Car-Centric Cities and the Issue of Transportation Between Erie and Boulder

There’s currently very limited public transit options to get from Erie to Boulder, but that could change in the upcoming election

It’s been a little over a year now since I became a full-time pedestrian and user of public transportation. My beat-up 2006 Honda Pilot that I had more or less inherited from my mother was on its last legs—with the power steering failing, a driver’s side window that wouldn’t roll down, one working tail light, several dents, and a problem with the locking mechanism—and had finally reached the point where I would rather get rid of the car than go to the expense of having it fixed up. Thus, I resigned myself to rely on public transportation, which is harder to do in the Denver-Boulder Metro Area than I fully anticipated, which anyone who has tried to travel between Erie and Boulder can attest to.

Currently, there are limited public transit options from Erie to Boulder via the JUMP bus that picks up at Erie Community Center. In fact, there’s limited transportation to and from Erie and any destination in Colorado, and that’s largely due to a zoning issue. According to the Town of Erie website, the main problem is that most of Erie lies outside of the RTD service area, and, by state statute, RTD is not allowed to provide transportation options outside of their service area.

Car Centric Cities

The problem becomes that too many cities are based on car-centric planning. Design Dash defines a car-centric city as “an urban environment where the design and infrastructure predominantly cater to private vehicles. This setup often includes extensive road networks, large parking areas, and urban planning that prioritizes ease of vehicle access over other transportation methods.”

Car-centric cities assume that everyone is going to be using a car, resulting in increased traffic, more pollution, and difficulties for the homeless population. As Dr. Martin V. Melosi from the University of Houston points out, “as much as one-half of a modern American city’s land area is dedicated to streets and roads, parking lots, service stations, driveways, signals and traffic signs, automobile-oriented businesses, car dealerships, and more.” As a number of people on various social media sites have pointed out, if you look at the parking lot surrounding a major stadium, you can see how much more space cars take up than people, with lots far exceeding the size of the stadiums.

According to an article by Amanda Northrop in Vox, another problem with car-centric cities is the loneliness and isolation among people who can’t easily connect without a car. One result of car-centric city planning has been the development of suburban centers, putting people’s homes at a significant distance from the business center of the metropolitan area, which is where most people work. The “spontaneous encounters” that people experience with friends and strangers on the street become more difficult in car-centric cities. Lily Paliczak at Commonwealth Times agrees with this as she relates the story of moving from Westchester County, New York, to Aix-en-Provence, France, which she describes as a more “people-centric” city where meeting up with friends becomes easy due to the walkability of the city.

Some countries around the world have moved to make their cities more people-centric, such as the UK and Netherlands, which have limited construction on suburban shopping areas, and cities that are investing more in infrastructure and public transportation, such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, and one of the United States’ most infamously car-centric cities, Los Angeles. Still, progress has been slow, and many cities need a major overhaul before they truly become people-centric.

Ballot Measure to Annex Erie

For my own part, getting around in major cities in the Denver-Boulder metro area is not that hard, but I tend to balk at the idea of traveling between cities, knowing that it’s bound to be more complicated than it’s worth. In keeping the majority of the Town of Erie outside of RTD’s service area, Erie essentially becomes a car-centric city. But there remains hope that this will change in the coming months. The annexation of the city to RTD’s service area will require approval from voters, and the process to do that has already begun. In a special board meeting held by RTD on July 25, the board of directors passed a resolution calling for the issue to be voted on in the November 5 election.

The current sample ballot for the Town of Erie doesn’t show the question about annexation, but RTD project manager Chris Quinn told me that RTD had an agreement with Erie that the issue would be placed on the ballot for this coming election and, as far as he knows, the issue will be on the ballot. Unfortunately, the decision remains largely in the hands of Erie voters, leaving the residents of Boulder hoping for easier transportation to Erie to watch on expectantly. But hopefully, the residents of Erie make the correct choice in making their city more people-centric and less car-centric.