Some commuters have tried carpooling for years and years to get to and from work.
Now there’s a new app to help skiers carpool to and from the mountains.
As Vail Daily reported recently, getting to some of the most popular ski destinations in Colorado has become a challenge.
Traffic jams are becoming more and more common on the roads heading to ski country.
Erwin Germain, a carpooling enthusiast who moved recently to Colorado, worked with some colleagues to create a carpool app for skiers.
It’s called Treadshare, and like most online carpooling systems, it tries to match people, vehicles and destinations together so that people can get to where they’re going and back in the fewest amount of cars and trips possible.
People who say they’re willing to drive also put in how many seats they have and how much gear their car or truck can hold.
For safety and security, the system requires background checks, and drivers can say no to prospective riders if they want.
Treadshare handles most of the payment between passengers and drivers, at least when it comes to gas and vehicle wear and tear.
Parking in a busy ski area can be variable, to put it mildly, so they haven’t figured that part out yet.
And of course we don’t know yet whether this app will hit its peak, or just wipe out on its way down the mountains.
But they hope that over time, Treadshare will at least give some skiers options to get themselves onto the slopes and back – and think about transportation along with recreation, just like how people think about the different ways they can get to work.
This weekend in Ely, Nevada, it’s the Fire & Ice Winter Festival.
Like a lot of winter festivals, it has cross country skiers, ice skaters, snow sculpting and ice fishing.
But this one also has a fireworks show conducted from a moving train.
Can carpooling help congestion on I-70? (Vail Daily)
Fire & Ice Winter Festival (Travel Nevada)
