Breckenridge Signage and Wayfinding

Breckenridge, Colorado is a popular year-round destination for outdoor enthusiasts, cultural tourists, and families who travel from around the world to experience the town’s amenities and activities. As such, navigating traffic and parking congestion in town is often difficult. Previously, visitors would not know that in-town parking lots were full until they drove into town and circled through each lot. Frustrated, they would then drive back to periphery of town and park in one of the shuttle lots.

The Town of Breckenridge engaged Walker Consultants to evaluate the existing wayfinding and develop a solution to help visitors easily find available, convenient parking. Walker developed a series of strategies, graphical signage concepts, and recommendations to better inform drivers of locations and directions to parking areas. This included a combination of static and dynamic roadside signs.

The centerpiece of the strategy is a large dynamic message sign located at the entry to town. The sign was custom designed and constructed specifically for this project to be both visually appealing and highly functional. Coordination with the Colorado Department of Transportation ensured the sign met federal design and safety guidelines.

The digital sign is flexible and capable of displaying safety messages as well as real-time parking information. The displayed parking status is controlled by the Town’s parking operations team, and can be changed instantly by a phone application specifically designed for this project.

Visitors entering town can now easily see real-time parking availability, allowing them to make an informed decision of where they can park, reducing circling that contributes to traffic and congestion. Other important messages can also be displayed on the sign which can alert visitors of relevant information before arriving.

Walker is currently working with the Town to further address its parking needs with a new parking structure for the South Gondola Lot, expected to open in 2021.

Image above courtesy Skyline Products