The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Completion expected in October
As part of the creation of a valley-wide ground transportation plan, the Gunnison Valley RTA recently asked citizens about their most important ground transportation concerns, and solutions they would like to see local governments pursue to solve the problems.
The Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) is about halfway through developing the 2008 Gunnison Valley Transportation Plan, a ground transportation study that will decide when and where things like bus pull-offs, parking lots, pedestrian crossings, and “park and rides” should go in the valley. The study is also examining the need for more public transportation, traffic safety and trail systems, but it does not cover air travel and airlines.
In April, Gunnison County, the city of Gunnison and the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte agreed to split the cost of the $80,000 study and allocated funds in their respective 2008 budgets. The RTA is helping to coordinate the study.
Boulder-based Charlier and Associates, the firm the RTA has hired for the updated study, conducted the last valley-wide transportation study in 1998. “We think the time is right to update the plan. Things are different than they were 10 years ago,” said RTA director Scott Truex.
On Thursday, June 12 representatives from Charlier and the RTA hosted an interactive work session in Crested Butte to get a better feeling of what the public’s main concerns were. A similar meeting was held in Gunnison the previous day.
Participants were asked to list on index cards the traffic and transportation issues most important to them. Some of the key issues included the need for an expanded regional bus service, a specific bus to Crested Butte South, parking problems in the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, traffic and pedestrian safety along Sixth Street, and decreasing traffic along Gothic Road between the two towns.
On a separate card, participants were then asked to note potential solutions for their most pressing traffic issue.
The results varied among the individual issues, but in addition to a show of support for an expanded public bus system, participants also suggested creating an intercept parking lot near the town of Crested Butte, a parking fee structure for heavily used portions of downtown Crested Butte, an on-call subsidized bus for Crested Butte South, and a pedestrian pathway linking Crested Butte South and Crested Butte.
Some participants asked about the possibility of a bypass roadway to divert traffic around the back side of Crested Butte Mountain.
Truex said ideas like a bypass, and a gondola linking the towns, were considered in the 1998 plan. Prior to hiring Charlier, Truex said, the RTA decided to limit the scope of work to projects that could be reasonably accomplished.
Crested Butte building and zoning director Bob Gillie agreed, and said things like a bypass around the mountain were simply unfeasible at the present time, due to land ownership restrictions, costs and the local political climate. “Those are lost opportunities… 10 years ago a bypass might have been considered. Now we’re stuck with lesser solutions. Our quiver is down to one or two arrows,” Gillie said.
The meeting group also discussed that some transportation issues do not have clear-cut solutions. Parking and traffic in Crested Butte was identified as more of an issue during summer months, when the majority of vacationers drive, versus the winter months when many people fly.
Crested Butte Town Council member Skip Berkshire noted that, despite the aesthetics and congestion when Elk Avenue is lined with cars, “It’s not all bad.” Berkshire said people who parked along Elk Avenue were more likely to visit more retailers and restaurants during their time in town.
Town planner John Hess said snow storage “is a critical thing to think about in all aspects of transportation.” He said while summer months came with more traffic, during the winter there are more parking restrictions and Elk Avenue is essentially narrower because people do not park as close to the curbs—which are often piled with snow. Some parking areas that are available in the summer become snow storage areas in winter, he observed.
Charlier transportation consultant Jacob Riger said parking and public transportation are linked, and improvements or restrictions in one area could equally affect the other.
Finally, participants were asked to think of one far-fetched transportation solution. One participant suggested upgrading the new RTA bus service from “ride for free” to “get paid to ride.” Other solutions included creating incentives for riding bikes, such as free tune-ups, or a fleet of electric cars that could be rented for a day’s use.
After the meeting, Riger explained that while the far-fetched transportation solutions may not have a real-world application, they can often lead to creative or new ideas. “It helps us get a read on some of the core values and what’s really important to people in the community,” he said
Riger said his firm hopes to have the plan completed by October. Charlier will also make a presentation of the upcoming travel plan during the RTA’s August 15 meeting (the meeting has been rescheduled from its original August 8 date).
For more information, or to send transportation oriented comments directly to Charlier’s planning team, visit www.RTAplan.org.
