CB council wants to build on walking, biking and transit

Looking for something big, different and Bold

By Mark Reaman

Making it clear they see an opportunity and want to do something “Bold” when it comes to transportation in and around Crested Butte, the town council on Monday, April 3 officially kicked off the discussion over a future transportation and mobility plan. During its work session, council spent an hour talking about general feelings of direction with transportation (fewer cars and more biking, walking and transit), but no details emerged on exactly where to head. Those will come in a final plan later this year.

Town staff, led by community development director Troy Russ and long-range planner Mel Yemma, outlined the Community Compass template that eventually will be used to compile a plan. Russ made clear that the town was a hub of transportation activity in the North Valley, with 44% of the people who work in Crested Butte living outside its boundaries, and 33% of the people living in town working outside the town. “The plan is intended to focus within the boundaries of Crested Butte but there is a major regional element to transportation,” he said.

Councilmember Chris Haver said he wanted the town to build on what already exists. He noted that, once in town, many people then walk or ride bikes unless there is an express purpose that calls for a vehicle. “We need to collaborate with our neighbors, the towns, the county and Mountain Express,” he said. “Transit service needs to be regular and consistent, especially if there is service to trailheads. And I prefer making it so simple that it doesn’t make sense to jump in your car and drive.”

“I love that the staff pulled out the Compass strategy of ‘de-emphasizing cars and focusing on walking, biking and transit,’” added councilmember Jason MacMillan. “Developing a Crested Butte to Crested Butte South trail will help. We should also maintain and encourage trails into town.”

“I’ve always considered Crested Butte the end-of-the-road destination,” said councilmember Anna Fenerty. “But we need to be conscious that a lot of people move through town. The walking, biking, transit rings true to me as a good goal.”

“I love a life where I don’t have to get in a car on a daily basis,” said councilmember Beth Goldstone. “It’s not always easy. I see a lot of people from CB South that come to town without a bike, so they use their car. It would be bold to pull some resources from different countries where getting on your bike is easier than getting in your car. We have to understand that seasonality is a factor as well. But it would be amazing to see more bikes than cars.”

“I agree that focusing on biking, walking and transit makes for a nicer lifestyle,” said councilmember Mallika Magner.

“Humans don’t like things that are hard and complicated,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “It’s important to provide transit that is so convenient that it is easier than thinking of a place to park a car. It may be expensive, but to be bold it would be worth it. To be reliable and convenient is important. A lot of people in CB South would use a townie if it was convenient. Maybe we need a covered storage area for people’s townies.”

“I would love to see us do something different around transportation,” said mayor Ian Billick. “Transportation sits at the nexus of almost every issue — housing, climate change, economic justice. Getting people out of cars gives people the ability to connect with both people and the outdoors. I would love to see in five or 10 years people saying that Crested Butte is a different beast with this.”

Haver pointed out that while people might not need cars in town, they still need them for things like medical appointments in Montrose or Salida. 

“I don’t have a car and there are ways to get rides to Montrose or Salida,” said Fenerty. “Maybe we need a spot where people can store their cars for the winter.”

MacMillan said being bold and reducing the cars in town would free up spots like the First and Elk parking lot. “That could be used for green space or housing,” he suggested. “We need creative ways to use those spaces. Maybe we need a satellite parking space outside of town. Get people out of the cars before they get to the school.”

“We do a lot of good things but could do better,” said Goldstone.

“A lot of places in Europe have a bike culture that is hard for us to emulate. They didn’t start out with cars,” said Prochaska. “Here, where would the cars go? Can we use remote parking for example on the planned solar farm site?”

Billick wondered if there was a community model somewhere that Crested Butte could emulate.

“European cities were designed for pedestrians but so is Crested Butte,” said Russ. “Crested Butte is the size of a small neighborhood in a city so there are some elements in U.S. cities that could be scalable to Crested Butte. There are thousands of communities in the U.S. that have emphasized pedestrians first.”

Fenerty wanted to make sure that when the town conducted walkability audits that it took into consideration pedestrians of all ability levels, from athletes to children to community elders. She also emphasized that CB was a place with four seasons which changes the pedestrian and biking situation.

Russ said the audits were basically meant to determine if people were visible and if pedestrians could see what they needed while walking.

“Is there any way to make phones stop working once they hit the Four-Way,” joked Billick.

“Well, that’s bold,” responded Russ.

Haver emphasized that he didn’t want taking bold transportation steps to mean just adding more regulations. “It concerns me if being creative and bold simply means ending up with a lot of regulations. I am not looking to just make parking harder.”

“To me, cars will have to be inconvenient,” said Billick. “The question is how. Is it constant long lines to Riverland coming into town? Is it being difficult to park? To get people out of their cars, does it have to be inconvenient?”

“Yes,” responded Russ. 

“Pick your poison,” Billick said to the council.

“My point is let’s not get people from out of town out of their cars simply by force without creative solutions,” said Haver.

“We do need to provide options for biking and transit for people coming into town,” said Russ. “What can we do to make transit a first choice? We have to work with the Mountain Express and RTA.”

“I don’t agree that it always has to be easy,” said Magner, citing the West Maroon Trailhead shuttle bus in Aspen. “No one probably wants to use it, but they do. It works. Convenience and ease shouldn’t be the sole factor for decisions.”

MacMillan said town needed to use creative solutions and regulations hand-in-hand.

Fenerty said the town should be learning from the recent experiments with Elk Avenue and new parking regulations.

“I’ve said it before, but I think we need to look creatively and at funding mechanisms,” emphasized Billick. “We need to look at options. If we can creatively solve the issue, it can eventually save us money.”

“If we can work with our partners to not have people get in their cars, it can work and no one has to pay for a parking space or expensive garage, for example,” said Russ who said data showed a lot of people living in CB South park at the Four-Way in town. “There are technologies that can make our neighbors more transit available.”

“To summarize, the council wants to start looking at and considering bold action for this plan,” said Billick.

“Bold with a capital B,” added Prochaska.