The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Safety is a concern”
Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte have agreed to each pitch in $7,700 to keep the Late Night Taxi service running through next year.
The late night taxi is the Crested Butte Bartender Association’s way of making sure local bar patrons safely make their way home after a night on the town, picking up where the Alpine Express buses leave off around 10 p.m. Last year the service took more than 8,100 people home on 325 nights of service.
In the past, the non-profit bartender’s association has contracted with Alpine Express to operate the taxi, which costs $7 for a ride to Crested Butte South and $5 for a ride anywhere north of that.
The Mt. Crested Butte Town Council has always been supportive of the program, especially since between 80 percent and 90 percent of the riders end up on the mountain. With a driver starting at 10 p.m., Alpine Express has been using a 10-person van with an additional 20-person bus coming out on the busiest nights.
“The driver comes on around 10 at night and stays on until he takes everybody home,” Alpine Express co-owner Stuart Johnson said.
According to Joel Lewis, Talk of the Town owner and president of the Crested Butte Bartender’s Association, the shuttle is sponsored by some 30 businesses and raises funds with an annual golf tournament. In addition to the money raised, the association has received contributions from the towns and Gunnison County.
Last year, the bartender’s association received $3,850 from Crested Butte and the same from Mt. Crested Butte, along with around $2,500 from Gunnison County and $2,000 from the golf tournament. The service also received $7,700 from Mountain Express, which couldn’t find the money in its budget this year.
“It was my understanding … the reason behind the Mountain Express funding as much as they did was that it was more cost effective to support the late-night taxi as opposed to running their buses, paying their drivers,” Lewis said.
The service has an annual budget of around $19,000 and sends a monthly check to Alpine Express for the service that brings the company about $45,000 in revenue, making the nights sitting outside the bars without a single rider easier to take.
“It would be a bad situation if we were just taking people on the town bus, dropping them off at the bus stop at two or three in the morning. Their safety is a concern, so that’s how important the door-to-door service is. From a tourist aspect of it, if I was a tourist and I didn’t have a ride home, I don’t think I would come back and visit,” Lewis said.
Mt. Crested Butte Police Sgt. Nate Stepanik also attended the meeting to speak on behalf of the service, saying it limits the number of DUI stops officers have to make and keeps their time open to deal with other circumstances that come up in the evening.
With all of the evidence in support of the Late Night Taxi, and money sitting available for just such an occasion, the council agreed $7,700 was worth the service.
