I 70 sucks

[doc]

Fastest drive home today that I can remember. Pretty much 80 everywhere on 70.
It did not suck today.
For all the wrong reasons.

 

[Noodler]

Probably be even faster tomorrow, but there may not be anywhere open to ski. I think the only 2 that haven't made an announcement yet are Copper and LL. Given all the other closures, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[coskigirl]

Probably be even faster tomorrow, but there may not be anywhere open to ski. I think the only 2 that haven't made an announcement yet are Copper and LL. Given all the other closures, I'm not holding my breath.

LL has announced, closed indefinitely.

 

[TexasStout]

LL has announced, closed indefinitely.

Guess my season is over at 20 ski days. Just cancelled my end of March trip and won't bother booking the late April trip.
Without skiing or sports on TV, life is gonna be boring for awhile.☹

 

[pchewn]

These Russian ice racing tires made with self-tapping screws are what is needed on the DIA rental cars:

 

[doc]

Well, I70 does not suck now. For all the wrong reasons.
Traffic at 40 year low, as measured at tunnel.

 

[Monique]

Well, I70 does not suck now. For all the wrong reasons.
Traffic at 40 year low, as measured at tunnel.

Maybe it'll help with climate and smog? Silver lining?

 

[doc]

Small sample size, but Denver air is markedly clearer now.
Won't touch your climate point-too political for the crowd here!

 

[Monique]

Small sample size, but Denver air is markedly clearer now.
Won't touch your climate point-too political for the crowd here!

Yes, sorry! Hmm. I wonder how seasonal forest fires (more accurately, their mitigation) might be impacted by all this.

 

[Core2]

almost a month with no I-70 complaints. This will likely never happen again.

 

[pchewn]

almost a month with no I-70 complaints. This will likely never happen again.

Well, let's hope not .

 

[mikel]

There is complaining. Just not on skiing sites.

https://coloradosun.com/2020/04/17/colorado-drivers-speeding-coronavirus-cannonball-run/

 

[tball]

If resorts are limiting capacity, why is traffic so bad?

View attachment 125318

It's not the weather.

View attachment 125319

Took us 1:30 hrs to go from ABasin to I-70, bumper to bumper all the way. ABasin got some weird overcast in the afternoon and flat light ensued. The open areas in the mountain became pretty much unskiable and everybody decided to leave at the same time.

Yesterday was one of the worst Sunday drives home I've seen without weather.

I don't understand how traffic could be so bad with capacity limits at the ski areas due to COVID. Can anyone help me understand?

Yes, it was almost a powder day (2-5 inches). Yes, there is pent-up demand from the crummy start to the season. But shouldn't reducing the number of people at ski areas reduce the traffic?

We usually wait until traffic subsides to hit the road, and it never did (at least in time to get the kids to bed for school). That usually only happens when there are accidents due to weather, and even then, it's not that often. Yesterday was bad.

The line of cars over Loveland Pass was still there when we finally got to the other side of the tunnel at 8 pm!!!!!

 

[dbostedo]

^^^
Possibly a big shift from people staying at the resorts to people commuting to ski? So even lower capacity actually winds up with more traffic?

 

[Ken_R]

Yesterday was one of the worst Sunday drives home I've seen without weather.

I don't understand how traffic could be so bad with capacity limits at the ski areas due to COVID. Can anyone help me understand?

Yes, it was almost a powder day (2-5 inches). Yes, there is pent-up demand from the crummy start to the season. But shouldn't reducing the number of people at ski areas reduce the traffic?

We usually wait until traffic subsides to hit the road, and it never did (at least in time to get the kids to bed for school). That usually only happens when there are accidents due to weather, and even then, it's not that often. Yesterday was bad.

The line of cars over Loveland Pass was still there when we finally got to the other side of the tunnel at 8 pm!!!!!

View attachment 125409

I have mentioned it in other posts that for capacity reduction to have a huge effect on crowds and traffic it would have to be extreme, specially on weekends. Something no resort will do voluntarily. They rather close I think and save the operating costs.

 

[Blue Streak]

Yesterday was one of the worst Sunday drives home I've seen without weather.

I don't understand how traffic could be so bad with capacity limits at the ski areas due to COVID. Can anyone help me understand?

Yes, it was almost a powder day (2-5 inches). Yes, there is pent-up demand from the crummy start to the season. But shouldn't reducing the number of people at ski areas reduce the traffic?

We usually wait until traffic subsides to hit the road, and it never did (at least in time to get the kids to bed for school). That usually only happens when there are accidents due to weather, and even then, it's not that often. Yesterday was bad.

The line of cars over Loveland Pass was still there when we finally got to the other side of the tunnel at 8 pm!!!!!

View attachment 125409

That’s why I left LL at 2:30.
Made it home in an hour

 

[Rich McP]

That’s why I left LL at 2:30.
Made it home in an hour

That's about the same time we left Breck. It was not an awesome drive home. Most of the slow was done by LL. The drive up to the tunnel suckkkkked.

 

[princo]

I left ABasin around 2:15pm. Drove past LL at 3:45pm (over the pass). Seeing the line of cars from the abasin lift snaking through the mountain at a standstill prior to 2pm left me dumbfounded.

 

[tball]

^^^
Possibly a big shift from people staying at the resorts to people commuting to ski? So even lower capacity actually winds up with more traffic?

Thanks, that seems like a plausible theory. It would be interesting to hear how the visitor/local/front range mix has changed this season.

 

[Prosper]

Some of our group left to drive from Silverthorne to Denver around noon and there was already considerable traffic. We left around 8pm and it was really slow for the last 5 miles before the tunnel. After that it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. Seems like CDOT is metering the tunnel more frequently on the weekends so things are backing up much more before the tunnel rather than after it. Anyone else notice this?