Colorado & Denver News

by Andrea Lopez
DENVER (CBS4) ― Imagine being able to go back and forth from the Front Range to the mountains without having to drive Interstate 70. There are a few different options being talked about that would allow people to either ride some form of mass transportation or avoid actually driving the interstate.

Reversible Car Pool Lanes

The Colorado Department of Transportation was exploring the idea of using a reversible carpool lane on I-70. A reversible car pool lane looks like this. It's similar to what's in place in Denver. However, it seems to be a dying option, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

"Our challenge with that is that there are already a lot of people riding in cars on the peak days, people are already carpooling," said CDOT Program Engineer Brian Pinkerton. "So giving an advantage to those carpoolers doesn't really pull a lot of people out of the other lanes because so many people are already carpooling. That's one of the challenges with that alternative."

Bus in Guideway

In CDOT's Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, there is a "Bus in Guideway" option there. (see image) It describes the alternative as a system that would consist of a single, 14-foot-wide guideway eastbound from Silverthorne to the west portal of the Eisenhower Tunnel, and a bi-directional 24-foot-wide guideway from the tunnel to C-470. From Silverthorne west, the study said, the bus would be able to continue on in mixed traffic. The system would use guidewheels to provide steering control; the dual-mode buses would use electric power in the guideway and diesel power outside of the guideway. The buses could reach corridor speeds of 70 miles per hour.

"It is in the mix still to look at bus / HOV lanes basically from the Eisenhower tunnel to Floyd Hill," said Pinkerton. "The main bus system that we've considered in the study is to put buses in their own guideway, kind of their own track if you will, and when they get through that they could get off the highway and then on to their destination. It's not an alternative that has generated a whole lot of excitement."

Ken Katt, a private citizen in Denver, has been very vocal about a bus system, however, pushing for something in an elevated guideway that he said could be built in most of the median of Interstate 70.

"I would anticipate that it would be an elevated structure, and it would utilize clean burning, attractively-designed vehicles," said Katt. "What I've suggested is that you use the same concept that United Express uses out of DIA in their planes. In the coach section you have a center aisle with two seats on either side, and it's kind of cramped but you get there quickly and you only have to put up with that for a little while. In the first class section they use an off centered aisle with one seat on one side, and two seats on the other. I've suggested with these buses on the mountain corridor, they should utilize the same concept so that people have a little more breathing room as they travel through the mountains. As people travel on these buses they're going to be traveling through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world -- why not allow them to better enjoy it? Why not utilize curved vistadome windows (see images above to the right)?"

Katt said the beauty of a bus in a guideway system is that it could be built on an incremental basis and expanded as money becomes available. This would be possible because the buses could operate in a guideway or mix into traffic when the guideway ended.

"When you want to implement a transit solution into a corridor and you don't have the money available to pay for the whole thing at once, what you do is you implement a transit solution on an incrementally beneficial basis starting off with bus rapid transit, assisted by short sections of fixed guideway that can continually be added to and eventually converted to use by something more substantial regarding rail whether it be light rail, commuter rail or whatever," said Katt. "I think the key about what I'm talking about is that within two years, and for well less than a billion dollars, we could have the very beginning of a viable transit system in place in the mountain corridor that takes an hour to an hour and a half off a trip-a typical trip back to Denver on a busy Sunday afternoon. As additional money becomes available we could, in fact, add more and more benefit -- either more vehicles or more sections of guideway. We need to address the problems now; we need to be able to get people bypassing some of the congestion."

Alternate Route

U.S. Highway 285 is continually being widened by CDOT. There's currently a widening project going on southwest of Conifer. This could possibly be a less-congested route to get from the Denver area to the mountains going through Fairplay and then into Breckenridge.

"Certainly 285 is a high priority of CDOT and we've been on a widening program on that highway for more than ten years now-a major, major widening program," said Pinkerton.

But Pinkerton said that Interstate 70 is still the preferred route because it's the fastest way to get to the mountains when there isn't congestion.

"In order to make 285 competitive time-wise with I-70, you have to have a pretty direct route from 285 into Summit County such as a tunnel," he said. "The construction costs would be astronomical to try to get a major, new route from 285 into Summit County, so it's a tough solution. And again, the time savings -- well there wouldn't be any time savings."

Faiplay is preparing for an increase in traffic just in case. Mayor Frank Boyce said 285 is being used more frequently and, at times, there is a line of taillights headed back to Denver.

"The town would grow, definitely grow," he said. "I mean right now, we have a hotel going in -- a 52 room hotel going in -- people will be able to stay the night here and we're only about 40 miles from Breckenridge."

Boyce said they're also planning to implement a bus system that would take people to and from Breckenridge. He anticipates that would be used predominately by people who work in Summit County but live in Fairplay. However, it would be open and available to guests staying in town. But the town itself would need some improvements to handle the increase in traffic if 285 is used more frequently by visitors. All three of the schools in the area-the elementary, middle school, and high school-are all adjacent or next to Highway 9 or the town's "main street."

"In the past we've asked them [CDOT] if they would put a stop light there for the kids to cross the highway and they said no," said Boyce. "But at some point something is going to have to be done. We lost a teenager just this last fall, six or eight months ago, on the highway [285] who was hit by a semi. It devastated this community because it's still a small community and everybody knows everybody it's still very painful for people here in town."

CDOT said that US Highway 40 is a great way to get from I-70 into Winter Park, but that it's unlikely people would use it as an alternate route to get into Summit County as they'd have to drive through Fraser, Granby, Kremmling, and then into Silverthorne. That route is predominately two lanes or one in each direction.

"On Highway 40, we just actually just completed, last year, our program of major improvements to get into the Winter Park area," said Pinkerton. "There's just nothing in our long range plan at this point where we would expand this further."

Note: Photo credits for the piece on television as well as this print article go to Bombardier (inside plane seating arrangement photo); Wikipedia (for the O-Bahn Busway photo); and John Simakauskas (for the VistaDome photos).

Additional Resources:

The following are other links Lopez used in the research for this story:

• Example of Bus in Guideway
• Guided Bus Definition
• Road/Rail Vehicle
• Galloping Goose
• World's First Rail-Bus
• Bus Rapid Transit Research

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