The Jan. 21 Aspen Times reported the city of Aspen shelved its most recent anti-traffic boondoggle, “SHIFT” (“Aspen parks its $2.6 million transit experiment”).
The name contains one more letter than necessary accurately to describe the program. Why is so much time and money wasted on such profane insanities? It’s all about the facts.
Fact 1: Aspen’s economy depends on visitors, and visitors use cars. Usually really big ones. Despite rhetoric about controlling growth, Aspen’s economy depends on attracting more, not fewer visitors. That inevitably means more big cars. To accommodate Aspen’s economic aspirations requires more capacity for big cars, including more lanes into and out of town and more and better parking options.
Fact 2: Idealists who control City Council dream our economy can grow without facing Fact 1.
Result: Dumb projects like SHI(F)T.
Maurice Emmer
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