It’s back. The random traffic island in S.R. 248 between the lights at Round Valley and Richardson Flat Road has reemerged. The thing is like a mushroom. You think it’s gone, and then it erupts again.
As best I remember, this is the fourth iteration of this traffic island since the 1990s when S.R. 248 and U.S. 40 were reconfigured to go around Jordanelle Reservoir.
The function appears to be preventing people from making left turns from 248 into the Film Studio property, or from the Film Studio on to 248. The weird thing is that the road where this island it blocking turns hasn’t actually been there for a very long time. People were not making life-threatening left turns at an intersection that didn’t exist.
But that didn’t stop UDOT from installing the blockade, then removing it, then redesigning it, reconstructing it, removing it again and so on.
Somewhere deep in the vast cubicle farm at UDOT headquarters, some engineer must have made this traffic island his life’s work, with new design features and flourishes with each version.
My guess is it gets installed, and then a snowplow driver smacks into it at 40 mph when it is buried in snow. That’s hard on the snowplow, and really hard on the driver who slams his teeth into the steering wheel. So it gets taken out. Then the engineer discovers that the maintenance department had removed this critical safety feature, and it goes back in.
This time around, though, it looks like there is actually going to be a real intersection there as a back entrance to the Studio Crossing development. So maybe now it will be a permanent impediment to people who want to turn left, forcing them down to the light. Actually, they can’t turn left because the traffic is backed up at a dead stop for miles in both directions. Sooner or later, the island will be replaced with a traffic light.
There is a traffic light being installed at the new Maverick station, making three lights to get through when driving through Quinn’s Junction, really four if you count the nearby light at Round Valley. So that will keep things moving smoothly.
An additional light is under construction at the entrance to Tuhaye, with more planned through Hideout. Thank goodness we have carefully managed and controlled growth around here. Otherwise, we could have a sprawling mess with snarled traffic everywhere from Summit Park to Daniel. But nothing a traffic island can’t fix.
There is exciting ski industry news. Deer Valley is opening the new Hail Peak lift next winter, with a summit elevation at a lung-burning 7,400 feet, or about 200 feet higher than the Snow Park ticket office. So there’s that to look forward to.
A penthouse condo at the Four Seasons at East Village has been listed for slightly over $5,000 per square foot, or around $32 million. That’s just jaw dropping expensive and it doesn’t even have a private bowling alley.
For comparison purposes, you can buy the just-listed Cherry Peak ski resort, lock, stock, and barrel, for $22.5 million. I’m not sure which is the better deal, a penthouse at East Village or a whole ski resort near Logan that is about a thousand feet too low to hold snow. Cherry Peak would leave you with $10 million left over to spend on something else, like a bowling alley. Decisions, decisions.
Vail Resorts has announced a new initiative they are calling Epic Experience. The press release said it will be defined “by delivering the best and most differentiated guest experience in skiing and riding.”
They will focus on gear rentals, lessons, food, the My Epic App, and staff interactions. Well, that should solve it. Oddly missing from the list is anything about actual skiing.
I learned to ski at Park City Mountain the year it opened. I had a pass of some kind there for better than 50 years. My frustrations with the place reached the breaking point, and I haven’t skied there in several years now.
It had nothing to do with the My Epic app. I’ve never used the app, and don’t want it. There is no part of skiing that should require an app at all. Getting outside and away from electronic crap is part of the reason to go.
If Vail really wants to improve the guest experience, how about predictably opening Jupiter Bowl? Consistent grooming? Addressing the overcrowding on the mountain?
Between paid parking and the morning goat rodeo at the base, the guest experience is pretty well soured before you are on the snow. An app won’t fix that.
The plan to upgrade the Eagle chair, and the new gondola at the Canyons side should help, though the real issue is just too many people on the mountain at busy times.
Gourmet chicken fingers with elevated presentation of mac-and-cheese might be nice. Curing the sewer gas stink at the Summit House might be a more important element of the guest experience to start with.
But even then, no matter how seamless the My Epic App becomes, it’s really about the snow — the lifts, the skier density on the runs, the condition of the snow.
If Vail Resorts really wants to elevate the guest experience, start with the mountain. Great skiing will trump bad chili every time.
Tom Clyde practiced law in Park City for many years. He lives on a working ranch in Woodland and has been writing this column since 1986.