yo! just some thoughts on the next ski season

[tjdrys]

some friends and I are trying to launch a forum based on the same software as this site for the I70 mountain corridor. we are looking for advice, thoughts, knowledge and ideas of course. without change, the traffic in this corridor will grow much beyond the means of the interstate. more lanes will help no one in the long run. our first contact was made with an individual belonging to the Colorado Environmental Coalition. they are demanding a high speed rail alternative. CDOT has tied that plan up by using spurious data in their PEIS (enviro impact study) and determining it can not work. In the mean time, we just want to get people together to ride in more tightly packed cars. Gas prices suck, the air, water and soil are being degraded at phenomenal rates and the CDOT is only interested in their own budget increasing. Help us if you are willing. Thanks for any thoughts. i70carpool.com

[sj]

Lobby the Resorts to provide Buses. Nominal fees to ride. Come up with and provide a Buisness plan for them. And while you're at it come up with an alternate plan using bio deisel as The Town of Breckinridge does in their public Buses.

lobby the resorts and surrounding towns to embrace the Front ranger instead of Dislike them. Lodging packages would get people out spending.

Try to get a consortium of resturants in the Corridor to offer incentives between 5 and 7 this could be win win. sj

[tellutwurp]

sj has all good ideas, but if it wasn't for a bunch of timid, inattentive or reckless drivers things wouldn't be so congested. I just love how I have to slow to 10mph because there is a slight bend in the road or because people don't know how to merge correctly.

Other than that a balance will be reached, making improvements to road conditions just makes the lift lines longer and adds some more gates to the human slalom.

[tjdrys]

so, if the world is constantly balancing, wont it go like this:

1. more lanes

2. more skiers

3. more efficient/larger resorts?

is ride sharing not an effective alternative to the average 100,000 vehicles for the 170,000 ski visits per weekend day? couldnt an increase of .8 passengers per vehicle, to somewhere closer to 2.5 passengers per car reduce enough traffic to feel some effects?
i hate having to be a weekend warrior. it is my only option as a 9-5 cog in the machine. last season was it for me. i fell in love with cameron and stopped being willing to fight the traffic. i still love the resorts, its just impossible to have a great saturday. the ride share site we created offers a section for backcountry enthusiasts, weekend warriors, weekday enthusiasts, everyone. come join us.

jordan - i70carpool.com

[tboner]

here's a thought... what if the resorts wouldn't let people use there parking strucutres/lots unless there was more than one person per vehicle? a place like A-basin could get away with this.

[tjdrys]

sounds like a real good idea to me. but if it meant losing any money, I am guessing no resort could justify the extra effort in not allowing single passenger vehicles. thanks for the all the ideas!

[jennifer]

tboner, please,,,,, I live 7 miles from Winter Park resort and work 2 miles from the resort. If they ever stop me from parking there because I don't have a passenger, I will be real pissed. How would you like it if you couldn't drive to the grocery store unless there were 2 people in your car?

You can rent a condo for the winter and share expenses with a bunch of friends, so you only drive up once instead of 2 or 3 times in a week. Saves on time and gas and traffic.

[tellutwurp]

A while back vail did have a carpool incentive, something like cars with more than 2 or at least 4 or something got lunch vouchers. It was pretty cool, since you'll end up still spending more ( so the resort doesn't lose), when you might have just ate a cliff bar, and all the other benefits that were mentioned earlier.

[Lurch]

Busing to resorts in the winter would have a great impact.

I have a question though. Why are you focusing on winter traffic only. The traffic on I70 and 285 is at it's worst in the summer.

[tjdrys]

our focus is winter traffic because as fort collins residents, the only trouble i have ever encountered on I70 was ski traffic related. Our forum does have a section where we beg the question: Summer Carpool, Can it work? thanks again.