Douglas County unveils Doug Glass to spotlight transportation plan, work zones

A playful new face on Douglas County Public Works is meant to do something serious: get drivers to slow down in work zones, accept detours and pay attention to the roads that shape commutes from Parker to Castle Rock, Lone Tree and Highlands Ranch. The county introduced Doug Glass on April 20 as the public-facing character for its 2050 Transportation Plan campaign, using the figure to anchor National Work Zone Awareness Week and push a bigger message about safety, congestion and long-term road building.

County officials are also using the character to pull residents into the planning process. Douglas County is asking the public to choose a nickname for Doug Glass from options including Little Doug, Doug the Do-er and Dug. Voting closes at midnight April 26, and the winner will be announced May 4. The county has framed the campaign as more than a branding exercise, saying it wants a memorable way to explain why road construction, maintenance and staging are part of daily life in a fast-growing county.

The larger pitch is the 2050 Transportation Plan, which Douglas County says will guide transportation investment for the next 25 years. A draft dated October 10, 2025, lays out more than 180 proposed projects and programs and says the county’s work builds on the 2040 Comprehensive Master Plan. The plan’s five goals are a resilient network, service to all users, safety, efficient movement and sustainability.

Douglas County said in October that the draft reflected input from thousands of residents, including two countywide surveys with more than 1,000 combined responses and more than 140 location-specific comments collected through interactive online maps. The stakeholder team also included representatives from the Colorado Department of Transportation, Regional Transportation District, Denver Regional Council of Governments, Douglas County School District, Bicycle Colorado, South Denver Transportation Management Association, Arapahoe/Douglas Works! Workforce Center and local governments across the county.

The campaign lands as the county braces for continued growth. U.S. Census Bureau estimates put Douglas County’s population at 399,396 on July 1, 2025, up 11.6% from the April 1, 2020 estimate base of 357,993. County transportation pages say that growth will require millions of dollars in new infrastructure, on top of maintenance and upgrades funded through the Road and Bridge Fund, the Road Sales & Use Tax Fund and the Transportation Infrastructure Fund. The sales and use tax fund represents 0.40% of the county’s 1.0% sales tax for roads and bridges and was extended by voters in November 2007, effective Jan. 1, 2011.

The county has already pointed to U.S. Highway 85 as one corridor where those pressures are real. On Feb. 9, Douglas County announced $500,000 in federal funding for design work on the widening project between Sedalia and Castle Rock, a stretch the county says still faces safety, capacity and congestion challenges. For drivers, Doug Glass is meant to be a friendly reminder of a harder truth: the road network that keeps Douglas County moving is still being built, widened and repaired one project at a time.