I-25 (which would have looped into the interstate by Paseo) are hoping they have checkmated plans in favor of the cut-across. No one would disrupt a green space to build roads for fossil-fueled, privately-owned cars, right?
greenway (n): These ribbons of open space are located within linear corridors that are either natural, such as rivers and streams, or manmade, such as abandoned railroad beds and utility corridors. – Chuck Flink, International & US Landscape Architect, Owner & President Greenways Incorporated
Connecting I-25 through Constitution was part of 160 items in the expansive ConnectCOS plan for transportation improvements in Colorado Springs.
Data and Research Are Bad?
The Colorado Springs Indy from June 2022 quoted Deputy Public Works Director Gayle Sturdivant who said the connection was “in the early stages of planning.” Around that time, members of the community whose residences were in or near the path along Constitution Ave–plus others–brought enough opposition to get the city council to back off.
Rough Timeline of Constitution Ave Traffic Extension Plan; Including ConnectCOS:
- Not long after the Federal Highway Act of 1956, Colorado Springs started discussing a proposed plan for extending Constitution Avenue to I-25.
- The topic continually resurfaces in citizens’ discussions and amongst city planners for decades.
- In the early 2020s, to ease traffic congestion, the city reintroduced the plan to link Constitution Ave with I-25, and the project is listed in ConnectCOS.
- Residents in the affected neighborhoods—and others—opposed to the extension speak out: about 131 homes would be removed, and about 432 would be affected (according to a Gazette editorial cited in Colorado Springs Indy).
- The city staff eased off and suggested they study a possible extension along Constitution Ave and whether it could ease traffic congestion.
- After more opposition, the Colorado Springs City Council said they’d consider a study for a different throughway: one for cycling, public transportation (busses or the construction of light rail), and walking, but no cars.
- Opposition continued.
- Plans for any study of Constitution Ave connections with I-25 were scrapped in late February of this year in the ConnectCOS non-binding masterplan.
- ConnectCOS apparently has a “greenway” planned as a permanent municipal park installation along part of Constitution Ave.
The greenway plan for Constitution Ave—as of early March 2023—appears to offer no functional improvement of the city’s transportation. Media accounts are unclear if this green space will do anything to actually expand bike, pedestrian, or public transport travel, which was the original compromise.
One pro-greenspace city leader considers the greenway a necessary outmaneuvering plan to end the Constitution Avenue extension challenges permanently. City Councilman Dave Donelson made such an argument, according to The Gazette.
Green Space Checkmate of I-25 Extension Framed as a Widely Supported Community Interest; Was It?
Based in San Fransisco, the non-profit change.org platform allows people in the US to start petition-signing campaigns to affect local, state, or national issues and policies. The unspoken rule is that those petitions for leftwing causes will fare significantly better than anything opposing an environmental or otherwise leftward effort on this given platform.
In the summer of 2022, a petition to stop the Constitution Ave extension went up on Change.org. Not surprisingly, the world’s largest search engine had it as the first result for “constitution ave extension colorado springs” in early March 2023.
The petition appears to accurately state that, as of June 2022, Colorado Springs had “not included informing or soliciting feedback from any residents who might be impacted . . .”
That has clearly changed.
Did the News Media Inflate Public Sentiment on the Discussed Extension?
Most news media—state, local, national, legacy, digital, or otherwise—are staunch environmentalists as the norm. Regarding ConnectCOS and Constitution Ave, they, therefore, favor adding greenspace and shutting down single-occupancy vehicle transportation. They are for the greenway and against the I-25 connection.
In their coverage, the media accounts discuss the neighborhoods individually affected and offer sympathetic portraits of how a highway bypass would disrupt their communities.
Throughout the coverage, vaguely quantifiable figures are given to indicate strong public opposition to the project. Upon closer examination, the figures sound suspiciously small, at least regarding the broad scope of the city. Within individual neighborhoods, there may be widespread opposition. The numbers are less convincing in the context of a city with over 400,000 residents.
Media Coverage of Constitution Ave Extension Opposition
- “[M]ore than a couple dozen concerned residents” (KOAA news)
- Opposed by residents in the hundreds (The Gazette)
- ” ‘Record numbers of neighborhood residents have voiced their opposition‘ ” (The Gazette quoting an HOA Vice-President).
Those Opposed to I-25 Shortcut Pushed for Other, Greener, Less-Popular Transportation
Regarding traffic congestion and Constitution Ave, citizen Melissa Williams told The Gazette, “We have a reckless development problem and a car problem. Funding for this study would be far better utilized if (it) were reallocated to public transportation and mobility.”
Days before the feasibility study was removed, the pro-green, anti-car Colorado Public Radio said an extension for only bikes and public transit had been considered by what CPR called a “citizens’ advisory board.”
Colorado Springs, according to the Data, is not Big on Cycling or Public Transport
Colorado Springs recently made headlines for having one of the highest rates of bicycle commuters: one-half of 1%. One in 200 people in Colorado Springs cycle to work.
As for busses, according to the American Public Transportation Association, 7000 people rode the Mountain Metro weekday bus from October through December last year. This is 3.1% of the working population of Colorado Springs. Even Colorado Public Radio, which is pro-public transportation, admits that Mountain Metro commuting times are at least double that of taking a car. Complicating this matter, the Mountain Metro manager job has been sitting empty for two years.
Simply put, very few people in Colorado Springs–at least according to available data–bike or take public transport to work. So why is it still being lobbied for? If very, very few people in Colorado Springs actually cycle to work, why continue to push so hard for it? If public transport is struggling and inefficient, why expand it? Are cars just more popular? If so, why is that being opposed? A heavy-handed philosophical motive is hard to ignore.
Does this Outflanking of the I-25 Extension with a Greenspace Solve a Traffic Congestion Problem?
The broader super-project, ConnectCOS, is supposed to make transportation planning easier in Colorado Springs. In the disruption of citizens’ homes and neighborhoods, the goal was to ensure the reduction of traffic congestion and smoggy snarls from idling or crawling cars.
That was the point of the Constitution Ave tie-in to the interstate. Does building a park specifically to stop a highway on-ramp road help transportation in Colorado Springs?
