The Transportation Coalition for the 21st Century has narrowed down its potential recommendations for relieving traffic congestion in the Roaring Fork Valley to two scenarios: congestion pricing or a hybrid plan that would start with a high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane and work toward congestion pricing. Both scenarios include carpooling and public-transit incentives.
“We’re not out to stop driving by any means. We’re out to make it more efficient and effective for everybody,” Chris Breiland, a Fehr & Peers consultant working for the coalition, said at the Nov. 6 coalition meeting.
Reducing the number of single-occupancy vehicles, particularly in the upper valley, has become one of the top priorities for the coalition, a group that includes representatives from local governments, Aspen One, Aspen Chamber Resort Association, the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority and others. Established as a nonprofit, the coalition has been discussing solutions to reduce traffic congestion in the upper Roaring Fork Valley since May. After considering five different scenarios that would inform the group’s recommendations, coalition members on Nov. 6 narrowed them down to two potential plans: peak-hour congestion pricing or a phased approach that would begin with a HOT lane in place of what is now a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) and bus-only lane, but could lead to peak-hour congestion pricing. Each of these scenarios include roadway and bus service improvements. Coalition members hope to reach consensus at what was originally scheduled as their last meeting on Dec. 4, but the group has left open the possibility of meeting a final time in January. Their goal is to prepare an outline of nonbinding recommendations that would be left up to local elected officials to carry forward for approval through the upcoming reevaluation process of the 1998 entrance to Aspen record of decision.
“Both options provide multiple ways to easily access HOT lanes or avoid paying a peak-hour congestion fee,” coalition member and Pitkin County Commissioner Francie Jacober told fellow commissioners Nov. 12 while reporting on the coalition’s latest findings. “For example, a driver could fill out the empty seats in their car by using the carpool app or swinging by the casual carpool stop to pick up riders. Or if you don’t want to drive, you can ride a free RFTA bus, use the carpool app to ride with someone else or catch a ride at a casual carpool stop.”
On Nov. 6, coalition members were supposed to choose between the HOT lane and congestion pricing as its preferred recommendation — the two scenarios they decided Oct. 25 to pursue — but toward the end of the meeting, some members, including Aspen Mayor Rachel Richards, suggested a third option.
“I think that phasing up is what we really need to do,” she said. “I would work with HOT lanes first but have it in the record of decision re-evaluation that, again, if you cross certain thresholds, you will move to more of a congestion-pricing model. I think that’s how you’re going to get a little further because then people can see, well, ‘Does that part even work at all?’”
Turning the HOV and bus lane into a HOT lane
According to Breiland, the existing HOV lane from Basalt to Buttermilk and then the bus-only lane from Buttermilk to the Aspen roundabout would be converted into a HOT lane, meaning that drivers would need to pay a fee if they wanted to use this express lane, unless the vehicle is carrying at least three people. Drivers still have the option to use the other lane for free. The HOT lane would use dynamic pricing, which would fluctuate every five minutes.
“As soon as the traffic starts to slow down, the price starts to creep up. That would mean that that pricing is set so that there is no degradation of speed in the lane,” Breiland said, adding that there would be cameras that can read license plates and/or toll-tag readers so that people wouldn’t have to slow down when entering the HOT lane. The dynamic-pricing feature would ensure that buses wouldn’t be slowed down by too much traffic.
Breiland said HOT lanes don’t necessarily require large overhead signage but would use signs on the side of the road and toll tag readers that look like little solar-powered squares that could be installed on the traffic-light poles.
This system has already been implemented in the Denver region. If approved for the Aspen area, the system could use the same technology and toll transponders that the Colorado Department of Transportation uses there. This includes a switchable transponder that indicates if a driver is sharing their vehicle with two other passengers, meaning they don’t have to pay the fee. The goal is to have automated enforcement, which CDOT has been using since 2023 with roadway surveillance sensors and cameras.
Breiland’s initial estimation set the HOT lane fee at $17.50 from Basalt to Aspen during peak hours and $5 to $6 for most of the rest of the day. This could generate between $5 million and $10 million annually that would help pay for expanded free bus service and ride-sharing incentives. It is estimated that 10% to 15% of total traffic would move to the HOT lane, which would both improve traffic flow on the general lane and on the HOT lane. Breiland said the HOT lane would allow more people to use the right lane than the current HOV- and bus-lane system.
“HOT lanes, when they’re open, they initially reduce traffic congestion for everybody because we’re allowing more cars to use a relatively underutilized lane,“ Breiland said. “However, if there’s continued growth, that general traffic tends to kind of fill back up again.”
The hope is that the HOT lane would improve highway congestion enough for drivers to stop using alternate routes to avoid traffic, such as the McLain Flats-Power Plant Road detour. However, if lanes fill up again and traffic returns to the cut-through routes, Breiland said control points could be set up on those routes to capture the cars transporting fewer than three people in avoidance of Highway 82 and the HOT lane to make them pay a fee.
There had been discussions about beginning the HOT lane farther downvalley, as far as Glenwood Springs’ city limits. However, both highway lanes are currently unrestricted below Basalt and typically are already congested during peak travel times.
