
Transportation
The transportation in a community can have a great impact on the quality of life. The ability to transport oneself between locations such as employment, grocery shopping and social activities is a necessity. Explore this page to learn about the transportation in our community.

Report Summary:
Transportation
Transportation for individuals in a community can have a great impact on their quality of life. A core element of modern life is having the ability to leave one’s home and travel to a desired location. Transportation is a necessity for access to essentials like healthcare, employment, grocery shopping, and social activities.
Transportation Summary
Transportation for individuals in a community can have a great impact on their quality of life. A core element of modern life is having the ability to leave one’s home and travel to a desired location. Transportation is a necessity for access to essentials like healthcare, employment, grocery shopping, and social activities.
However, reliance on a personal vehicle restricts the movement of some older people, those under age 16, people with a disability that prevents safe driving, and people who are not able or willing to spend thousands of dollars per year to own and operate a motor vehicle.
Increasing transportation options and connectivity offers a less expensive, healthier, and more enjoyable lifestyle for those who do drive. Everyone, including people who drive as their primary mode of transportation, is a pedestrian at one point or another.
Colorado Springs Transportation
- As of 2020, Colorado’s transportation infrastructure was in mediocre condition, rated C- by the American Society of Civil Engineers. That status was generally in line with the grades of our comparison city’s states, where Texas scored a C, and Idaho scored a C-. Colorado is also in line with the nation’s grade of C-.1
- In 2022, the proportion of miles driven on poor roads by Colorado Springs drivers was 18%, down from 24% in 2015. The 2022 level ranked 4th among 6 peer communities.
- In 2023, Colorado Springs Airport saw 2.35 million passengers, setting a record high for the third consecutive year.
- Colorado Springs commuters lost an average of 53 hours due to traffic in 2022. That ranked 5th among the group of 6 peer cities.
- Colorado Springs is considered the 38th most walkable large city in the United States
- Colorado Springs’ Bike Score® is 45 out of 100 as of August 2024. Scores between 0 and 49 are considered “somewhat bikeable” with minimum bike infrastructure.
- Colorado Springs’ Transit Score® is 19 out of 100 as of August 2024. Scores between 0 and 24 are considered “minimal transit,” though it is possible to get on a bus.
Key Indicators
Transportation options contribute to quality of life in many ways. Indicators address various modes of travel: driving, walking, biking, public transit and air travel. They consider conditions, use, safety and efficiency.
Some aspects of transportation discussed within this section (e.g., air travel) relate to the full Colorado Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area while others are rated/ranked on the basis of the urbanized area of the two-county MSA area.
Click on an indicator to learn more about it! Be sure to use the infographics and additional resources for the full experience.
Air Travel
Air travel describes airport usage and access and is measured by the number of passengers and number of nonstop destinations.
Air travel can play an important role for residents and increases accessibility to the region for tourists. The travel and tourism industry are heavily dependent on quality air service. Local companies also rely on accessible and efficient air travel service in order to maximize productivity and minimize travel time. These factors influence a company’s decision to locate or expand within a particular area.
How are we doing?
In 2020, passenger traffic declined 56%, which was in line with peer-community airports, all of which lost more than half of their 2019 passenger load. While most airports took two years to regain their pre-COVID passenger levels, Colorado Springs bounced back to set a record high in 2021.
Comparative data for Colorado Springs is challenging because of the dominance of the regional hub, Denver International Airport (DIA), which is only 90 miles away. Albuquerque and Boise provide the best comps of what Colorado Springs could be with no draw-off from Denver. Colorado Springs’ 2023 passenger load was 3.1 passengers per metro-area resident, which was 53% of Boise’s 5.7 passengers per capita and 54% of Albuquerque’s 5.6 passengers per capita.2
Potential Steps
Continued investment into Colorado Springs will allow it to continue growing air service through several developmental improvements: airport access via public transit and rideshare services, additional roadway access, and air service development.
Road Conditions
The condition of roadways is linked to the overall assessment of transportation in an area. The maintenance, or lack thereof, impacts commuters in the form of time to navigate damaged roads as well as monetarily if the adverse conditions inflict damage to the vehicle.
The Federal Highway Administration tracks the proportion of miles driven on substandard pavement within urbanized areas. Pavement conditions are not only associated with vehicle maintenance costs and insurance claim costs, but also road maintenance costs, which increase dramatically as pavement conditions deteriorate.
How are we doing?
