Marketing blitz urges truckers to stay on I-25, I-80

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Within the next two months, truckers driving through or near Fort Collins will be barraged with messages urging them to stay on the interstate system, rather than taking the shortcut to Laramie on State Highway 14 and U.S. Highway 287.

The marketing campaign is a one-year pilot program designed by the Fort Collins Transportation Department as part of an ongoing effort to divert trucks out of the Old Town area. The issue is decades old, and in the last few years various efforts to solve it have failed. In the late 1990s, Fort Collins attempted to make East Vine Drive into a truck route, but there were strong objections from citizens in nearby neighborhoods.

The marketing blitz will emphasize four major messages:

• It's safer to drive the interstate route than the Highway 14 shortcut.
• It's easier to use the interstate route.
• There are more amenities on the interstate route, such as parking, showers, food and less expensive fuel.
• There are noise ordinances in place on Highway 14 regarding compression brakes.

The city plans to use a brochure, billboard messages, radio advertising and ads in trade publications to reach its target audiences. A web site will also be developed, providing truckers with information about safety and weather conditions on the routes.

Few trucks affected

The marketing plan, according to a staff report, offers "limited potential for improvement" at a "relatively high cost per truck moved." If it's successful, the project could move 20 to 120 commercial trucks out of Fort Collins each day, out of a total of 1,800 trucks that travel daily on SH 14 in the city. Implementation of the marketing plan will cost an estimated $321,000, and it could cost another $100,000 to manage the pilot program and evaluate it.

Even with the limited potential, Fort Collins has no choice about pursuing the marketing plan. The city was directed by Ballot Initiative 200, passed by Fort Collins voters in 1999, to seek a northern truck route and also to persuade truckers to stay on the interstate highways through "non-route based strategies."

The marketing plan is "meant to be a piece of the puzzle, not to solve the whole problem," said Mark Jackson, transportation planning manager for the city. "It's important to remember that the preponderance of truck traffic on SH 14/US 287 in Fort Collins is serving local and regional needs."

In coming up with its plan, the city once again analyzed truck traffic coming through Fort Collins. Its study found that, out of 1,800 trucks traveling within Fort Collins each day, an average of 1,100 trucks travel along the entire SH 14/US 287 corridor between Fort Collins and Laramie. Of those, 600 are nonstop trucks. About 190 of the 600 are long-haul trucks traveling well beyond both Fort Collins and Laramie, and the remainder of the 600 are considered "regional."

The 600 nonstop truckers will be the overall focus of marketing efforts. However, since the long-haul truckers (190 daily) are the best bet for shifting traffic to the interstate system, they will be the primary focus. The report notes that a marketing program is considered successful if it impacts 10 to 20 percent of the target audience.

The report also looks at truckers' reasons for choosing the SH 14/US 287 route over the interstate. The shortcut route between Fort Collins and Laramie saves 17 miles and about 10 minutes. The interstate route is closed about twice as much as the shortcut, mostly because of weather. Finally, truckers have indicated that travel along I-80 is impeded by high winds and steep grades east of Laramie. The downside to the shortcut is a higher rate of accidents. Overall, the report concludes, "It is understandable why many regional truck route planners and drivers prefer the SH 14/US 287 route."

What about a bypass?

The truck bypass issue isn't dead as far as truckers are concerned, although it seems as elusive as the Northwest Passage. Truckers who participated in the city study stated that the most effective way to move trucks from Highway 14 - and out of Fort Collins - is to create a bypass connecting I-25 and U.S. 287. Many even said they would be willing to pay a toll to use such a route.

However, the bypass option is "at a stalemate," Jackson stressed, until the language problem with Ballot Initiative 200 can be resolved. As it stands, the ballot issue is at odds with requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, because the initiative calls for a truck bypass in a specific location, namely north of Douglas Road.

At present there's a balance of $2.2 million in the Building Community Choices budget designated for solving the truck route problem.