Eldora pay to play

[Jong Lafitte]

Holy crap:

https://www.parkeldora.com/

I like how they say "we're listening" -- right. More like, "its done. Eat a dick".

[The SnowShow]

People with an Eldora-only pass park free (in a specific car, you have to register the car with them). Ikon pass holders are screwed. And given how much the Eldora-only pass cost relative to Ikon, many many many locals paid the slight upcharge for Ikon.



Nope. Everyone pays at the kiosk (and presumably, they will have enforcement checking license plates against the info generated by the pay kiosk). When you enter with 3 people, they will give you a code to "pay" at the kiosk.

At least that is my understanding. I saw 2 kiosks at the base area. I am hilariously imagining long lines at the kiosks on a powder day.

Seriously. Kiosks?! Like those ever work in the cold. People are going to be fucking looney waiting in line on a powder day.

[Fritz]

Kinda funny in a holy shit kinda way

[I've seen black diamonds!]

They also have a phone app. But I have no cell service in the lot (Google fi, which uses Sprint, T Mobile and some other networks no one has heard of). .

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[Jong Lafitte]

They also have a phone app. But I have no cell service in the lot (Google fi, which uses Sprint, T Mobile and some other networks no one has heard of). .

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Yeah I imagine you can pre-pay from an area with better coverage. Good luck checkign your email in the lot though, as people use up the pipeline with the app in the lot.

[Headless]

Fuck Eldora, and fuck Alterra for letting it happen. As one of the many folks who usually only goes for a couple hours either very early or very late, I’m completely screwed. I would NOT have bought an Ikon Pass had this policy been made public in advance—that money would have gone to Loveland or A-bay. It’s essentially a $20/day surcharge on Ikon passholders, which looks a hell of a lot like changing the terms after they already have my money. I’m sure the lawyers will say it’s legal, but basic human decency says it’s all kinds of fucked, and after 25 years skiing there, Eldora will never get another penny from me (nor will I be getting an Ikon again, since they seem fine with this bullshit).

Oh, and the next time Eldora wants to try to get FS permission for anything it will be wildly amusing to see the public comments balance. Way to turn your allies into enemies, dipshits.

[GPP33]

Holy crap:

https://www.parkeldora.com/

I like how they say "we're listening" -- right. More like, "its done. Eat a dick".

So it looks like Eldora is contracting the whole parking deal to a 3rd party, who also gets to write tickets. Unless it’s a cop/city parking enforcement writing the tickets I can’t see them having any authority to actually collect on it. They can tow you off of their property but write a ticket that the only way to dispute is through a private company? Seems like a scam. Oh, and $53, $103 if not paid within 10 days. Haha. Can’t wait to hear the fallout from this.

I downloaded the app. They send you a verification code, mine was 666, and of course they want your CC and vehicle info in some totally generic looking app. Not sure I’m comfortable with that. Also looks like you need a code from the area you park so you need to be at the parking lot and hope you have cell service in order to pay. The lines at the kiosks should be entertaining, don’t forget to write down your license plate # or you’ll get to walk back to your car and go to the back of the line.

[wolfelot]

Sheesh you can’t even prepay if you need a code from the area you park?

I wonder how much extra security they will have the first few months. Something may get ugly.

[Jong Lafitte]

New Idea: Tags?

Sell tags/stickers that frequent <3 parkers can buy. Does not address the sleezyness of the whole mid-season money grab, but it does address some concerns for people who planned to go there a lot. Reduces traffic on the cell network and the kiosk, allows you to pre-pay, allows you to ski as much as you want for one (admittedly now higher) price that you can budget for, allows you to park and walk directly to the lift without fucking with a parking kiosk every time you go. Plus, earn revenue from underused tags. Hell, even the lots in Denver have monthly and yearly rates for similar reasons.

The likely answer: too many people would buy into this and then we have the same problem, or it would need to cost like $300 bucks.

[Danno]

I don't think the tag idea works because I don't think it fits with how they will do enforcement. I'm guessing that they will have a car that drives around the lot and scans license plates (like they do, for ex, at RTD lots). If your plate shows up as unpaid, citation. This is why the 3+ cars get a code and still have to go to the kiosk. Prepaid parking would only work if you still had to go to the kiosk. At least that's my guess.

[smmokan]

I can't wait to see how this works the first time they roll it out. Hopefully it's a powder day on the weekend before Christmas.

[GPP33]

Sheesh you can’t even prepay if you need a code from the area you park?

I wonder how much extra security they will have the first few months. Something may get ugly.

A bunch of minimum wage mall cops driving around writing "tickets". I'm sure they'll have a quota too.

