Colorado faces meager budget in fight against snow recreation traffic

DENVER — “Friends don’t let friends drive I-70.”

The tongue-in-cheek mantra is often uttered by Colorado skiers and snowboarders who frequent resorts far from the crowded mountain corridor, which funnels thousands of vehicles onto two lanes west of Denver every winter weekend.

“It’s nightmarish. Hours and hours in the car. I think the last time I went to Keystone (typically a 90-minute drive from Denver), I spent four hours getting there and five hours getting home,” said Cole Capsalis of Denver. “There was more time in the car than skiing.”

The 28-year-old product manager moved to Denver about six years ago. But his love of ski resorts quickly took a tumble because of horrendous traffic more akin to Los Angeles freeways. So Capsalis ditched resorts for less crowded — albeit more dangerous — remote backcountry snowboarding.

Colorado’s population has increased 53 percent since 1990, while lane miles on the state’s highway system have only increased 2 percent, officials said.

The department’s typical $1.4 billion budget, 70 percent of which goes toward road maintenance, is only slightly bigger than neighboring Utah’s. But Colorado has 6,864 more highway lane miles and 2.4 million more residents.

Unlike Utah, Colorado doesn’t dip into sales tax to fund its transportation budget, and its state gas tax, the 12th lowest in the country, hasn’t been raised since George H.W. Bush’s presidency. High-speed rail could be built through the corridor, but may cost between $11 billion and $32 billion depending on the route and type of train used, according to a 2014 study commissioned by the transportation department.