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Issues Identified
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Transportation, Circulation And Mobility Issues
Issue 1: Transportation and Land Use
Transportation has not been considered a basic utility in all land use decisions. The main components of local transportation infrastructure are roads, transit system (bus), and trails. All three are expensive to build and maintain making it important that they be used efficiently. Traffic counts collected for the 1998 Circulation And Mobility Plan show 5,000 vehicles per day (vpd) on Hwy 40 on either side of town and 30,000 vpd on Hwy 40 in downtown Steamboat.
• How can new development, both infill and annexation areas be designed to create walkable communities and limit trip generation? Are there opportunities to increase mix of residential/commercial uses and/or create more self-sufficient development nodes?
• In addition to the congestion problems on Hwy 40/Lincoln Ave there may be other roads/intersections that are at or near capacity. How will proposed land uses impact these areas, land uses may need to be modified based on road/intersection capacity issues. How can land use planning and road/intersection capacity analysis be coordinated?
• New developments have not always created an efficient interconnected road system (lots of dead ends and cul de sacs). How can this be avoided in future and what are the opportunities to fix past mistakes?
• How can investment in transit infrastructure be maximized through land use approvals?
• Existing trail system is an excellent amenity, however it is mostly used as a recreational resource. Is it possible to increase trail system effectiveness as a transportation alternative? Are their opportunities to create effective trail/transit/shuttle networks?
• How can investments in good land use planning lead to, over the long term, an acceptable increase in congestion?
Ideas that might be worth exploring
• Redevelop Mt. Base area to create pedestrian village atmosphere
• Maximize density/mixed uses within walking distance of existing bus routes
• Place affordable housing near job centers and/or bus routes
• Restrict commercial development to nodes that will reduce local trip generation and be accessible to mass transit.
• Routt County land use patterns need to be reviewed to ensure that trip generation in unincorporated Routt County is not the cause for congestion in Steamboat Springs.
• Development decisions must be subordinated to existing road system, especially Hwy 40 through town.
Issue 2: Local Transportation
We (residents and tourists) want to get the stuff we need and go the places we want to go quickly and easily without sacrificing the unique, human-scale character of the town to the automobile.
• Traffic studies show we are a major cause of the problem; the majority of traffic on the Hwy 40 corridor is locally generated. However most people DON’T realize we are a major cause of the congestion problem. As noted above through traffic, traffic traveling from south of the Stop n Shop to west of Steamboat II accounts for less than 20% of the peak traffic on Lincoln Ave downtown.
• Limited affordable housing in Steamboat Springs contributes to a regional transportation issue as workers from Steamboat seek housing in outlying communities as far away as Yampa and Craig.
• The automobile is by far the most convenient form of transportation for the majority of people. It provides immediate on-demand transportation directly to and from any desired destination on the road network. It is naïve to believe that other modes of transportation; walking, biking, buses will capture a major share of locally generated trips while automobile travel remains much more convenient.
• Without changes in driving habits, we will start negatively impacting the unique character of the town for greater driving convenience.
• Routt County needs to review the 35-acre rural land use pattern that if built-out would overwhelm the transportation corridors.
• Transit is funded on a year-by-year basis out of general operating budgets making long-term transit planning difficult
How can the community emphasize alternatives to the automobile to effectively move people around the Steamboat Springs Area? The Hwy 40 corridor through Steamboat Springs is at or near its capacity to efficiently move automobiles, especially between 3rd and 13th in the summer. This negatively impacts both auto travel time through Steamboat and the downtown pedestrian experience. Major bypass construction alternatives that have been presented are not acceptable to the community due to social/environmental/cultural/fiscal costs. However, limited realignment/reconstruction to help alleviate 3rd and/or 13th street bottlenecks may be acceptable where they do not destroy the sense of community.
Ideas that might be worth exploring
• Limited realignments/reconstruction to ease congestion as long as it respects existing urban structure. Pick preferred options
• Acknowledge that at certain times roads will be congested, there will be some traffic jams. Concentrate efforts on providing alternative modes
• Establish Lincoln Ave shuttles, including east side park and ride. (Although there may be more pressing needs for limited transit dollars see attached comments provided by George Krawzoff, City Transportation Director)
• Provide locals and tourist incentives to use alternative modes of transportation
• Paid parking downtown. Will it ever be a disincentive enough to reduce congestion? How high would you have to put the fees to be a disincentive? With high parking fees would that lead to less economic viability of old town in relation to i.e. Central Park Plaza? Or do we want to make downtown a theme park with all shopping at commercial nodes, which have all the goods, and services needed one on each side of town, Central Park Plaza and the Curve? These are the types of questions that the Community Plan needs to address for the long term.
