When the 470 loop around the Denver Metro was proposed, the project was to be funded by highway tolls for vehicles utilizing 470. And after the highway project was paid for with these tolls, the city promised to remove the tolls entirely and permanently. Years have passed, the tolls remain and the city is profiting off of the people who live, work and travel on the East side of the 470 loop. While those who live and travel on all other portions of the highway do not pay a toll to utilize the now paid for highway. Even a short 8.6 mile trip from Gartrell Road to I-25 South is $4.05 without an Express Toll account and still $3.25 with Express Toll. That is 3-5 times the cost of the gas an ordinary car uses to make that one way trip alone! Imagine this, twice a day, every day of the week. That is as much as $250 per month in tolls alone, per vehicle! Many of us do not even pay that as a car payment, never less tolls just to use the highway!

I propose that the E470 tolls be removed for passenger cars and other vehicles without trailers under 5 to 10 tons GVW as these vehicles pose no major damage to the roadways. As it is, E470 is under-utilized because of these tolls, while their are few other viable direct East-West routes, including a lack of adequate public transportation, for people living South of E. Iliff Avenue and East of I-25. Thus the majority of people who travel across town are forced to congest the only other East-West roads that reach I-25 directly, such as Arapahoe, that pinch down to as few as 1 lane each direction East of Parker Road and backs up for miles nearly every weekday. (And during an emergency, accident or inclement weather, Arapahoe is highly inadequate for this much traffic.)

The benefit of removing the tolls on E470 would mean far less congestion on these city roads, less stop-and-go traffic, fewer hydrocarbons produced by idling vehicles sitting at traffic lights, faster commute times and it would increase the value of living East of Parker Road and South of I-70 where many new housing and commercial developments are already being built while more are planned.

By lifting the tolls on passenger vehicles, but remaining on larger commercial vehicles which do damage the road surface, the city can still collect an income for maintenance and enhancements of the highway, while citizens and commuters can fully utilize this resource as it should be.

Please sign this petition to stop these tolls and open our roads we have paid to construct for free access for all commuters!