“It will definitely be a problem in Glenwood in the afternoon because there will be some people who pay the fee to be in the HOT lane, but the [remaining free-use lane] will be one lane, so it could be even worse than it is now, so we definitely want to work that out with Glenwood,” Jacober told the board of county commissioners.
Peak-hour congestion fee
Another suggested option is congestion pricing, in which every car with fewer than three passengers would need to pay a fee. Breiland said the fee could be charged at Castle Creek Bridge or Brush Creek, for example. The technology would be identical to the HOT lane.
He estimated the fee to be about $12 to $14 during peak hours, which would generate about $10 million to $20 million a year to pay for the incentives. The pricing would be dynamic, going up when congestion builds up. The goal is to keep traffic flowing. The fee will kick in only when traffic speeds fall below a certain level.
During the coalition meeting, several members raised concerns about the difficulties to implement congestion pricing, as it has never been done in Colorado. In the United States, it has been implemented only in New York City and began in January.
Roadway improvements and ride-sharing apps
Both potential plans studied by the transportation coalition contemplate roadway enhancements including roundabout improvements, adaptive traffic signals, dynamic message signs and possible grade separation at intersections.
“The core cause of a lot of the congestion getting into Aspen is that [Buttermilk] lane drop. That is sort of the bulk of the … delay that you can see is how that merge point works in a somewhat unorganized manner,” Breiland said.
For the HOT lane scenario, he said that such a lane would need to continue after Buttermilk and through the Maroon Creek roundabout to make the lane efficient and remove the current bottleneck. Currently, the HOV lane, which is reserved for vehicles with at least two passengers, ends at Buttermilk, turning the right lane into a bus lane. Cars then back up as they merge into a single lane from Buttermilk to the roundabout. The HOT lane would end after the roundabout where the current bus lane ends.
The coalition supports free Roaring Fork Transportation Authority buses and expanding capacity at park-and-ride lots. It also seeks to implement a ride-sharing system to fill the nearly 35,000 empty seats that drive into Aspen everyday through an app overseen by RFTA. Program incentives would be promoted through the app, such as paying drivers who pick up passengers. Additionally, a casual carpooling system would be set up. Anyone could stop by a casual carpool stop at an RFTA bus stop to pick up riders, similar to the hitchhiking stop that used to be on Main Street in Aspen.
Equity concerns
“I prefer [congestion pricing] over [HOT lane], mostly for the equity arguments. Lexus lanes, I mean, in short, that’s my problem with [a HOT lane]. You know, you buy your way out of it,” coalition member and former Aspen Mayor John Bennett said, adding that congestion pricing’s higher revenues would allow for more spending on ride-sharing and transit options.
Richards has expressed concerns about how congestion pricing and the HOT lane would be received by downvalley communities. She has fielded concerns from elected officials from Rifle to Carbondale about what the coalition is doing and how they are doing it. “Their question marks are more like stop signs than question marks,” she said.
Richards said she would prefer valleywide traffic-management implementations. “In 1976 and ’78, Aspen might have been the dog that wagged the tail. The downvalley commuters, the actual highway users, they are the tail now wagging,” she said Nov. 6. “And I understand the time-value sales pitch, but for a lot of people, their time is free. Their $17 isn’t.”
She pointed out at coalition meetings on Nov. 6 and Oct. 23 that Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Carbondale, the Aspen Airport Business Center and Colorado Mountain College all have free parking, which would make Aspen look like the “big bad guy” while the rest of the valley is still encouraging a car culture, she said.
“I don’t really believe HOT is going to work until we have a new bridge,” Jacober said at the coalition meeting. “We’re just moving the Buttermilk pinchpoint to the other side, the inside of the roundabout. So, I don’t have a lot of faith in it. I want to. But I do think that congestion pricing looks really elitist.”
Coalition member Michael Miracle said there are a lot of benefits to the two options. “I think we are underestimating the potential for each of these sort of stick-side-of-the-equation choices to promote and activate the carrot side,” he said. “If either of these solutions incentivizes someone to make the choice to not be in a single-occupancy vehicle and they choose to use the carpooling app, the further they pair up with someone [especially with two people] downvalley, the greater the distance the solution lands on the full length of the valley.”
Miracle said the project leadership team tasked with the reevaluation of the record of decision could study HOT lane and congestion pricing within the reevaluation process and analysis, which involves working with CDOT. “They said HOT lanes, we know how to do, so it’s easy for us to consider them, but I asked and was told that you shouldn’t feel like your group can’t propose congestion pricing,” he said. “There’s an opportunity there to get it further examined and [studied].”
Richards said she wanted to ensure whatever plan goes forward has strong buy-in from downvalley communities, predicting that federal and state highway officials would pay strong attention to comments from those highway users. How potential recommendations will impact downvalley commuters is expected to be a focus of the Dec. 4 meeting as the coalition works to reach a consensus.
“If it’s just an Aspen is forcing this on you, it’s going to be the ugliest thing that this community’s ever seen,” she said.