Did a little research on private parking tickets and I guess they are looked at as fees you agreed to when you entered the private parking facility. IF they can find out who you are they can get it on your credit record, otherwise you are just at risk of getting towed should they find your car in any of the lots they manage, not just back at Eldora. I wouldn't be surprised to find out all of these companies share info and will tow for each other. In short they are enforceable in that not paying it could result in a huge pain in the ass and significant other fees.

[Danno]

They roll it out Saturday

I'm beginning to think the news media has been bought. No coverage of this in Boulder's paper but there's coverage of a dog that fell in the reservoir

[doebedoe]

Are these lots on NF land or private land? Does the NFS give a shit about this - or do they at least get a cut?

[Jong Lafitte]

I don't think the tag idea works because I don't think it fits with how they will do enforcement. I'm guessing that they will have a car that drives around the lot and scans license plates (like they do, for ex, at RTD lots). If your plate shows up as unpaid, citation. This is why the 3+ cars get a code and still have to go to the kiosk. Prepaid parking would only work if you still had to go to the kiosk. At least that's my guess.

You're probably right. They're obviously committed to some 30 page draconian contract with this fucking vulture parking company. Probably can't change a goddamn thing, even though they say they are "listening."

I guess my suggestion would then be to allow people to opt in to the same hookup they're giving to the eldora passholders. Register your plate in the same way, but for a fee.

[cdubski]

IKON pass holders should complain to IKON, since Eldora is effectively reducing the value of the pass.

They care:

Good morning,
Eldora's new parking policy has been put in place to encourage carpooling and mitigate congestion. Parking will still be free for any passholder with three or more people per car, and for anyone visiting on a non-peak day. For further questions or comments, please contact Eldora directly at info@eldora.com.

Thank you for contacting the Season Pass Contact Center, have a great season.

Sincerely,
Barbara
Ikon Pass Support
Alterra Mountain Company
888-365-IKON (888.365.4566)
www.IkonPass.com

[GPP33]

They care:

Good morning,
Eldora's new parking policy has been put in place to encourage carpooling and mitigate congestion. Parking will still be free for any passholder with three or more people per car, and for anyone visiting on a non-peak day. For further questions or comments, please contact Eldora directly at info@eldora.com.

Thank you for contacting the Season Pass Contact Center, have a great season.

Sincerely,
Barbara
Ikon Pass Support
Alterra Mountain Company
888-365-IKON (888.365.4566)
www.IkonPass.com

Yea they care. As a wise man once said:

"its done. Eat a dick".

[Jong Lafitte]

They care:

Good morning,
Eldora's new parking policy has been put in place to encourage carpooling and mitigate congestion. Parking will still be free for any passholder with three or more people per car, and for anyone visiting on a non-peak day. For further questions or comments, please contact Eldora directly at info@eldora.com.

Thank you for contacting the Season Pass Contact Center, have a great season.

Sincerely,
Barbara
Ikon Pass Support
Alterra Mountain Company
888-365-IKON (888.365.4566)
www.IkonPass.com

oooo. Nice!! Can't wait to get the exact same fucking email here in a few.

[S_jenks]

See, Eldora isn't going about the congestion issue the right way. Parking fees solve nothing, as the season pass purchase supersedes peoples' willingness to commit to any other area mid-season. Announcing it this far past the start of the season is nothing more than a short-term cash grab, and Eldora is likely testing to waters to see what else they can get away with.

[S_jenks]

Actually, they should take a page out of Snowbowl and instead of maximizing revenue, spend as little as possible.

In exchange for letting your area infrastructure go to waste, you get smaller crowds and cheaper booze. It hardens the kiddos too, perfect training for when they are out in the real world.

[Danno]

Here's something I saw posted on FB. Of course, not posted by Eldora on its page, but posted by someone who received this in response to an email, so buried in the comments of a FB thread. Still no truly public announcement to everyone.

Thank you for this note, and for all of the feedback I’ve gotten about Eldora’s new parking policies. Alexandra’s exhortations to fill my inbox have indeed worked—it’s bursting at the seams, with more emails pouring in every minute.

As an Eldora employee, as a neighbor of Alexandra and of many of you, as a former co-worker of some of you, and as a longtime Eldora local skier whose kids have grown up skiing here, I wanted to share some information that I hope will help explain the what, why, and how of our new parking policies.

Eldora has been experiencing severe traffic challenges on peak-visitation days for the past six years. As the Front Range’s population has grown and people have become frustrated with I-70 traffic, they’ve turned to Eldora. Combine that with recent improvements at Eldora and we’re seeing unprecedented levels of visitation. Like nearly every other ski area accessible from the Front Range, we now experience traffic and congestion challenges regularly.

We define “peaks days” as weekends and holidays between December 15 and April 14. These are the days when we can and often do get more traffic than we can accommodate. On any given peak day, we have the potential to run out of parking spots and be forced to turn cars around, giving passholders and everyone else the unpleasant news that we don’t have room for them.

