On or Off, Smooth Sailing

New Bus Lane Coming to Aspen’s Main Street

By Mitzi-Jill Rapkin, 5-02-06

In the heart of the winter or summer season it can take a car or bus 45 minutes to get from the center of Aspen to the S-Curves, which mark the exit of town. The traffic in the summer is even worse. And by the way, the center of town to the S-Curves is less than 15 blocks long. (If you can’t envision the S-Curves, think of them as dipsy-doodle turns that are aligned in an ‘S’ shape and usher traffic in and out of Aspen.)

The S-Curves are the topic of more than two decades of votes, debates, community angst and arguments and millions of dollars of public funds to study if they are the best way to enter and exit Aspen and if they should be replaced or not.

In the near future the fate of the S-Curves and the Entrance to Aspen (with capital letters) will be a major topic in the City once again. But that would take an entire website to explain.

In the meantime, small measures are being taken in Aspen to at least alleviate some of the traffic problems. One solution that had its genesis three years ago is finally coming to fruition, with step one happening this week.

Colorado Department of Transportation, the agency responsible for the maintenance of the highway leading into Aspen, began striping Main Street yesterday for a new outbound bus lane.

“It’s a project that’s been in the works for quite a while,” said Lynn Rumbaugh, Transportations Program Manager for the City of Aspen. “We established a task force three years ago to identify improvements to existing alignment of the S-Curves and short term improvements to improve the flow of traffic.”

The citizen-driven task force recommended to Aspen City Council that a separate and dedicated bus lane may not only be faster, but may serve as an incentive to get commuters out of their cars and onto public transportation.

In February the Elected Officials Transportation Commission, a government organization made up of elected officials from around the valley, allocated more than $200,000 to striping Main Street and improving pedestrian crosswalks.

The City and CDOT has spent the last few weeks putting that money to work. Until last month the configuration of Main Street is parallel parking on both outside lanes, then two lanes of traffic flowing in and out of town and a center turning lane. Now the parking has been eliminated to make room for the bus lane. Main Street now has a total of six lanes, two coming in to town, two going out of town, one bus lane and one center turning lane.

If it sounds like a lot for a town of 6,000 residents consider that the peak of traffic during July 4th weekend hit 33,000 cars last year with an average of 31,000 that weekend. July and August typically see 29,000 cars coming and going from Aspen according to John Kruger, Transportation Director for the City. “Now that it’s off season we are seeing about 21,000 cars a day but on average; year-round Aspen has about 24,500 cars entering and leaving each day,” he said.

Because there was no room for a bus lane coming in and leaving town, the statistics paved the decision. “Traffic is worse leaving town,” Rumbaugh said. “This solution was meant to get peak results and the worst of the worst traffic is the traffic leaving town at the end of the day.”

The Roaring Fork Transit Authority, the organization that runs the buses estimates that between 10 and 30 minutes will be shaved off travel times with the new lane.

Kruger is not as optimistic. “No one knows. Computer modeling we did showed a pretty modest time saving.” But he stressed this is not the be-all and end-all of solutions.

“It will be good for a couple of reasons. It is one more enhancement for transit which is key and it shows everyone that Aspen is serious about doing what we can with the current alignment. If you’re on the bus and you pass everyone in their cars gridlocked on Main Street it’s a positive thing and will hopefully keep riders on the bus that might have started driving in the past because of delays. It’s more than travel time although that is where the rubber meets the road. It’s also perception issues and I think it will be a good thing.”

The bus striping is set to be finished on Friday. Buses will begin their trial runs on the lane June 5th.

Between June and Labor Day is essentially a trial period. Data on travel times will be collected and compared to last year’s data. If improvements can be shown the bus lane will likely be a permanent fixture on Aspen’s Main Street.

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