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
2022 Budget Recommendations
May 25, 2021 Mayor Michael Hancock 1437 N Bannock St. Rm 350 Denver, CO 80202 Dear Mayor Hancock, On behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP), we wish to thank you for sustaining funding for the buildout of Denver’s sidewalk and bicycle networks in the City’s 2021 Annual Budget, despite the difficult economic […]
2022 Budget Recommendations
May 25, 2021 Mayor Michael Hancock 1437 N Bannock St. Rm 350 Denver, CO 80202 Dear Mayor Hancock, On behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP), we wish to thank you for sustaining funding for the buildout of Denver’s sidewalk and bicycle networks in the City’s 2021 Annual Budget, despite the difficult economic conditions facing […]
A big win for transit!
We have an exciting update to share out of the State Legislature this week—the RTD Operations bill (H.B. 21-1186) passed both chambers and is headed to Governor Polis’s desk! The changes to the state statute in the bill are recommendations from the RTD Accountability Committee, which was established in collaboration with the Governor’s office, RTD, and […]
On Earth Day, Colorado Mobility Advocates Call on Congress to Increase Funding for Public Transit
Dear Senators Bennett and Hickenlooper and Representatives DeGette, Perlmutter, Neguse, Bobert, Buck, Lamborn, and Crow: We are writing on behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP) to urge you to increase funding for public transit through Surface Transportation Reauthorization.
Invest in Public Transit for our Planet
This Earth Day, the Denver Streets Partnership along with dozens of national and local organizations have joined together to demand a historic investment in public transit in the U.S. to prioritize people and communities. COVID-19 presented unprecedented challenges for public transit, and alongside it a unique chance to reshape our transportation system. We can’t just […]
On Earth Day, Colorado Mobility Advocates Call on Congress to Increase Funding for Public Transit
April 22, 2021 The Honorable Senator Michael Bennett 261 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20002 The Honorable John Hickenlooper 374 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20002 The Honorable Representative Diana DeGette 2111 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Representative Ed Perlmutter 1226 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 The […]
Aligning our Transportation Goals and Spending
As Colorado legislators work to introduce a new transportation funding bill, transit continues to be deprioritized as highways look to receive the vast majority of funding. Denver has set ambitious long-term goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the reliance on single-occupancy vehicles but the latest proposals actually work against these goals.
Letter to the Legislature on the Transportation Funding Bill
April 14, 2021 Dear Senators Hansen, Rodriguez, Coleman, and Gonzales and Representatives Lontine, Garnett, Gonzales-Gutierrez, Valdez, Woodrow, Bacon and Herod: On behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership, I’m writing to ask you to advocate for a transportation funding bill that prioritizes multimodal infrastructure and service. Specifically, we are calling for a bill that: […]
Letter to the Legislature on the Transportation Funding Bill
April 14, 2021 Dear Senators Hansen, Rodriguez, Coleman, and Gonzales and Representatives Lontine, Garnett, Gonzales-Gutierrez, Valdez, Woodrow, Bacon and Herod: On behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership, I’m writing to ask you to advocate for a transportation funding bill that prioritizes multimodal infrastructure and service. Specifically, we are calling for a bill that: Creates a […]
Letter to the Legislature in Support of the RTD Operations bill
April 2, 2021 Dear Honorable Members of the Colorado State House and Senate, We are writing on behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP) to express our support for H.B. 21-1186 regarding the Regional Transportation District’s operations. The DSP is a coalition of community organizations advocating for people-friendly streets in Denver. On people-friendly […]
Letter to the Legislature in Support of the RTD Operations bill
April 2, 2021 Dear Honorable Members of the Colorado State House and Senate, We are writing on behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP) to express our support for H.B. 21-1186 regarding the Regional Transportation District’s operations. The DSP is a coalition of community organizations advocating for people-friendly streets in Denver. On people-friendly streets, walking, […]
Get on the Bus Transit Justice Forum
On March 25 the Denver Streets Partnership and Mile High Connects hosted Get on the Bus: Denver Transit Justice Forum. We convened thought leaders, transit users, and decision makers to talk about what could be possible for RTD with the potential of new funding from the federal level. We heard from Paolo Solorzano, a Denver […]