I 70 sucks

[Bozzenhagen]

It doesn't sound like you've been out driving too much the last week or ten days. It has been slick as deer guts on a door knob out there.

I was out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Today. All commutes from Breckenridge to Loveland/A-Basin.

The spookiest part was the visibility, from both the gusts and my crap wiper blades. My Bosch Icons just arrived today. Not interested in doing yoga moves while driving to align my eyes with the clean part of the windshield.

High end winter tires help a lot.

I've driven in slicker conditions. MDOT (Montana) doesn't do near as good of a job on interstates like CDOT. Most of the front range population would simply die off if they had to drive through Montana.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Does CDOT check tires before or only after the crash? On 80 in CA if there are chains or 4x4 with snows you aren't going without. I do believe the mountain snowflake counts but at least they check. Whether it helps when stuff gets nasty is debatable.

Rarely if ever before. I've never encountered a checkpoint but have heard they have been done.

 

[pchewn]

A writer from "Outside" magazine reviews the I70 traffic problems. She deliberately took I70 at the busiest times on a ski weekend.

See here: I70 Outside Magazine

 

[James]

A writer from "Outside" magazine reviews the I70 traffic problems. She deliberately took I70 at the busiest times on a ski weekend.

See here: I70 Outside Magazine

Good article.

Do people agree with this?-
——-
The “Dino Lots,” nestled where the plains of the Front Range begin to crease into the foothills of the Continental Divide, are a demarcation point for the drive from Denver to the mountains. The rule: pass them by 6 a.m. or suffer.
———-

And ummm…

Not sure what that would look like-
—————
Arapahoe Basin’s sustainability manager Mike Nathan tells me, for example, that the ski area could handle many more visitors if they didn’t come in their cars. (This may not be the case for all I-70 resorts, judging by the length of some lift lines.) A-Basin thus incentivizes carpoolers by allocating them its coveted slopeside “beach” parking lot on weekends, and it rewards Snowstang riders with $89 lift tickets.
——————

 

[jmeb]

Do people agree with this?-
——-
The “Dino Lots,” nestled where the plains of the Front Range begin to crease into the foothills of the Continental Divide, are a demarcation point for the drive from Denver to the mountains. The rule: pass them by 6 a.m. or suffer.
———-

It's generally a good rule of thumb. Adjust up or down based on where in the season you are, and weather (snow in mountains or nice weather in Front Range.) From there it's pretty simple math.

- early December, no new snow. 30-45min later.
- Jan, no new snow: 15 min earlier.
- Feb with 4+ in: 30min earlier
- mid March but it's 60F and sunny in front range all weekend: 15min later.
- April with fresh snow: 15-30min later.
- May: whenever you want.
- June: welcome to summer traffic.

The "base" time for carpool at Dino for our patrol is 5:45 (assuming ~5min load and go).

 

[Jerez]

We heard there was a sinkhole on I70 west. Any info on where? Have to go to Vail for non ski business today.

 

[my07mcx2]

^^ repaired and open

 

[coskigirl]

We heard there was a sinkhole on I70 west. Any info on where? Have to go to Vail for non ski business today.

^^ repaired and open

It was also west of Vail, near Wolcott, so wouldn't have been an issue going from Grand County.

 

[SBrown]

It's generally a good rule of thumb. Adjust up or down based on where in the season you are, and weather (snow in mountains or nice weather in Front Range.) From there it's pretty simple math.

- early December, no new snow. 30-45min later.
- Jan, no new snow: 15 min earlier.
- Feb with 4+ in: 30min earlier
- mid March but it's 60F and sunny in front range all weekend: 15min later.
- April with fresh snow: 15-30min later.
- May: whenever you want.
- June: welcome to summer traffic.

The "base" time for carpool at Dino for our patrol is 5:45 (assuming ~5min load and go).

Yeah, when I was doing this trip, Jan and Feb were the consistently horrible weekends. Yes, March is spring break, but it also means locals are going other places and have kid sports and things still get bad but not as consistently as Jan/Feb, which are the two months that local families really get after it and have few other competing interests.

 

[4aprice]

Yeah, when I was doing this trip, Jan and Feb were the consistently horrible weekends. Yes, March is spring break, but it also means locals are going other places and have kid sports and things still get bad but not as consistently as Jan/Feb, which are the two months that local families really get after it and have few other competing interests.