COVID-19 impacted congestion in a positive way. As numerous professions found that remote working (tele-working) is a viable tool to reduce overhead and improve employee productivity and morale. In 2015, Colorado Springs voters passed road-improvement tax initiative 2C. In 2019, voters extended it through 2025, and in 2024 they extended it through 2035. From 2015 to 2019, the proportion of miles driven on poor roads by Colorado Springs drivers decreased from 24% to 17%. After an increase due to COVID-related changes in driving patterns (fewer miles driven, especially on major arterial roads),3 the proportion of miles driven on poor roads in Colorado Springs in 2022 was 18%, which ranked 4th among 6 peer communities. A 2024 report by the non-profit organization TRIP estimated the average annual cost of deteriorating roads to be $816 per Colorado driver. 4
Potential Actions
Colorado Springs has seen clear benefits through road-improvement initiative 2C. With the recent extension of 2C to 2035, Colorado Springs will be able to continue communication of the net savings and other benefits of this road-improvement tax initiative.
3 Federal Highway Administration
Traffic Congestion
Congestion data looks at the subgroup of the population that commutes to work during the heaviest-volume hours of the day.
A region’s roadway network can be judged on its overall condition and efficiency in moving people and goods.
5 Texas A&M Traffic Institute methodology
How are we doing?
Over the five-year period of 2017-2022, Colorado Springs experienced a 23% increase in hours lost due to congestion and a 33% increase in costs—the largest increases among the group of peer cities.
Colorado Springs commuters lost an average of 53 hours in 2022, which ranked 5th of 6 peer cities. The loss of time, fuel and repairs due to congestion cost Colorado Springs commuters an average of $1,101 in 2022.5
Traffic Safety
There are numerous metrics that may be considered when evaluating how safe travel is in an area. One acceptable metric for transportation safety evaluation is the fatality rate related to vehicle use, normalized per 100,000 people of population. This data is tracked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for states, counties, and urban centers (medium to large cities).
Understanding the nature and magnitude of daily trips should be used as an aid in understanding the fatality rate of these cities. If average commuter trips are several miles away, there is a greater time exposure and speed exposure for these individuals as compared to a city in which average daily commute times are short and or utilize arterial roadways to complete trips. Different transportation facility types and facilities available can dictate driver use and speeds.
6 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
How are we doing?
The number of fatalities from traffic accidents in Colorado Springs in 2022 was 82, which corresponds to 10.7 fatalities per 100,000 residents. That was about 10% less than the national average of 11.8. Among peer communities, Colorado Springs ranked 3rd of 6 in 2022.6
Potential Steps
Having created a community-wide traffic safety steering committee,7 the Colorado Springs Police Department has identified four elements of its strategy to improve traffic safety:
- Use data-driven enforcement strategies to reduce dangerous driving behaviors.
- Explore the feasibility of expanding the use of red-light cameras in additional crash-prone locations.
- Educate the community and visitors in preventing dangerous driving behavior through public messaging, collaboration with community organizations, and targeted educational efforts.
- Collaborate with Traffic Engineering in implementing safe-design measures.8
Walkability
Walkability measures access in terms of walking time to various amenities using a score of 1 to 100, as provided by commercial information service Walk Score®. Walk Score® attempts to quantify two elements: distance to 7 various kinds of amenities (groceries, dining/drinking, shopping, errands, parks, schools, and culture/entertainment) and pedestrian friendliness. Pedestrian friendliness is calculated from population density and road metrics including block length and intersection data.
9 Walk Score®
People who are suddenly no longer able to drive but who live in an auto-dependent part of the community are often cut off from the life of the community. Not being able to leave one’s home and transport oneself can be very isolating and borderline dangerous. On the other hand, providing options for people to get to their destinations by public transit, by bike, or on foot offers independence and autonomy to people who cannot drive, and a less expensive, healthier, sometimes more fun transport to people who do drive.
How are we doing?
Colorado Springs’ Walk Score® is 36 out of 100 as of August 2024. Scores between 25 and 49 are considered “car dependent,” with most errands requiring a car. Colorado Springs is considered the 38th most walkable large city in the United States and ranks 6th of 6 peer cities for walkability. However, a little improvement would go a long way—improving by 7 points would improve the ranking to 2nd. Of the peer communities, Boulder’s score was the highest at 56. Ten Colorado Springs neighborhoods rate above-average (over 50) for both walkability and bikeability. They include Shooks Run, Downtown, Knob Hill, Westside, Ivywild, Old Colorado City, North End, Venetian Village, Divine Redeemer, and Stratton Meadows. Fort Carson and the United States Air Force Academy are both excluded from Walk Score®’s urbanized area. USAFA and Fort Carson each maintains more than 30 miles of trails.10
Potential Steps
Colorado Springs could improve its walkability score by replacing sidewalks, improving safety at intersections, adding more opportunities to cross large arterial roadways safely, and incorporating more mixed-use development. As these changes and improvements are made, Colorado Springs could use Walk Score’s® predictive analysis tool to simulate score improvement to determine impact.
