Vail council: Transit not best for
I-70
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Scott N. Miller
March 19, 2005
VAIL - It's a menu with nothing particularly good on it.
That was the initial impression of Vail Town Council members following a long
report about the future of Interstate 70.
The report - presented by Gary Suitor of the Northwest Colorado Council of
Governments, a regional lobbying and advocacy group - laid out current options
state officials are pondering to relieve future congestion on the highway.
While the state has a list of ideas, a group of counties and towns along and
near the highway corridor is working to create its own proposal to guide I-70's
future. The council of governments is helping that group.
Getting one proposal from that group will be difficult,
Suitor said. But a two-day session in May will try to do just that. Before that
session, Suitor is out looking for comments to roll into a proposal to the
state.
A small group of Denver-area residents who are members of, or associated with,
the state's Sierra Club, is following Suitor from town to town to lobby for
their favorite option for the highway: very little paving and a focus on
high-tech rail service into the mountains.
State officials have dropped such ideas from the options list, primarily because
of the cost. The current list is dedicated mostly to various kinds of new lanes,
with the transit option limited to buses rolling along I-70 on a guideway, then
driving directly to off-interstate locations such as Breckenridge and Winter
Park.
Vail Town Councilman Greg Moffet said he wasn't impressed with any of the
options.
New paving projects could take as long as 15 years, and those projects could hit
their peak-hour capacities just after they're finished, Moffet noted.
"It's insane to be programming this just to 2025 if
that's the case," he said.
The transit options aren't a lot better, he said.
"I haven't seen any evidence on transit use, but intuitively, it isn't
going to work," Moffet said. That's especially true in the summer, he
added, when people come to the mountains to play in areas away from the
interstate.
If rail is part of the answer, Moffet said, it would be better used to move
freight and cars than just people.
"The airport is becoming more essential," Councilman Dick Cleveland
said. Compared to the interstate fixes, which come with estimated price tags of
about $2 billion and up, Cleveland said putting money into promoting flights in
and out of Eagle would be "chump change."
Mayor Rod Slifer said more highway lanes would increase the
need for parking in Vail, where's there's little room for it. Rail, he added,
isn't worth the money unless the lines go directly to Denver International
Airport.
"Our problem is noise," Moffet said. "Nothing in this touches on
that."
Staff Writer Scott N. Miller can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 613, or smiller@vaildaily.com.