Waiting to see what it will be like when they really get down to business on Floyd Hill. It will be nice to be already up in Grand County and not have to fight that.

 

[James]

I think the time for $7 gas making a difference has passed. It would help the air though. People will just have electric cars or phevs. Congestion pricing or somehow forced car pooling/bus/shuttle traveling maybe.

 

[COSkier87]

We need to start lobbying the Colorado state legislature to propel I-70 travel into the future.

 

[dbostedo]

A writer from "Outside" magazine reviews the I70 traffic problems. She deliberately took I70 at the busiest times on a ski weekend.

See here: I70 Outside Magazine

Interesting article.

I will say, the part about road improvements just being a temporary solution as they unleash pent up demand resonates with me. I've seen it several times in the Northern Virginia area, which is somewhat known for traffic issues. Adding road capacity works for just a little while, as more people and businesses move into the area since there's good access or light traffic. And that just leads inexorably to the same traffic issues again as the population and traffic grows/moves. So you just keep moving the bottlenecks around basically.

So now that I own a place in Summit County, I'm very selfishly glad there's some "natural" restriction on Denver coming here. But I also think whatever is done to improve the situation with be incremental and likely take a long time.

 

[OSD]

Good article.

Do people agree with this?-
——-
The “Dino Lots,” nestled where the plains of the Front Range begin to crease into the foothills of the Continental Divide, are a demarcation point for the drive from Denver to the mountains. The rule: pass them by 6 a.m. or suffer.
———-

They must. By 6:30 the traffic map shows an angry red line from Floyd Hill to Evergreen that gets longer and angrier for the next few hours and spawns angry red lines through Clear Creek Canyon and other workarounds. I leave my house once the red has retreated to the top of Floyd Hill. The westbound express lane helps too.

 

[COSkier87]

I wonder if expanding lift hours in either direction on the weekends would help spread out traffic a bit, especially for the morning or afternoon only crowds.

7:00AM to 6:00PM

 

[Bozzenhagen]

Summit County is Denver West. Plenty of people justify 3-4k rents in Denver making only 150K.

If they have any snow hobbies, they'll realize they can rent a place up in Summit and work remotely for a lower cost of living.
3-4K rent with a lot less driving is worth it over 3-4K rent in Denver.

I don't think the I-70 is going to be a blocker. Especially not in 5 years.

If I'm going to pay 4K in rent. I'm moving near the 6th borough of NYC, Aspen.

 

[coskigirl]

I wonder if expanding lift hours in either direction on the weekends would help spread out traffic a bit, especially for the morning or afternoon only crowds.

7:00AM to 6:00PM

In the winter that would run into daylight issues. For example in January in Summit County there are days where the sun doesn’t rise until 7:23 and it sets as early as 4:52. Only one mountain has lights and even there it’s a small portion of the mountain. It makes it hard to do safety sweeps and prep work to get things open.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Interesting article.

I will say, the part about road improvements just being a temporary solution as they unleash pent up demand resonates with me. I've seen it several times in the Northern Virginia area, which is somewhat known for traffic issues. Adding road capacity works for just a little while, as more people and businesses move into the area since there's good access or light traffic. And that just leads inexorably to the same traffic issues again as the population and traffic grows/moves. So you just keep moving the bottlenecks around basically.

So now that I own a place in Summit County, I'm very selfishly glad there's some "natural" restriction on Denver coming here. But I also think whatever is done to improve the situation with be incremental and likely take a long time.

You'll notice that I don't comment too much on I-70. Just sayin'

 

[SBrown]

I wonder if expanding lift hours in either direction on the weekends would help spread out traffic a bit, especially for the morning or afternoon only crowds.

7:00AM to 6:00PM

no

 

[SBrown]

Summit County is Denver West. Plenty of people justify 3-4k rents in Denver making only 150K.

If they have any snow hobbies, they'll realize they can rent a place up in Summit and work remotely for a lower cost of living.
3-4K rent with a lot less driving is worth it over 3-4K rent in Denver.

I don't think the I-70 is going to be a blocker. Especially not in 5 years.

If I'm going to pay 4K in rent. I'm moving near the 6th borough of NYC, Aspen.

Not gonna get too close to Aspen with that.