Bicycling
Bikeability measures consider how good an area is for biking on a scale of 0 to 100 using Bike Score®, which considers bike infrastructure (lanes, trails), terrain, route connectivity, proximity to services, and the number of bike commuters. Bike Score® measures the bikeability of an address (aggregated to neighborhood and community levels) based on the available bike infrastructure, the hills, distance to destinations, connectivity, and the bicycle commute share.
The score reflects a preference for bike paths over bike lanes, and both over shared infrastructure. It calculates hilliness based on the steepest grade close to the address and uses distance to amenities by modifying the Walk Score® data. It recently included the commute mode share from the U.S. Census to reflect social and cultural influences on bikeability.
Providing ways for people to walk and bike for transportation gives them easy, low-cost ways to incorporate activity into their lives.
11 Walk Score®
How are we doing?
Colorado Springs’ Bike Score® is 45 out of 100 as of August 2024. Scores between 0 and 49 are considered “somewhat bikeable” with minimum bike infrastructure. Colorado Springs ranks 6th of 6 peer communities for bikeability. Boulder had the highest Bike Score at 86. Colorado Springs’ Bike Score® has improved by 3 points since 2018.9
Potential Steps
Colorado Springs city council approved the 2018 Colorado Springs Bike Master Plan to improve bicycling culture, policy, and infrastructure in the city. Recommended steps include the projects in “Bicycle Priority Areas” to improve intersections, increase opportunities to cross large arterials safely, and increase connectivity with rapid transit, businesses, and recreation areas.12
Transit
Transit Score® is an indicator of access of a city’s transit system—that is, usefulness of the transit routes. Transit usefulness measures how well an area is served through public transit on a scale of 0 to 100 using Transit Score®, which considers distance to stops, route frequency, and service mode (e.g., bus, train). Transit Score® measures the usefulness of nearby routes to a given address (and is aggregated to the community level).
This includes data about the distance to the nearest stop on the route, the frequency of a route, and the type of route (with preference given to rail routes over ferries, cable cars, etc., and the least preference given to buses). This is based on GTFS, the General Transit Feed Specification, an open-source method for transit operators to share their data (both static and live) with software developers of all kinds.
Reliance on personal vehicle transportation restricts the movement of some older people, those under age 16, people with a disability that prevents safe driving, and people who are not able or willing to spend thousands of dollars per year to own and operate a motor vehicle. Safe and convenient ways to get by foot or bike to a bus stop can help expand the footprint of transit service in a community. Similarly, being able to take a bus for a portion of a trip can expand where in the city someone can travel through active transportation.
13 Federal Transit Administration
How are we doing?
Colorado Springs’ Transit® Score is 19 out of 100 as of August 2024. Scores between 0 and 24 are considered “minimal transit,” though it is possible to get on a bus. Colorado Springs ranks 6th of 6 peer communities for transit. Among peer cities, Boulder had the highest Transit Score® of 47.14
A key secondary measure is the volume of transit service available to the urban population. Colorado Springs’ vehicle hours per capita was .31 (18.6 minutes) in 2022, placing it 4th of 5 peer communities, though nearly tied with third-ranked Fort Collins. Available bus service in Colorado Springs has grown faster than the population. Per capita vehicle hours increased every year from 2013 to 2019, growing by 43%, and in 2022 seat availability returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. Ridership continues to lag, however. More than 2.2 million trips were made on Mountain Metro buses in 2022, which is two-thirds of the number of 2019 trip segments.15
Potential Steps
In March 2023 the City of Colorado Springs published the ConnectCOS transportation draft plan. With a needs-based, data-informed approach, the plan articulates priority policies and actions to improve capacity, efficiency, and safety.
The plan continues to emphasize services and infrastructure in priority corridors, along with the integration of bus service with micro-mobility services, shared scooters and bikes, that can make use of the city’s 250 miles of urban trails. It also encourages collaborative planning with regional transportation groups such as the Front Range Passenger Rail District.
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Behind the Scenes
Sources
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References
1 American Society of Engineers, 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, https://infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2021-IRC-Executive-Summary-1.pdf; 2020 Colorado Infrastructure Report Card, https://infrastructurereportcard.org/state-item/colorado-infrastructure/; 2018 Idaho Infrastructure Report Card, https://infrastructurereportcard.org/state-item/idaho/; 2021 Texas Infrastructure Report Card, https://infrastructurereportcard.org/state-item/texas/, all accessed Oct. 31, 2024.
