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850 KOA “Bumper2Bumper” Survey

In August of this year, a local radio station, 850 KOA, conducted the “Bumper2Bumper” survey that asked Colorado taxpayers what they thought about their daily commute. The survey covered all aspects of driving:

Time spent in traffic
Road conditions
Number of miles commuted daily
Using the phone while driving
Substance use while driving
And of course … Public transport

I guess no matter where you live, there will always be complaints about how to get around town. Californians certainly fear driving through Los Angeles traffic! I can’t tell you how many times my driving friends talk about people not knowing how to drive in the snow. Both arguments make me sigh in relief, I don’t have to put up with that shit.

There were three aspects of the survey that most people agreed with each other. The first is about driving up the mountains. According to 850 KOA, “84% say they have avoided using I-70 in the mountains on weekends due to traffic problems.” 84% is huge! Another huge number said the roads needed a little loving and caring. Winter sure hits the roads, which doesn’t make it any easier to get to a fun place, like the mountains.

When I moved here from California, I was expecting to do a lot of snowboarding. Every winter until I moved here, my family and I would go to Big Bear, sometimes Mammoth, for a fun day of skiing. We always went to the mountains as a family, so not being able to drive was never a problem. The beautiful mountains here in Colorado were my main motivation for choosing CU Boulder for college. I thought that I would meet a lot of people who liked to ski and that I would go snowboarding every weekend.

The dorm I lived in in the first year was full of introverts like me. After a month in school, the women in my flat finally opened their doors and I got to meet some of them. No one was skiing or interested in learning how to do it. I decided to venture out and find a group of people who were interested in going to the mountains for a fun day of skiing. I did meet a few people, but there were some strong arguments for not going to the mountain every weekend.

First of all, it’s the first year! Nobody has a car on campus! To get to where the good snow is, you need one. Second, when I finally met people who liked to go to the mountains, they liked to skip school on Fridays to avoid traffic. I was Miss Goodie Two Shoes and I never wanted to miss school so I missed my trip there.

I was pretty bummed out by all of that. The traffic to get to Big Bear was also a bummer, so I could see the reasoning behind the i70’s complaints. It seemed that if you made the trip there, you would also mind doing it on a weekend and finding a place to stay. Bankrupt college kids can’t afford a cabin on the weekend. I found that getting to the mountains for a day was more difficult than I had anticipated before moving to Colorado.

Speaking of missing a trip to the mountains, the survey also said that “traffic is affecting our quality of life in Colorado – 44% say they missed a major event due to traffic.” Skiing is not as important as a business meeting or taking a DIA flight, but it is something I enjoy. Unfortunately, my circle of support that helps me with the rides wants nothing to do with the i70 on the weekends during the ski season. Even in summer, traffic can be bad with weekend campers.

If skiers and interns don’t want to deal with the i70, RTD has a bus that goes to Eldora, a local resort 20 miles from Boulder. But there is literally only one bus that runs only from downtown Boulder. Eldora is a big mountain, I went there on a ski trip with the Alumni Association. However, it is very much like Big Bear. There are no local RTD bus routes to get to the big resorts; Breckenridge, Aspen, Arapahoe Basin, etc …

There is a private transportation company, Colorado Mountain Express, that can take you to these major resorts. The shuttle picks up at DIA, the downtown convention center, or in the middle of the mountain on the i70 at Wooly Mammoth Park-n-Ride. Trips to these resorts can cost anywhere from $ 39 to $ 49. But listen to this! According to the survey, “82% said they never use public transportation. Just over 3% said they use transportation once a week or more. More than 2% use transportation every day.”

So there you have it, Colorado is full of complainers! It’s a prank. If we are working together to create less traffic, less pollution and better roads, public transport needs a little facelift. Rather than personally fighting i70 traffic from a car, taking a comfortable bus up into the mountains would definitely motivate more people to use the i70, get up early and spend the whole day exhausting skiing! From always being the passenger and never the driver, I must say that it feels pretty good to take a little nap on the drive home.

I guess the point I’m trying to make goes back to the old saying, “You can’t always have your cake and eat it too.” Owning a car is much easier than dealing with figuring out bus routes. But it could be the same reason you may miss an event or choose to miss an event due to traffic and poor road conditions. The bus is available, the survey has just confirmed that no one uses it.

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