Stick around for the next 25 years and you might be in for a big surprise at the different ways you will be able to travel around metro Denver.

And if it happens, the bigger surprise will be how we found a way to pay for it.

Uncounted billions of dollars in transportation projects are on the drawing boards and in the imaginations of thousands of people who, over the course of years, have helped shape a vision of the region’s future transportation network

. Here’s just a small sampling of what might be ahead:

• Eight lanes on Arapahoe Road, with a freeway-like interchange at Parker Road.
• Exclusive bus lanes to Brighton.
• Light rail into south Jefferson County along Hampden Avenue.
• New lanes on Wadsworth Boulevard from Broomfield to Southwest Plaza, and maybe even a rail line.
• Two-way toll lanes on Interstate 25 north to Fort Collins.
• Bag-check and airline boarding passes at Denver Union Station for flights out of Denver International Airport.
• Separate express bus lanes down the middle of U.S. 36 from Boulder to Denver, with free access to car pools and toll access for solo drivers.
• A trolley line along East Colfax Avenue from the state Capitol to Interstate 225 in Aurora.
• A completed beltway to connect E-470 and Northwest Parkway to C-470.
• Light rail connecting the Littleton line with the T-REX line by way of C-470.
• High-speed rail access to the mountains along Interstate 70 and paralleling the Front Range urban corridor from New Mexico to Wyoming.
• Easy reach by commuter flight from the Denver area to the far reaches of Colorado.

What’s lacking is a way to pay for all of it.

Read the full story at Rocky Mountain Independent.