2 Bureau of Transportation Statistics T-100 Market data: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Data_Elements.aspx?Data=3;
MSA population data for 2020-2023 from U.S. Census Bureau (2023 Vintage), https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2020-2023/metro/totals/cbsa-est2023-alldata.csv; prior years’ data from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2010-2020/metro/totals/cbsa-est2020.csv, both accessed May 25, 2024.
3 Federal Highway Administration, Table HM74, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2022/hm74.cfm, accessed Oct. 30, 2024. No data was published for 2021.
4 TRIP, “Key Facts about Colorado’s Surface Transportation System and Federal Funding,” https://tripnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TRIP_Fact_Sheet_CO.pdf, May 7, 2024, from https://tripnet.org/research-news/?states=colorado, accessed Oct. 31, 2024.
5 Texas A&M Traffic Institute Mobility Division, 2023 Urban Mobility Report; Data: https://tti.tamu.edu/documents/umr/congestion-data/complete-data-2023-umr-by-tti.xlsx, from https://mobility.tamu.edu/umr/report/ and https://mobility.tamu.edu/umr/data-and-trends/; Methodology: https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility-report-2023-appx-a.pdf. All accessed Oct. 31, 2024.
6 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality and Injury Reporting System Tool, https://cdan.dot.gov/query, query settings: Person Injury Type: Fatal, State and County (MSA counties), Years: 2016-2022; accessed Nov. 1, 2024.
7 City of Colorado Springs, 2024 budget; Police chapter, p. 418, https://coloradosprings.gov/system/files/2024-03/2024fbudget-21-01-police.pdf, accessed Nov. 4, 2024.
8 Colorado Springs Police Department Strategic Plan 2023-2025, p.2, https://coloradosprings.gov/document/strategic-plan-2023-2025.pdf, accessed Nov. 4, 2024.
9 Walk Score® for Colorado Springs and peer cities—Albuquerque: https://www.walkscore.com/NM/Albuquerque; Austin: https://www.walkscore.com/TX/Austin; Boise: https://www.walkscore.com/ID/Boise; Boulder: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Boulder; Colorado Springs: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Colorado_Springs; Fort Collins: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Fort_Collins; Methodology: https://www.walkscore.com/methodology.shtml, all accessed Nov. 4, 2024.
10 United States Air Force Academy trails include those on its main campus and at Farish Recreation Area, https://www.usafa.edu/visitors/hiking-and-biking-trails/; Fort Carson trails: Connell, Anissa. “DPW upgrades Iron Horse Park running trail,” U.S. Army, Garrison Public Affairs Office, August 23, 2023, https://www.army.mil/article/269329/dpw_upgrades_iron_horse_park_running_trail, both accessed Nov. 3, 2024.
11 Walk Score®, Bike Score for Colorado Springs and peer cities—Albuquerque: https://www.walkscore.com/NM/Albuquerque; Austin: https://www.walkscore.com/TX/Austin; Boise: https://www.walkscore.com/ID/Boise; Boulder: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Boulder; Colorado Springs: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Colorado_Springs; Fort Collins: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Fort_Collins; Methodology: https://www.walkscore.com/methodology.shtml , all accessed Nov. 4, 2024.
12 City of Colorado Springs, 2018 Colorado Springs Bike Master Plan, Dec. 2017, https://coloradosprings.gov/document/coloradospringsdraftbikeplanfinal.pdf, accessed Nov. 4, 2024.
13 Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database 2015-2022 Annual Agency Profiles; queried from https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/transit-agency-profiles, accessed Aug. 27, 2024.
14 Walk Score®, Transit Score for Colorado Springs and peer cities—Albuquerque: https://www.walkscore.com/NM/Albuquerque; Austin: https://www.walkscore.com/TX/Austin; Boise: https://www.walkscore.com/ID/Boise; Boulder: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Boulder; Colorado Springs: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Colorado_Springs; Fort Collins: https://www.walkscore.com/CO/Fort_Collins; Methodology: https://www.walkscore.com/methodology.shtml, all accessed Nov. 4, 2024.
15 Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database 2015-2022 Annual Agency Profiles; queried from https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/transit-agency-profiles, accessed Aug. 27, 2024. Per-capita figures are based on U.S. Census Bureau estimates of each market’s urbanized population. Boulder-specific data was unavailable, as its bus service is provided by Denver’s Regional Transportation District.
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