Chautauqua Hop route over for summer

Chautauqua Hop route over for summer
Free ride to park may not return next summer

By Amy Bounds
Monday, August 25, 2008

Sarah Krakoff and her 8-year-old daughter, Lucy Carlson-Krakoff, didn't have to fight Sunday for a scarce parking spot at Chautauqua Park's trailhead, instead taking a bus for a free ride to the popular hiking destination.

They got in that ride, their first on the new "HOP 2 Chautauqua" bus service, just in time. Sunday was the last day of the service for the season -- and possibly the last day for the foreseeable future.

"We wanted to support the bus," Krakoff said. "I know we would use it next summer."

More than 20,000 passengers and almost 200 dogs took free, air conditioned rides to Chautauqua during the service's three-month summer pilot, which started May 10. But there's no guarantee there will be money to keep the Chautauqua route next summer.

Go Boulder, a department of Boulder's city government dedicated to helping people drive less, decided to create a Chautauqua shuttle using reallocated money from the Hop bus, which sees a decrease in riders during the summer when students leave the University of Colorado campus.

The reallocated dollars covered the majority of the Hop 2 Chautauqua's $145,000 cost, but as a result, the regular Hop bus ran slightly less often -- every 15 minutes instead of every 12 minutes during the summer.

Contributing about $32,000 was the Colorado Chautauqua Association, the Colorado Music Festival, the Downtown and University Hill Management Division/Parking Services, the Boulder Convention and Visitor's Bureau and the Boulder History Museum.

Though the service was free, passenger donations also added up to about $2,200.

But Go Boulder TransportationPlanner Cris Jones said increasing fuel costs have created a shortfall in the city's transit budget, prompting the decision to cut the service in 2009.

"It was successful, but it was a premium product," he said. "It was the most logical thing to cut."

He said Go Boulder considered charging for the service, but it determined that it was unlikely enough riders would be willing to pay to cover the costs. With about 20,000 riders, the cost comes out to $7 a person.

Instead of full service, he said, Go Boulder and the other partner organizations plan to look for ways to provide the route "in some fashion next year." One idea is to only provide the route on Chautauqua concert nights, which counted the most ridership this summer.

The bus, operated by Special Transit, ran every 15 minutes between noon and 10 p.m.

The route started downtown at 13th and Pearl streets, headed south on Ninth Street to Chautauqua and then went east on Baseline Road to 27th Way. On concert nights, the route was extended to the Williams Village east parking lot at CU.

Jenny Honeycutt, on a return trip from a Chautauqua hike with a friend visiting from Dublin, said she's taken advantage of the free ride at least 10 times this summer.

"It's easy," she said. "We live close enough that we don't want to drive."

Contact Camera Staff Writer Amy Bounds at 303-473-1341 or boundsa@dailycamera.com.