For most people, the choice between a $2 taco and an afternoon in traffic is a no-brainer. Which is exactly what the masterminds behind GoI70.com are counting on.
The now completely redesigned highway travel website provides drivers with that easy decision and others like it, offering a number of local deals available during the Sunday afternoon rush on Interstate 70 in an effort to both enhance customer’s experience in Summit County and cut into that weekly traffic jam by drawing drivers off the road.
“I-70 is in high demand only at certain times,” I-70 Mountain Corridor Coalition program manager Margaret Bowes stated in a release on the website upgrade. “GoI70.com offers a travel forecast, travel trips, real-time information resources and more to help visitors plan a delay-free trip to the mountains.”
The website, launched in 2009, now features suggestions for how to avoid traffic jams as well as predicted traffic patterns for any given day or weekend, in addition to the Peak Time Deals, which provide travelers with coupons and specials at local businesses when they stay a little longer in Summit and wait out the congestion.
Twist, for example, offers $2 tacos and drink specials (for passengers only) on Sunday afternoons from 4-6 p.m. Hotel Chateau Chamonix provides a free bottle of wine to guests who stay Sunday nights and mention the GoI70.com advertisement.
The website also promotes carpooling and taking shuttles or vans to the mountains to reduce the volume on the roads.
The site is part of an ongoing and widespread effort to address the significant congestion that builds up on westbound I-70 between Golden and Silverthorne on Friday nights in the peak winter and summer tourism months, and begins to back up as early as 11 a.m. on Sundays in the eastbound direction when mountain visitors all head back toward the Front Range.
The Colorado Department of Transportation is currently working to widen the highway through a four-mile stretch at the Twin Tunnels east of Idaho Springs in the hope of reducing the weekend traffic, but experts agree it is only the first of many steps that need to be taken to address the problem.
A private company, Parsons Corp., has also proposed a rapid transit bus system between Denver and the mountain resort communities and a third tolled express lane, which could cost a driver up to $26 on peak days, to provide the option of a delay-free drive.
CDOT officials are also exploring the possibility of a high-speed rail through the mountain corridor.
Courtesy of the Summit Daily News.
