Wake up earlier, don’t harp on RFTA
Dear Gail Mason,
When the National Weather Service, NOAA, CDOT, my iPhone weather app and local forecasters are calling for multiple snow storms to wreak havoc on local mountains and roadways from Sunday night through Tuesday; your son may want to plan ahead and leave really, really early for work! (“No excuses for late buses” Aspen Times 10/31/19).
RFTA is a wonderful system and usually quite reliable, but only as good as the drivers who think “traction Law” compliant tires makes them invincible to the sheet of ice coating Highway 82. When one person T-bones the canyon barriers, slides out in the middle of the road or causes a wreck sliding through an intersection; that causes RFTA buses to get backed up. It is out of RFTA’s control. When people don’t get up earlier on those storm days, they get in a hurry and that usually causes accidents.
Now, if RFTA were a train or light rail system, it would be less hindered by poor drivers and slippery road conditions. However, it is a bus system. The busses also have to merge at the roundabout for the one-lane Castle Creek bridge. But you live in Aspen and we would not want to disrupt the “small town charm” by having a four-lane entry and exit to Aspen.
There will be some snowstorms that we will all be late for work regardless what time you leave. That is just the nature of, well, Nature! Or Ullr if you are more into Norse Mythology!
Enjoy the charm and coming winter of Aspen.
John Norman
Carbondale