The Summit County government is working on a new program in an effort to get hikers to ditch their cars and use the Summit Stage to access popular trailheads.

Dubbed the Transit to Trails program, the marketing effort is still in its early stages. During a Summit Board of County Commissioners work session meeting on Tuesday, May 3, Assistant County Manager Bentley Henderson updated the board on its progress.

Allison Mitchell, resource specialist for the county’s Open Space and Trails Department, said this program got its start last summer. The department worked with the Summit Stage to create maps that showed which stops were close to some of the county’s trailheads. The maps were then posted at various stops around the county.

In total, around 10 Summit Stage stops were identified as being close enough to trailheads that made it convenient for community members to access without their cars. Mitchell said most of these stops are within a quarter of a mile to a trailhead and up to a half-mile at most. Plus, all of these stops are in safe locations where community members can access the trailheads safely. Henderson and Mitchell said some stops were left off out of safety concerns.

Currently, the posters are mounted at some of these stops, and Mitchell said there’s plans to put this information on both the Summit Stage’s website and the Open Space and Trails’ website. There’s also plans to expand the program and add additional stops using various messaging strategies.

“I think it’s a great option, and what I mentioned earlier was the idea of putting this at the Frisco Transit Center and actually push people down there because it can be used as a park-and-ride,” Henderson said. “If you wind up at Gold Hill and you park and you see the sign on the bus stop, you already kind of defeated the purpose, so we’re going to try to funnel people to the Frisco Transit Center.”

Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue suggested that the team partner up with the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Bustang and its new shuttle service, Pegasus, too. Bustang operates seven days a week. One of its routes starts in Denver and passes through Frisco. Pegasus is a new service offered this summer, and it will operate hourly from Denver to Avon. Its service is available Friday afternoons, Saturdays, Sundays and Monday holidays.

Mitchell said that in general, this program is meant to improve the user experience at Summit County’s trailheads.

“It’s just to reduce crowding,” Mitchell said. “I know some of our trailheads are experiencing just a lot of crowding where people are showing up and they don’t get a parking spot, and so they’re either illegally parking or they have to come back at a different time or they’re going to a different trailhead.”

Not only that, but Mitchell said in an email that this new program will improve equitable access to trailheads, especially for those that do not have a car.

The Summit Stage’s summer schedule kicked in on April 17 and will operate as such through Nov. 19. For more information on the Summit Stage’s shedule and routes, visit SummitCountyCo.gov/360/Summer-Schedule.