The new Owens highway.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Colorado governor Bill Owens' promise to widen the I-25 Highway - Column

Now we can have six lanes of gridlock

It's March already, so the honeymoon must be over. Bill Owens has been the governor of Colorado for nearly two months now, and I can't help but make some observations.

To be honest, I'm glad he's the governor since I tired of the last one about 11 years ago. I am also glad that we finally have a real Republican in the state house, since for the last several years we've had an ersatz one. Not that I am a Republican or a Democrat: I'm neither; I'm a journalist. But I appreciate the virtues of an officeholder living up to the label. The previous governor, whose name escapes me at the moment, thank goodness, did almost everything a real Republican would have done, but did it in an insincere Democrat way. He felt our pain, if he happened to be having doughnuts in our doughnut shop, and then let it go. The new governor will act like a real Republican: He won't feel our pain, and will have no remorse and no doughnuts.

And like every true new, young, ready-for-action Republican on the scene, Bill Owens came out slinging the programs. The best, first uttered during the campaign and then hammered home in the first few days in office, had to do with attacking the problem of congestion on the state's highways, most specifically I-25 south from Denver.

This is the kind of campaign promise that sounds terrific, and it's the kind of first state-of-the-state dedication that makes people stand up and take notice. These young, ready-for-action Republicans are good at that. But it is not the kind of program that makes a great deal of sense out of context.

Gov. Bill wants to widen I-25 south from Denver to at least six lanes, and also to add in some light rail. He wants to go right out and attack the problem, and there are many of us stuck on I-25 every day who would, on the surface at least, applaud such action.

But I've got to tell you I've been studying the traffic problems of Colorado for many, many years, and adding new lanes to I-25, and even some light rail, won't do anything but add to the problem. Adding more highway capacity - as has been proven by actual...