The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority is currently working on a 20-year master plan for the transportation needs of the region. KDNK’s Mike Lemmer brings us the details.
MIKE LEMMER: The RFTA master plan is designed to address the transportation issues expected to affect the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys over the course of the next 20 years. Here's RFTA Regional Planning Director Hannah Klausman.
HANNAH KLAUSMAN: We're thinking really big for the next 20 years of what RFTA is going to look like in all of our communities. Our service currently is from Aspen to Rifle, and for the master plan, we're studying a little bit beyond that area to understand what our regional communities need and also looking at growth patterns of what we're going to need in the future. So a really large undertaking for RFTA, which is exciting. It touches every aspect of RFTA and obviously most of the communities that we're servicing as well, so that's what we have launched back in June.
LEMMER: The first phase of the master plan is expected to take two years.
KLAUSMAN: There's so many components to this. A lot of forward thinking planning is happening, but our first five months has really been our listening, our discovery phase. So we're in our first phase of the public engagement. We've been doing a lot of fun pop-up engagement sessions in all of our communities. We've had our website and our public survey open as well for the last month or so. The survey is open until November 13th for this first round. So what I always like to remind people is a two-year project is a long time, and we will have multiple rounds of public engagement throughout as we discover and then analyze and take back to the public some of our findings and recommendations to say, "Here's what we found. How does this sit with you? Does this seem right for the next 20 years of RFTA service?"
LEMMER: RFTA has been visiting communities throughout the area while preparing the plan.
KLAUSMAN: And what we're hearing is some, some interesting things and sometimes some surprising things, which is exciting, a lot of focus on ease of using RFTA system, so whether that's getting to your bus stop, utilizing the schedule and the apps that we have. So a lot of ease of use and people making sure that we're providing a service that people find easy to use. Also, some interesting things. I've spoken to a lot of young families out there of, "Why don't you use RFTA?" Or, "What would get you on the bus more?" And, a frequent answer is, "I have two young children, and riding the bus isn't necessarily the easiest thing for me to do." So that's a great thing for RFTA to hear from their community of what are the barriers for you to using the service so that we can analyze it and ask ourselves, "Is this something that we can feasibly provide to make this easier?" And then, a lot of love for our goats that manage our weeds out on the Rio Grande Trail Corridor. A lot of people in the public don't know that that is an amenity that RFTA has, we own and manage a large section of the Rio Grande Trail, so we're also asking about that, not just our buses, but also our other amenities that we have, as our mission is connecting the region through transit and trails. So there's a component there that we're taking time to do some public awareness on as well, that this is RFTA also, and what do you want that to look like as well?
LEMMER: RFTA will be sharing the details of phase one of the plan and discussing the next steps in the process during an open house this week.
KLAUSMAN: It's where we're asking the community that has participated so far to come meet our consultants, and they will be presenting our initial findings and some interesting facts about commute patterns, things of that nature, also what we've heard from the community. So we wanna make sure this is what each of our regional jurisdictions told us. This is what we're hearing from the community, making sure that that sits right and see if we missed anything also. So this is wrapping up our first round of engagement. I always like to remind people, in a two-year project, we have two more phases of engagement, so there are still opportunities to participate even after our survey closes, as we'll be coming back with recommendations and findings that we heard in this first round to confirm with our community, just kind of a gut check of like, "Here's what we heard. Here's where we're going. How does that sit with you?"
LEMMER: The RFTA to master plan open house takes place from 6:00 to 8:00 PM on Thursday on the second floor of the Glenwood Springs Library. RFTA says they want to hear from daily riders, people who never ride, Rio Grande Trail users, seasonal workers, visitors, and everyone in between.
You can also learn more about the plan and take the survey at RFTA-Master-Plan.com.