• Public awareness campaign to get locals to combine their errands so they reduce the number of trips they make through town each day.
• Giving buses priority for traffic lights? Can buses be assigned certain downtown streets while automobiles are limited to local traffic only on the same streets
• Dedicated funding source for transit
Issue 3: Regional Transportation
There are insufficient regional transportation alternatives for both local residents and tourists. Regional in this context means transportation within the local area Yampa, Phippsburg, Stagecoach, Oak Creek, Steamboat Springs, Clark, Steamboat Lake, Milner, Hayden, Craig. The existing Steamboat – Craig bus and the South Routt shuttle service are a good start. Are there additional opportunities for moving people to and from jobs in Steamboat to their homes in outlying areas? Another aspect of this issue is providing transportation service to popular regional recreational areas, Steamboat Lake, Fish Creek Falls, Hot Springs, Rabbit Ears Pass, Flat Tops, etc.
Ideas that might be worth exploring
• Support mountain passenger rail
• Support shuttle service to regional recreational areas
• Rideshare/ van pool programs
• Businesses need to give incentives for employees to use the Stockbridge and East Side (proposed) Park-and-Rides.
• Establish the Lincoln Ave Shuttle with frequent service between the Park-and-Rides.
• Dedicated funding source for transit
Issue 4: Extra-Regional (Destination) Transportation
There are insufficient year round affordable, reliable transportation alternatives (airplanes, trains) from Denver, Grand Junction and the world at large, particularly in the summer. How tourists arrive dictates how they will travel while they are here. This effect is noticeable during ski season; Steamboat achieves its maximum population (residents + tourists) in winter, however, road congestion is significantly less than in the summer because only 19% of winter tourists arrive by car. In winter, direct air service to YVRA and frequent taxi service to DIA provide an affordable convenient transportation to the valley. Once tourists arrive the combination of city buses, taxis, and resort shuttles provide effective enough transportation that the majority of tourists do not rent cars. This model needs to be emphasized in the winter and replicated as much as possible in the summer.
Ideas that might be worth exploring
• Support mountain passenger rail
• Focus City/County efforts on YVRA
• Design the summer tourist marketing strategy to target the destination tourist in order to lessen the use of the automobile.
• •How to get summer tourists out of their cars?
• How to minimize construction traffic at peak summer hours?
Lincoln Avenue Shuttle
Comments from George Krawzoff – City Transportation Director
The Lincoln Avenue shuttle is one of those "obviously" good ideas that has some practical problems. I would be interested in suggestions to solve these as follows:
a) For example, a 16th Street Mall style shuttle in the downtown requires stops at every corner. SST currently has 4 westbound stops and 6 eastbound stops in the 10 downtown blocks. We would need to eliminate some parking in favor of new bus stops and the downtown merchants may object.
b) While the Stockbridge provides the western terminus for a shopper's shuttle, the eastern end poses a problem. It's difficult to identify a place for buses to turn-around while still serving 3rd Street.
c) A bus system's "speed" is determined primarily by the number of stops on route rather than speed between stops. If the buses between the downtown and mountain stop at every block, the trip will take longer and more buses will be required to maintain overall system frequency. If these same buses continue to use their existing stops while new ones are established for the shoppers shuttle, the system becomes confusing.
d) The shopper shuttle buses must be distinctive so that people do not board expecting to get to the ski area.
e) Existing winter schedules provide the every ten-minute frequency through downtown. Summer schedules provide every 20-minute frequency. The shopper's shuttle seems entirely redundant in the winter.
f) The size of bus doesn't influence cost very much. Therefore the shopper's shuttle will cost the same as a bus route anywhere else in town for the same hours and days of operation. Is this the most effective use of transit money?
g) There is no money for any system expansion or, for that matter, to maintain the existing system at current levels.
h) Of the many comments SST receives each year, nobody complains about the lack of a downtown shuttle. This may be one of those obviously great solutions in search of a problem.
i) The lack of connections around the mountain base area may be more critical than the downtown. The real need for a shoppers shuttle may be Ski Time Square-Grand Hotel-Gondola Transit Center-Chadwick.
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