Opinion | Bowes: Why ski towns can’t afford to ignore transit
Margaret Bowes
On a powder day in most ski towns, the excitement starts long before the first chairlift spins. It very often begins in traffic.
Lines of cars crawl up mountain roads. Parking lots fill before midmorning. Visitors circle for spaces while employees worry about making their shifts on time. What should be a fun day on the slopes or simply getting to work becomes a logistical headache — and increasingly, a threat to the long-term health of resort communities. Next month is Great Outdoors Month, the perfect opportunity to consider how we improve the outdoor experience for everyone who comes to the mountains, whether to work or play.
Ski towns were never designed to handle the sheer volume of people who now flock to them during peak seasons. Expanding roads or carving out more parking isn’t a real solution. Mountain geography is constrained, land is limited and the environmental and financial costs of expanding roads are high. Simply put, we cannot build our way out of congestion.
Transit offers a better path forward — and as demonstrated in Colorado resort communities, it already works.
Systems like the Summit Stage and the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) have shown that frequent, reliable and often free public transportation moves millions of people efficiently between lodging, lifts and town centers. For visitors, it removes the stress of driving and parking. For workers, it provides a lifeline — especially in places where housing costs push employees far from where they work. Colorado’s statewide bus service, Bustang, has proven to be an important linkage to local and regional transit services. It provides West Slope residents with access to medical and other services on the Front Range, and connects visitors year-round to resort communities — folks on the Front Range who want to get to the slopes, hike in the national forest or attend a mountain festival.
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These services aren’t just about convenience for residents or visitors; they’re about survival.
Resort economies depend on delivering a high-quality visitor experience. If getting around becomes frustrating, crowded and unpredictable, visitors will notice — and eventually, they will choose other destinations. Transit isn’t an amenity; it’s part of the product ski towns are selling.
There’s also an environmental reality that can’t be ignored. Ski towns depend on clean air, natural beauty, and reliable winter conditions. Yet transportation emissions from thousands of individual vehicles directly undermine those assets. Investing in transit reduces congestion, lowers emissions and helps preserve the very landscapes that draw people in the first place.
Critics often argue that transit is too expensive in its initial investment. But that argument misses the bigger picture. The true cost lies in doing nothing: more traffic, more pollution, more pressure to develop open land into parking, and a diminished visitor experience. In contrast, well-designed transit systems scale with demand and use space far more efficiently than private vehicles ever could.
Importantly, transit also shapes what these towns become. Without it, resort communities risk turning into sprawling, car-dependent destinations dominated by parking lots and gridlock. With it, they can remain compact, walkable and vibrant — places where the journey from lodge to lift is part of the charm, not the frustration.
There is no single solution to the transportation challenges facing ski towns. But transit must be at the center of any serious strategy. That means sustained investment, thoughtful planning, and a willingness to prioritize buses, shuttles and other shared systems over the convenience of individual cars.
Because in the end, the choice is simple: we can keep sitting in traffic on the way to the mountains and in our beloved ski towns, or we can rethink how we travel.
For communities built around the tourist economy, the answer should be obvious.
Margaret Bowes is the executive director of Colorado Association of Ski Towns. Email her at mbowes@coskitowns.com.
