The Summit Board of County Commissioners met with Breckenridge Town Council on Feb. 27 to discuss the possibility of creating a countywide microtransit system that would provide public transportation to more residential areas throughout the county.

Commissioner Eric Mamula explained to council that this system would try to fill gaps in the transit system through targeting areas that are not currently on any static line.

“Think Peak 7, think Dillon Valley, think Summit Cove, areas that could be served by transit, but it’d be a different kind of component, and potentially on call,” Mamula told council members. 

The county has hired a consultant, Fehr & Peers, which conducted a feasibility study. The study, conducted back in December, said a draft final report for the project could be completed in early March, and talks regarding a request for proposal could also start in March. That could be pushed back depending on how long it takes to gather input from stakeholder groups and given the fact that there are key details that have yet to be solidified.

Commissioner Tamara Pogue said a trip the commissioners went on to Park City, Utah, this summer to check out its microstransit system made them even more keen on the idea and provided an example of how this concept would play out.

Park City’s system works by having people book rides through an app, and there are “microtransit minivans” that can come pick them up anytime between 6:30 a.m. and 12 a.m.

Pogue explained Park City’s system has technology that allows the system to decide what is the most efficient route for that individual to take. 

“If our goal was that no route should take more than 30 minutes to get across the county, there might be incidents where that microtransit ride gives them a ride directly (to their desired location), or where it brings them to a fixed route, depending on whatever parameters we set for that system,” Pogue said.

Breckenridge town manager Shannon Haynes explained that the system in many cases would likely bring someone to a bus stop as opposed to bringing them directly to their desired location.

Pogue said they chose to look into Park City’s system given its similarities to Summit, such as similar starting wages, geography and size. One aspect that impressed her was how many middle schoolers utilized Park City’s system to get back and forth from after-school programs.

Mamula expressed that this was not something he was looking to rush into and asked how the council felt about “taking it slow.” He said some transit board members are eager to get it started, yet an issue is that “there is feeling that the current Summit Stage can’t handle this” and another operator would need to be found. He said this concept folds into a larger discussion about the possibility of creating a regional transit authority where all transit would be controlled and paid for by one authority. 

Mamula said through a feasibility study the consultant identified six or seven nodes in the county where this program could be started, noting consultants said each node could cost around $1.5 million.

He said that recommendations from the Transit Board regarding how many nodes the program could pilot with “is all over the place,” with some people recommending starting with six to seven and others recommending one to two. He favored starting with two locations, suggesting Peak 7 and Summit Cove.

Council members Dick Carleton and Jeffrey Bergeron expressed they felt Peak Seven should be among the first locations included in the system. 

“I think Summit Cove is a no (brainer). … I also think Dillon Valley is no brainer,” Carleton said. “But, I think we stop it there. Doing too much, I think, would be a mistake.”

Pogue said she would love to see the program target the county’s traditional workforce neighborhoods first. 

“I think we know we have disproportionately impacted families in Dillon Valley and Summit Cove, so my preference is that we start there,” Pogue said.