The Treasure Valley is growing fast. Everyone who lives here knows it, and most people feel it every time they merge onto I-84. But knowing a problem exists and actually doing something about it are two very different things. On the latest episode of the Ever Onward Podcast, host Tommy Ahlquist sat down with Garrett Lofto, CEO and President of Simplot, to talk about exactly that: what the region’s growth means for transportation, and what the business community can do to help.

The conversation is worth your time, whether you commute, run a business, or just care about what this valley looks like 20 years from now.

The Numbers Are Hard to Ignore

In 2018, the Treasure Valley’s population sat at about 688,000. Today it’s blowing past 850,000, with conservative projections putting the region at one million within the next decade. Lofto thinks the real number will be even higher. “I think we’re gonna blow by 1.5 million,” he said. “I just do.”

That kind of growth puts enormous pressure on infrastructure that wasn’t designed to handle it. Ahlquist put it plainly: he recently drove from the state capitol to his office at 2:30 on a Monday afternoon and it took him 45 minutes. No accidents. No incidents. Just traffic. That’s what the new normal looks like, and it’s only going to get more pronounced.

The uncomfortable truth, as Lofto pointed out, is that congestion isn’t just an inconvenience. It affects recruiting, quality of life, and the very thing that made the Treasure Valley attractive in the first place. “My concern is that our employees and community members are spending too much time sitting in traffic as opposed to spending time with their family,” he said.

What Keep Idaho Moving Actually Is

Out of those conversations, an initiative was born. What started a couple of years ago as “Idaho 2040” has been rebranded as Keep Idaho Moving and is now housed under the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce. The rebrand wasn’t cosmetic. “2040 is tomorrow in the transportation world,” Lofto noted, and the name change reflects the urgency the group actually feels.

The initiative is business-led, but it’s not about business interests in a narrow sense. It’s about getting employers, community members, and elected officials aligned around a problem that affects everyone. The Chamber is the right home for it, both because of its existing network of businesses and because of who’s leading it. Bobby Joe Muelman, the Chamber’s CEO, came to the role with deep experience in state government, including work on the governor’s COVID task force. She understands how policy gets made and how to move things through the process. Lofto called her “phenomenal” and said she has every element needed to push this forward.

The Ideas on the Table

Keep Idaho Moving isn’t pushing a single solution. That’s intentional. The group wants to study what’s worked in other places, ask the right questions, and support the experts who do this work every day rather than tell them what to do.

That said, a few ideas have surfaced as worth serious exploration.

The first is a southern alternative route, sometimes called a bypass, that would let freight and through-traffic get around the densest part of the valley without clogging I-84. As Lofto noted, a lot of that traffic isn’t coming to Boise at all. It just needs to get past it.

The second is light rail. It’s expensive and it’s a long-term play, but the Treasure Valley has something going for it that other regions don’t: flat ground. No bays to cross, no mountains to navigate. And when you’re talking about a metro area of 1.5 or 2 million people, the math on rail starts to look very different. Salt Lake City is a nearby example worth studying. Its transit network wasn’t just driven by the Olympics, as many assume. There was a broader, business-supported plan behind it, and the results speak for themselves.

The third reality is simply that I-84 is nearly out of room. According to ITD, there’s enough right-of-way for one more lane, and even that doesn’t move the needle much on capacity. Anyone who thinks widening the freeway is the long-term answer needs to hear that part of the conversation.

Why This Matters Now

One of the most valuable parts of this episode is the discussion around timing. Transportation planning is a long game. Right-of-way acquisition, environmental review, funding, and construction can take decades. The earlier a community starts, the more options it has. Wait too long, and the options disappear entirely, or become so expensive they’re not realistic.

Lofto made the point simply: at Simplot, they have conversations about what the company looks like 50 and 100 years from now. Most of us don’t think that way, but transportation requires it. “The earlier we can plan,” he said, “the more options we get.”

Ahlquist was candid about where the community stands. “We’re probably on our heels. We probably should have been doing this for the last 10 years.” But as Lofto was quick to point out, it’s never too late to start. Getting the business community organized, engaged, and working alongside the planners and elected officials who carry this work every day is a meaningful contribution. And that’s exactly what Keep Idaho Moving is trying to be.

The guests lined up for the rest of this month’s podcast episodes, including the ITD District Three engineer, ACHD’s Brian Head, and Compass’s Craig Rayborn, promise to add a lot of depth to the conversation. Stay tuned.