With new Ride Glenwood buses headed to Glenwood Springs in April, city leaders threw every one of their accompanying paint scheme proposals under the bus last week before reluctantly settling on one.
“The current bus design we had was very personalized to Glenwood Springs,” City Councilor Shelley Kaup noted during the Jan. 17 council meeting.
“These seem very generic … It’s got generic mountains on it as opposed to the canyon and river country that identifies us more. So, I am not real thrilled about any of these,” Kaup said of the three proposed paint schemes for the new buses.
According to correspondence between the city’s engineering department and council, the delivery of a new 30-foot CNG-powered transit buses from Gillig bus factory will hit Glenwood roadways this April as part of the Ride Glenwood fleet.
Additionally, the same correspondence explained that Gillig’s graphic designers generated the three potential paint layouts and two logo options for council’s consideration.
“I think option one looks like an upside down ambulance,” Councilor Jonathan Godes expressed, referring to the design ultimately chosen. “Option three, while it’s maybe not reflective of our exact area, it’s at least reflective of a mountain community and has a little bit of flavor to it.
“If we can add some graphics great; I just think of option one, I don’t know if I could design a more bland bus.”
Council had no choice but to approve, at the bare minimum, a base color scheme to meet production deadlines and ultimately selected the aforementioned “upside down ambulance” in a 5-1 vote.
Councilor Rick Voorhees was the lone “no” vote, and Councilor Todd Leahy was not present to vote.
Ultimately, councilors selected option one’s base white paint scheme because it would lend itself best to accommodating future changes and new decals, if desired.
According to City Engineer Terri Partch, all three of the design options would cost the same amount of money.
Ride Glenwood Springs (RGS) serves as the city’s year-round public transit service, operated under contract with the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority. It runs daily from 6:53 a.m. to 7:53 p.m. at 30-minute intervals, according to the city’s website.