These responses have been edited for clarity.
“I live in Colorado Springs, and I don’t own a car. So, when I need to shop at nearby Costco for groceries, which is 1.5 miles from me, I have three options. 1) I can ride my bike on a 4-lane wide road — without a bike lane — while breathing choking fumes. 2) I can take a half an hour walk and try to only buy as much as I can carry on my own. 3) I can take two buses that are as “fast” as the walk (as long as I make the transfer on time). None of the options alone are safe, comfortable, fast, or allow me to carry a heavy shopping load. Instead, each option is very demotivating — and those are just the barriers I face trying to get groceries!
As a result, instead of going out and interacting with the beautiful city of Colorado Springs, through shopping or attending events, I often end up buying things online and staying home. This startles me. Americans travel to historical cities in Europe for their spacious plazas and cafe-lined streets that are bustling with pedestrians, public transit, and bikes, which make these places so vibrant and visit-worthy.
Yet, here, we fail to ensure that everyone can benefit from good public transit and multimodal options that would make Colorado Springs more interesting, fun, sustainable, and livable. We need state and local leaders to prioritize and fund public and multimodal transportation in the Pikes Peak region to benefit all of us.” – Filip Carnogursky ’23