Should RFTA get wild and crazy with bus stations?

ASPEN – At least one member of the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority’s board of directors believes the bus agency ought to get creative when building new bus stations in the valley as part of its expansion plan.

John Wilkinson, a RFTA board member and Snowmass Village councilman, circulated an e-mail among RFTA officials this week that featured a website with creative bus stations from around the world.

There were strawberry-shaped and colored bus stations in Japan. Imagine that in Glenwood Springs.

A London bus station includes swings for riders who get bored waiting for their ride. Would that fly at Aspen’s Rubey Park?

RFTA will build 14 new bus stations at nine sites along the Highway 82 corridor as part of its $50 million expansion called Bus Rapid Transit or BRT. Agency officials are holding public meetings throughout this week to unveil details about the expansion, including bus station locations and design.

RFTA’s favored design is decidedly tamer than those featured at the website circulated by Wilkinson. When asked if he thought RFTA should get more creative with its bus station designs, Wilkinson said: “Until I saw the innovation of some of the designs of the bus stops at that website, I would have said no. But why not have a little whimsical/creativity for our transit system?”

The world’s 15 unusual bus stop can be found online at http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/05/01/15-unusual-and-creative-bus-stops/.

The public can weigh in when RFTA’s traveling road show on the BRT plan stops in Aspen for two meetings Wednesday – from noon to 1 p.m. at the Rio Grande Room of the former Aspen Youth Center and from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Aspen Campus of Colorado Mountain College.

A public meeting will be held in Basalt from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the new library.

The public meetings will conclude in Carbondale with a meeting Monday, Feb. 22, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Carbondale Recreation Center.

scondon@aspentimes.com