A straight shot is the straight answer

There has been a lot of discussion lately regarding the traffic and parking issues in the West End residential areas. And it was recently reported that the Aspen City Council has agreed to fund a traffic study to better understand the issue.

This is absurd. How many traffic studies is the city going to do in order to understand a readily apparent problem? The fact is the Entrance to Aspen, and the availability of parking in Aspen, is totally inadequate. As far as West End traffic is concerned, any solution to reduce traffic there will simply further increase traffic and congestion on Main Street. You don’t need a study to realize that.

Again, the solution is obvious. Aspen needs a better entrance and more parking. And the only place where that is at all feasible is the Marolt space. As I have suggested, putting a two-lane, one-way road into Aspen across Marolt, together with a large parking area, is the only practical solution. It may not be popular, but the alternative is more traffic and congestion on Main Street and in the residential areas.

Eric Simon

Snowmass Village