Transportation Funding
Want safe sidewalks, bike lanes, and bus service that’s frequent and reliable? We do too! That’s why we advocate for the dollars to build out complete citywide bike, pedestrian and bus networks.
Here’s what we’ve been up to:
Sidewalk Funding
In 2022, Denver voters approved the Denver Deserves Sidewalks citizen-initiated ballot measure sponsored by the Denver Streets Partnership. This new property fee, which the City will start collecting in 2025, will generate an estimated $40 million per year, allowing Denver to create a comprehensive program to repair hazardous sidewalks, reconstruct sidewalks that are deficient, and build sidewalks where they’re missing.
Transit Funding
In 2022, the Denver Streets Partnership joined with a coalition of partners to launch the Alliance to Transform Transportation, which is advocating to significantly expand the dollars going into travel options in the Denver region with a focus on building a transit system that equitably reduces air pollution, tackles climate change, saves lives, increases affordability, and expands access to opportunities including work and education. Significantly expanding transit means billions of dollars – similar in size to FasTracks in 2004 (that was about $5 billion). This will require identifying and securing a lot more new, sustainable money, as well as shifting dollars away from dirty and dangerous highway expansion projects.
Thanks to our advocacy, in 2024 the state legislature passed SB24-230, which generates new funding — an estimated $138 million annually — from a fee on oil and gas production to reduce air pollution. Eighty percent of the revenues will go to transit and the remaining 20% will be dedicated to Colorado wildlife and parks. Of the funding dedicated to transit, 70% of that is for transit operations—funding to improve service frequency and reliability. We need substantially more funding to increase transit service in the Denver region to the levels needed to meet our climate and air quality goals, but this is a pretty sizable step in the right direction.
Denver's Annual Budget
The Denver Streets Partnership (DSP) first came together in 2016 as an informal coalition of bike, pedestrian, and transit advocates to collectively advocate for increased funding for multimodal transportation. At that time, Denver was only dedicating about $5 million per year to pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure projects. Since than, annual funding for transit, walking, biking, and Vision Zero projects has increased to about $20 million per year. Part of this increase in dedicated funding is thanks to a Transportation and Mobility Special Revenue Fund that the City established in 2022 with revenues from an increase in parking meter fees from $1 to $2 per hour. Annual funding still falls well short of what’s needed to build out complete pedestrian, bicycle, and transit networks throughout Denver, however.
Climate Protection Fund
In 2020, Denverite voters passed Ballot Initiative 2A. raising the local sales and use tax by 0.25% to create the Climate Protection Fund (CPF). The CPF raises $40M annually to act urgently to mitigate the causes of climate change and to center that work on equity. Allowable uses of the fund include programs and services that provide affordable, clean, safe and reliable transportation choices, like walking, biking, transit, electric vehicles, and neighborhood-scale transit.
To date the fund has supported Denver’s wildly successful e-bike rebate program, as well as smaller pilot programs such as the E-Bikes for Deliveries and Bicycling Rewards Program led by the Denver Streets Partnership.
State of Transportation Report
Elevate Denver Bond
Related Resources
PRESS RELEASE: Groups call on CDOT to remove I-25 Central widening from long-term plan
PRESS RELEASE — Tuesday, June 14, 2022 MEDIA CONTACT Danny Katz, Executive Director, Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) danny@copirg.org | 608-215-0929 Juan Madrid, Colorado Clean Transportation & Energy Policy Advocate, GreenLatinos juanmadrid@greenlatinos.org | 970-658-6369 Molly McKinley, Policy Director, the Denver Streets Partnership molly@denverstreetspartnership.org | 919-588-9676 Replace it with investments in better transit, safer […]
PRESS RELEASE: First of $4 billion in transportation investments focuses on transit, biking, safety
PRESS RELEASE — Thursday, May 19, 2022 MEDIA CONTACT Rachel Hultin, Sustainable Transportation Director, Bicycle Colorado rachel@bicyclecolorado.org | 720-449-3392 Danny Katz, Executive Director, Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) danny@copirg.org | 608-215-0929 DRCOG approval of $40 million state/federal funding comes as CDOT advances implementation of climate pollution reduction rule DENVER — With the […]
Groups call for expanded transit, not expanded highways
Dear Executive Director Lew, Executive Director Rex, and Mayor Hancock, We are calling on CDOT, DRCOG, and the City and County of Denver to not add any new highway capacity or disrupt surrounding communities in the I-25 Central corridor, and to modify existing plans, including CDOT’s 10-year plan and DRCOG’s Regional Transportation Plan . . .
PRESS RELEASE: New Report: Investments in public transit workforce needed to boost economic opportunity and racial equity
PRESS RELEASE — Friday, February 4, 2022 MEDIA CONTACT Molly McKinley, Policy Director, the Denver Streets Partnership molly@denverstreetspartnership.org | 919-588-9676 DRCOG approval of $40 million state/federal funding comes as CDOT advances implementation of climate pollution reduction rule DENVER — A new report released today by the Alliance for a Just Society, the Labor Network for […]
RTD prioritizes equity and current transit riders in their new System Optimization Plan
Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) has to make some tough choices as they slice up a tiny pie of funding for transit in Denver. Funding and labor challenges, all reinforced by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, put RTD in a tough position. We think the criteria they are using to evaluate trade-offs […]
DSP asks CDOT to prioritize safety and multimodal transportation in Year 4 of their 10-Year Plan
Dear Executive Director Lew, On behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP), we are writing in regards to the reprioritization of Year 4 of CDOT’s 10-Year Plan. DSP is a coalition of community groups advocating for people-friendly streets in Denver. The members of our coalition believe in an equitable and vibrant Denver that guarantees our public spaces are designed for people. We believe that human dignity should be the guiding principle for the design of our transportation system so that everyone can thrive and connect to what matters most.
DSP asks USDOT to go beyond Title VI
December 1, 2021 Secretary Pete Buttigieg US Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590 Administrator Nuria Fernández Federal Transportation Administration US Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590 Deputy Administrator Stephanie Pollack Federal Highway Administration US Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC […]
DSP asks CDOT to prioritize safety and multimodal transportation in Year 4 of their 10-Year Plan
CDOT, RTD, local partners must come together for better public transit
October 22, 2021 Governor Jared Polis 200 E. Colfax Avenue, Room 136 Denver, CO 80203 Executive Director Shoshana Lew Colorado Department of Transportation 2829 W. Howard Place Denver, CO 80204 CEO and General Manager Debra Johnson Regional Transportation District 1660 Blake Street Denver, CO 80202 Dear Governor Polis, Executive Director Lew, and General […]
2022 Budget: DSP Comments
October 15, 2021 Dear Mayor Hancock and members of City Council, On behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP), we are writing to submit comments on the proposed funding levels for pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and Vision Zero projects in the 2022 Annual Budget. The DSP is a coalition of community groups advocating for […]
We need bold action on climate.
The air has been on a lot of our minds this week. While it may be easy to simply blame our current air quality on wildfires, the truth is that these fires have become more prevalent as California’s climate has shifted to a drought condition. Without change, smoky skies may become the norm in the mountain west. […]