The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The possibility of a subscription-based vanpool bet­ween South Routt County and Steamboat Springs was well received at a public meeting Tuesday in Oak Creek, and planners are moving forward to price out options for the transit system.

Demonstrated interest in the transit system — coupled with increasing gas prices — is keeping hopes high that ridership would be sufficient for a vanpool to pay for itself in fares, said Routt County Commissioner Diane Mitsch Bush, program manager of the South Routt Transit Needs and Feasibility Study.

“We didn’t have quite the massive turnout we had in March, but it was pretty darn good,” Mitsch Bush said of Tuesday’s meeting. “People brought up a lot of good points.”

In addition to welcomed suggestions, such as making sure that vanpool vehicles will have bike racks, much of the discussion revolved around the “nitty-gritty” details that have yet to be worked out, Mitsch Bush said.

“People were curious about how the vanpool would work, what would happen if you couldn’t make it one day a week and you’ve already subscribed,” she said.

In a phone survey conducted last spring by Col­orado Springs-based LSC Transportation Consultants, 43 percent of respondents indicated they were very likely to use transit for trips between Steamboat Springs and their homes in South Routt. A quarter hoped to hitch a ride at least five times a week, and 37 percent expected they would use transit two to four days a week.

“People are pretty interested in it, saying they’d probably ride it three or four times a week,” said Wendy Gustafson, a member of the project’s working group, as well as the Oak Creek Town Board.

Feedback was positive Tues­day for the idea of offering curbside pickup, rather than designated stops — especially in the winter.

“If you get into your car and you have to drive half a mile to get to the stop, why not just keep going?” Gustafson said.

Attendees at Tuesday night’s meeting also revealed that they are spending $300 to $500 a month on gas — a painful reality that factored into potential fare levels for the vanpool.

The working group for the project is expected to reconvene next month to take a look at the figures and will schedule a public meeting for the fall.

“What we’re going to get next is a very detailed set of vanpool options — specific routes, times, fare levels and vehicles,” Mitsch Bush said. “What we’re hoping for is that we get a self-financing operation.”

Once the cost of the proposed system has been hammered out, varied federal, state and local funding sources will be looked at, as well. Government funding availability probably would push any launch date into the next fiscal year, Gustafson said.

Members of the working group include representatives from the towns of Oak Creek and Yampa, and the communities of Stagecoach and Phippsburg.

“Then, on the other side of the line, we have several very big Steamboat Springs employers,” Mitsch Bush said.

Employers eager for such a service to start running include Yampa Valley Medical Center, Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. and The Industrial Co., better known as TIC. Other members of the working group include stakeholders and transportation providers ranging from Alpine Taxi to Colorado’s 14th Judicial District and the Routt County Council on Aging.