Free the ECO bus!
Eagle County is considering expanding its bus service and eliminating fares.
We think this would be a great help to a lot of Eagle County residents struggling with an ever-increasing cost of living. It’s not that bus fares are so high, but that’s one less cost to deal with, and free buses that go to more parts of the valley might free people of the soaring costs of owning and fueling automobiles.
Free buses, and more of them, will require us, as a community, to pay a little bit higher sales tax, and this seems to be a case where even those of us who don’t ride the bus should be interested in spending a little extra.
Fewer cars on the road is better for the blue skies, fresh mountain air, cold winters and consistent snow we depend on as a resort.
A few thousand more people abandoning their cars in Eagle County isn’t going to reverse climate change, but if it happened in every county in Colorado, every county in the country, that could have global impact. And those whose lifestyle is so tied to the environment should be a part of that.
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More convenient bus service could have wider benefits: fewer drunk drivers on the roads, reliable transportation for workers and perhaps even less traffic as the county grows.
If we are asked for a tax, any ballot question should require the ECO bus system to expand its routes to places like Homestead and Wildridge, include more frequent routes between the downvalley and upvalley towns, run until the bars close and late-night employees get off work, more frequent downvalley trips, and that the agency buy only hybrid or other types of alternative-fuel buses from now on.
Just across the pass in Summit County, the free Summit Stage offers a perfect example for Eagle County to study before jumping into this.
With diesel at $5 a gallon, there are considerable costs involved. That means all the more reason for community buy-in and alternative-fuel equipment in the future.
