By Kailyn Lamb, The Summit Daily
The town of Breckenridge implemented a paid parking plan Dec. 1 to help cut down on traffic congestion. The town has already seen evidence that the system is helping. Parking spots are easier to find and the number of people taking mass transit is up, city officials said.
“We’re achieving exactly what we wanted to do, which is one to two open spaces per block even on the busiest days,” said Kim Dykstra, the director of communications for the town.
Although official numbers for parking are currently being reviewed by town staff, there has been an impact on the amount of people who use mass transit. Bus ridership within the town has already seen a spike.
“We had our highest ridership number on a day basis on Jan. 14, last Saturday,” Dykstra said.
Nearly 9,000 riders got on a bus in Breckenridge that day.
Dykstra said that in 2016 the town had more than 885,000 commuters take the Free Ride bus system in Breckenridge.
The road to paid parking was a bumpy one, with the town council creating an advertising campaign acknowledging that the decision was an unpopular one. The website for the campaign, Breck Forward, included videos from councilmembers on how to use the parking kiosks and a breakdown of the long-term plan from the town’s parking task force.
Paid parking is not entirely new to the town. The town added streets within the downtown core to a list of parking lots that were already charging hourly. The town changed the rates for those lots, so that they better matched the new plan.
To read more about Breckenridge’s parking program visit the