The main reason we run out of parking on these days is the large number of low-occupancy vehicles that arrive in our lots. A traffic study we commissioned last year showed the average number of visitors per vehicle to be fewer than two, which is unusually low.

On Sunday, November 25, we had to turn more than 200 cars away because we reached capacity at about 9:10 AM. That’s the earliest in the season (and in the day) this has ever happened—and our kids’ programs haven’t even started yet. Add 400 more LOVs to the mix and the issue would be even more acute. Today, Sunday, December 9, our lots are full to capacity, with cars of one and two circling, waiting for spots to open up. If today had been a bit sunnier and warmer, or if 50 more cars had decided to visit, we’d have had to turn guests around at the High School with the help of a sheriff’s deputy.

Our guests have been pleading with us to manage the problem so they can actually use the passes they’ve bought. The town of Nederland and the village of Eldora are tired of the traffic. Faced with visitation trends that suggest park-outs will keep occurring and the impending start of our Trek and Eldorables kids’ programs, we realized we needed to take decisive action to address the problems caused by LOVs.

We didn’t know we’d have to do it so soon. We hadn’t been planning on it. We learned about the solution offered by Interstate Parking just about six weeks ago but didn’t expect to have to use it this year. It soon became clear on November 25 that we could not wait.

Under the new plan, cars arriving with three or more passengers will park for free every single day of the season, any vehicle will park for free on off-peak days (roughly 70% of the season), and cars with two or fewer passengers will pay a fee of $20 only on peak days.

Because we had to roll it out when we did—a month into the season—we made the decision to waive fees for Eldora alpine and nordic passholders for the remainder of this winter, given that these guests don’t have season-pass access to other mountains.

We hope to make no money whatsoever with this program. The ideal outcome here is that we collect ZERO parking fees from anyone, because every visitor decides to arrive with three or more per vehicle or takes RTD. We are not telling people they have to pay. We are asking people to make small behavioral modifications in order to help their fellow skiers and riders enjoy better access to Eldora.

Why $20? Because we are trying to incentivize a change in behavior, not to make money. If the amount were $5 or $10, more people would be likely to pay and simply park with two or fewer. We would likely make a lot more money with a lower fee but we would not be addressing the root problem: too many LOVs. We hope that $20 is high enough that people find creative ways to not pay it: use the Waze Carpool app to meet other skiers and share rides to Eldora, take the RTD, start or find a rideshare group on Facebook, meet up at the High School and carpool if you live in greater Nederland, meet a friend on the chairlift and ride together next time.

The revenue that we do collect will be reinvested in the guest experience, including parking improvements, paving projects, and—fingers crossed—expanded on-site parking. We have been in process for a couple of years with Boulder County to expand parking. Their sustainability goals align with ours: increased HOV usage, decreased traffic and congestion, and protecting the places where Boulder County residents and visitors love to play. But Boulder County made it clear that they expect to see an average vehicle-occupancy rate higher than 1.7 before they’ll consider an expansion.

Eldora can’t solve this by itself. We need your help to improve access, address congestion, and reduce emissions. I can’t stress enough that we DO NOT want to collect parking fees from you or anyone. We do not want to make money from parking. We want you to arrive in HOVs or take RTD.

We are doing this in a good-faith effort to address a real issue. When we run out of parking because a vast number of visitors arrive in low-occupancy vehicles (LOVs) and we are forced to turn people away, it’s not fair to any skier or rider trying to enjoy a day at Eldora.

The City of Boulder’s five parking garages offer more than 2,000 spots that are completely free on weekends (the City of Boulder’s equivalent of Eldora’s non-peak days). There are also spots at Settler’s Park, the Justice Center, and elsewhere. These are great spots for Boulder folks to meet up and share rides. We are also working on park-and-ride solutions for greater Nederland residents and hope to be able to share those this week.

We understand your frustration with the timing of the roll-out. We ourselves wish we had been able to give you more lead time. We appreciate the impassioned feedback we’ve received. We are humbled that so many of you care enough about Eldora to let us know how you feel. We’ll continue to listen and make adjustments wherever and whenever they fit within in and contribute to our overarching goals of increasing HOV visitation, reducing LOV visitation, reducing emissions and traffic in Nederland, and improving access and enjoyment for all visitors to Eldora.

Sincerely,
Sam Bass

[Kinnikinnick]

Anyone have a couple lifelike maniquins I can borrow?


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[Jong Lafitte]

I like the old Sam Bass better than the new Sam Bass. The old Sam Bass at least made his intentions transparent. Did not hide behind some smarmy guise. Just did the deed.

[Kinnikinnick]

So can we start a new meme of dogshit in the kiosks?


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[Danno]

I just got off the phone with a reporter, he thinks they are going to change the policy by end of day. Not surprisingly, they have been getting hammered.