Alternatives to Referendum 2 can mitigate congestion

March 1, 2025

Editor:

Referendum 2 will not mitigate our traffic-congestion problem, except in the very short term. Fortunately, there are alternatives that will.

In 2016, a diverse group of 31 locals began tackling this problem. They met with five national mobility experts familiar with Aspen and concluded after meeting for 15 months that “we cannot build our way out of traffic congestion by simply adding more highway or transit capacity.”

Many members, including me, began with the expectation that the solution would be “one or more large-scale, capital-intensive transportation solutions.” Instead, in the end, we unanimously supported “a balanced ‘integrated mobility system,’” the five elements of which “lend themselves to experimentation, are flexible, are reversible,” and are ‘far less expensive.

The five-point program and quotes above can be read in a few minutes by searching “community forum mobility report.”

Michael Kinsley, Old Snowmass