{"id":2450554,"date":"2019-10-31T00:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T06:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/city-officials-look-to-aspen-schools-to-help-ease-traffic\/"},"modified":"2019-10-31T11:27:20","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T17:27:20","slug":"city-officials-look-to-aspen-schools-to-help-ease-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/city-officials-look-to-aspen-schools-to-help-ease-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"City officials look to Aspen schools to help ease traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Morning traffic backs up to and from school during a morning snowstorm in Aspen.<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aspen\u2019s elected officials want to curb traffic levels on Maroon Creek and Castle Creek roads and improve flow through the roundabout at the entrance to town, and they are looking to the school district to help parents and students get out of their cars.<\/p>\n

Aspen City Council last week<\/a> discussed a number of issues related to parking and transportation, including traffic associated with the school district, and how students and parents are contributing to the problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the rationale for allowing students to drive?\u201d Councilman Skippy Mesirow asked during the discussion with Mitch Osur, the city\u2019s director of parking.<\/p>\n

The question was initially met with laughter from some in council chambers, but was followed up with a response from Osur.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy philosophy would be if you are a senior you get parking but only if they carpool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The conversation was in the context of a newly elected council learning what the responsibilities are of the city\u2019s parking department as part of a 2020 budget work session<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The parking department monitors the surface lot of the Aspen Recreation Center, which used to be a spot where students would park and walk to campus.<\/p>\n

Students use the Tiehack lot at the base of Buttermilk and across a bridge from the recreation center.<\/p>\n

It remains largely unmonitored by the homeowners association that oversees the lot.<\/p>\n

But it appears students are not the problem; 100 seniors get permits to park. The entire class is 139 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you get parents to stop driving?\u201d said Gary Vavra, the school district\u2019s director of transportation.<\/p>\n

Tom Heald, the district\u2019s interim superintendent of schools, said a traffic count done in 2017 during the spring and fall determined that there was a daily average of 6,961 car trips on Maroon Creek Road.<\/p>\n

Of those, 3,703 cars accessed the school campus on a daily basis \u2014 the majority of which were parents dropping off and picking up their kids, or making multiple trips.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a decades-old problem<\/a>, and has been referred to as \u201cThe Mommy 500\u201d when traffic snarls at the roundabout with commuters during the peak times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a concern since before the roundabout (was built),\u201d Councilwoman Rachel Richards said on Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s always seen as adding to the traffic congestion in the morning and afternoon, and we\u2019re asking, \u2018Is there another way to deal with this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Torre said he wants to solve some traffic flow issues from both valley roads and how cars are managed in the roundabout.<\/p>\n

Council plans on discussing the issue at an upcoming work session, as well as a joint meeting with the school district and board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a shared desire to reduce traffic and CO2 emissions,\u201d Mesirow said this week. \u201cI don\u2019t know the current situation but I want to learn about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heald, who has been in conversations for years on the traffic issue, and has been part of transportation symposiums and task forces, said it\u2019s a tough nut to crack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was an easy solution we would have landed on it,\u201d he said, noting that the district hasn\u2019t gone down the path of limiting students from driving. \u201cWe don\u2019t have control over what\u2019s allowed at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heald said the district planned on piggybacking off of the city\u2019s experimental mobility lab<\/a>, where convenient transit options would have been available for the first and last mile of commuting parents\u2019 trips.<\/p>\n

The $3.2 million lab was abandoned for lack of support, and alternative transit options at the district fell off, as well.<\/p>\n

So far this year, an average of 714 students have ridden the bus daily in the morning and 555 have in the afternoon, according to Heald.<\/p>\n

There are roughly 1,500 students across the district.<\/p>\n

Buses are nearly at capacity, Vavra noted, adding that could be rectified by alternating start times between elementary, middle and high schools.<\/p>\n

Whether that\u2019s feasible is up for district officials to decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a cost to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heald said the district works with the city, and is a recipient of grants to incentivize teachers and faculty to take one of two available staff buses.<\/p>\n

Just under 300 passes are issued to district staff.<\/p>\n

Heald said he and district officials look forward to discussing options and partnerships with the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look at the pressures of getting on and off the campus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Richards said options are out there; she and her colleagues have to dig deep to find them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much money are we putting into transit and are we missing anything?\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a conversation worth having.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morning traffic backs up to and from school during a morning snowstorm in Aspen.Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Aspen\u2019s elected officials want to curb traffic levels on Maroon Creek and Castle Creek roads and improve flow through the roundabout at the entrance to town, and they are looking to the school district to help parents and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 10:43:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450582,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450554\/revisions\/2450582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}