Summit County Citizens Voice

The GoI70 web site features links to highway cameras and a feed of real-time messages about travel conditions along the corridor.

Web-based ‘Guess the Mess’ game to draw attention to traffic demand management

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — The I-70 Coalition is taking its social media message to the next level with an interactive game called Guess the Mess.

The goal is to generate more awareness about peak travel times on the corridor, said Tad Kline, director of the coalition’s traffic demand management program.

“We can’t beam you up. But we can tell you that, if you go now, it’ll take you the same amount of time as if you stayed up in the mountains for an extra hour and had dinner,” Kline said.

The exact rules of the game are here on the coalition’s GoI70 web site, but the basic idea is simple: Guess the peak of Sunday’s east-bound traffic and win lift tickets to A-Basin or Copper, gift certificates to the Dillon Dam Brewery or other ski-related prizes.
The web site and especially its message network which helps keep people up to date with current speeds and conditions, as travelers along I-70 post information from their locations.

“Add in your own knowledge of weather, snow conditions and make a guess. In fact, you can guess up to five times. Your last guess before 3 p.m. will be your final and only entry in the contest,” Kline said.

“The season’s biggest traffic jams are still ahead of us,” he added, explaining that, last year, the worst traffic of the winter was on the weekend that corresponds to the upcoming weekend. The year before that, it was one weekend later.

The contest will run every weekend for the next four weeks during some of the busiest weekends of the ski season. Get all the details here.

Technological solutions?

With any significant physical highway improvements still years away, the focus has shifted to managing the traffic within the parameters of the existing corridor.

During a recent meeting with the Summit County commissioners, Colorado Department of Transportation officials said they are continuing to explore technology upgrades on the corridor to help relay traffic information in real time.

With more cameras and sensors linked to variable speed limit signs, traffic managers reckon they can ease traffic congestion, or even prevent some of the worst jams from forming.

Kline said the combination of technology and making sure the information gets to the traveling public is critical. And he pointed out that the improvements CDOT is talking about also cost money, of which there is precious little these days. And he said there is already good information on traffic flows along the corridor. Getting people to act on that information and change their travel times is the real challenge.

Another incremental bit of relief could also come from the State Legislature, where State Sen. Dan Gibbs is pushing a bill that would regulate where and when trucks are allowed to use the passing lane.

Get more Colorado transportation news at Kevin Flynn’s Inside Lane.

About the I-70 Mountain Corridor Coalition

The coalition, a non-profit entity, was formed through an intergovernmental agreement in January 2004 to address transportation issues in the I-70 mountain corridor, and to respond to CDOT’s Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. The local governments involved in the coalition include the counties of Clear Creek, Eagle, Garfield, Grand, Jefferson and Summit, plus the cities and towns of Aspen, Avon, Breckenridge, Dillon, Empire, Fraser, Frisco, Georgetown, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Grand Lake, Idaho Springs, Leadville, Minturn, Silverthorne, Silver Plume, Vail, and Winter Park. Private partners include Powdr-Copper Mountain, Intrawest Corporation and Vail Resorts, Inc.  More information is available here.

Filed under: I-70, Summit County Colorado, transportation Tagged: | Go I-70, I-70, I-70 Coalition, I-70 traffic, Summit County Colorado, Summit County News, traffic, transportation