There are few things better than spending a sunny weekend hitting the slopes in Colorado. But, for thousands of people every winter weekend, all that amazing skiing is capped off with a horrific, hours-long traffic jam from Vail to Denver along the I-70 Mountain Corridor. The journey is around 100 miles and should take about 90 minutes. But on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter, it can easily take twice that.
In an attempt to ease the bumper-to-bumper misery, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), is adding a new "Peak Period Shoulder Lane"—AKA an express toll lane—to a 13-mile stretch of I-70 Eastbound between Empire Junction and Idaho Springs.
Dealing with congestion is a national problem. It's a public health hazard and bad for the environment. But cities barely have enough money to keep their roads drivable, let along expand them—and even if they could, there's evidence making roads bigger just makes traffic worse.
High-cost, tolled express lanes like the one Colorado's testing out could be a way to increase revenue and ensure drivers who really need to get through traffic can do so, without dropping billions on highway expansion.
"It's a good idea," says Sam Schwartz, a transportation engineer who famously coined the term "gridlock." "Pricing mechanism is a tool we don't use in transportation enough."
This is one of the most congested parts of I-70 in Colorado, and CDOT says taking the express lane will shave 30 minutes off the total journey when traffic is at its heaviest. But, you say, what will keep the new express lane from getting clogged with skiers? Tolls. Some of the most expensive in the country.
During light traffic, the cost to travel the 13-mile length of the express lane will be around $3. But as traffic gets heavier and more people choose to use the lane, the price will go up and up, changing perhaps as often as every 10 to 15 minutes, up to a maximum of $30, or $2.30 per mile. That's big bucks, but CDOT is emphatic that the lane not get clogged with traffic.
"We can't price it too high, or no one will use the lane," says Amy Ford, spokesperson for CDOT. "But if we price it too low, you'll have stop and go traffic and you've lost the reliability" of the lane. The goal is to always have the lane flowing around 40-45 mph, even if the general purpose lanes are moving at crawling speeds.
Drivers will pay the toll via a transponder or sticker on their car, one that's compatible with a number of other toll roads in Colorado, or through license plate-based billing. CDOT aims to get all drivers into the lane at the start of the 13-mile stretch, but if cars jump in or out of the lane at other points in the journey, they will still pay full price.
CDOT doesn't seem worried about the image of the lane. Dynamic toll lanes aren't new, and Colorado has several more in the works. But some have nicknamed them "Lexus Lanes", with wealthier folks paying to cruise past the hoi polloi stuck in traffic.
The problem with just adding normal lanes, beyond cost, is that eventually they fill up, and the traffic congestion problem continues. For the I-70 Mountain Corridor, CDOT will use tolling to ensure that there is always a lane operating reliably.
"This is about ensuring reliability on the lane with congestion pricing," says Ford. "The market will tell us how high or how low to go." It's not unlike Uber's market-driven (and rage-inducing) surge pricing. There won't be any discounts for car pools (the average occupants per car at peak congestion is 3.2) and any vehicles with more than two axles aren't allowed.
"It's first class travel," says Schwartz. "We have it on planes, it's about time we have it on roads."
I-70 shouldn't really exist. It cuts and slithers through mountain passes and billion-dollar tunnels to get from one side of the Continental Divide to the other. Expansion's out of the question: Adding an express lane in each direction the entire route from Vail to Denver would cost $4 billion, in large part because it would need a third bore at the Eisenhower Tunnel.
CDOT simply doesn't have the money for that, so it's attacking part of the congestion problem with this $72 million, 13-mile express lane. "It's like eating an elephant. We're taking one small bite at a time," Ford says. "We're working to help improve things and we have to come up with some creativity in how we fund these things." It won't end congestion on I-70, but it will help.
CDOT has a $1 billion annual budget, with most of the money coming from the Federal Gas Tax, which hasn't seen an increase in more than 20 years. The plan is to use the revenue from tolling to pay off a $24 million loan CDOT took out to cover the building cost, and then to eventually fund a similar express lane in the westbound direction.
The concept of tolled express lanes isn't new. California has used them for years, and given how cash-strapped state highway agencies are, express toll roads may grow in popularity. Colorado has a number of similar express lane projects in the works around the Denver area. If this particularly expensive version of the idea works, it could encourage other highway departments around the country to follow along.
What's new here is that this is solely focused on tourist traffic, whereas most other dynamic toll lanes are aimed at commuters. But, Schwartz points out, "tourists have tended not to be the ones that will shell out the money." Even if a family of four just spent $1,500 on a ski weekend at Breckenridge, they may not see the urgency in getting home 30 minutes more quickly for $20. "There's far less urgency to get to and from their destination," says Schwartz.
CDOT really has no idea how many people will use the lane, nor what the perfect pricing structure will be. "We don't know if we'll hit the top end or if we'll blow past it," says Ford. "We'll try to guarantee that travel time and actively manage and monitor that traffic." At the moment, the maximum pricing will be $30 per car, but CDOT will have the flexibility to increase that in the future if it becomes necessary.
$30 might seem like a lot, but given the expense of taking the whole family skiing (two-day lift tickets at Vail cost $200 per adult and $138 per child), spending a few Hamiltons to get some extra time on the slopes—or back to Denver to make your flight—might be worth it.
CDOT hopes to have the lane open by Christmas. And if the experiment goes well, you could see "first class" highway travel in your city in the near future.
