New fees for driving Pikes Peak Highway
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 27 October 2010 07:00
- Written by Dave Philipps
By DAVE PHILIPPS, THE GAZETTE
Pikes Peak addicts, there is good news: the price of an unlimited highway pass is about to get slashed.
For years the Pikes Peak Highway, a 19-mile toll road to the 14,115-foot summit that is managed by the city of Colorado Springs, offered an unlimited season pass that allowed everyone in a pass-holder’s vehicle to go up the peak for $100.
Just over 500 locals usually bought the pass annually to save money on repeated trips up the road.
Then in 2008, citing a flagging economy that had hurt both visitation and funds from local lodging taxes, the highway announced that it would do away with the pass.
Instead, it would offer a $200 pass good only for the individual pass holder. It also started selling $100 “fourteener” punch cards that allowed locals 14 visits — a good deal, since anyone who used all the punches paid $7.14 per visit instead of the single day summer rate of $12.
But some hard-core hikers and runners who swing by the mountain weekly still yearned for the old pass.
Now it is back. At least sort of. In 2011 the highway will sell unlimited annual passes for individuals for $125 and a vehicle pass, good for up to five people, for $250.
“We wanted to do something for the locals that really use the mountain a lot,” said Jack Glavan, manager of the highway.
A lot is the key phrase. Individuals will have to visit the mountain 18 times to make the annual pass a better deal than the fourteener card.
For carloads of five, it would take only seven to break even, compared to paying the $40 per carload single visit summer rate.
The highway hopes to have the passes printed and ready by December, so locals can give them as Christmas gifts, Glavan said.
“We hope people like them,” he added. “They can help save a lot of money. Especially if you carpool.”
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Contact the writer: 636-0223
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