It's a dual edged sword: Interstate 70 brings us to some of the most beautiful parts of our incredible state, but gosh, does the traffic have the potential to really take the fun out of the whole trip. That was the case for drivers headed up to the Colorado mountains during our 4th of July holiday weekend.  

Jonathan Godes, Executive Director of the , pulls no punches when describing the issues we're facing as a state.

"We always know that these holiday weekends are going to be especially problematic and troubling," Godes said. "There's going to be a lot of cars on the road."

But Godes knows this is more than just your average mountain traffic jams and crashes. The major problem? Volume.

"Traffic has increased 50% in the last decade along the I-70 corridor, both commercial and passenger traffic," Godes explained.

While he said improvements have been made -- like the tolled express lanes, expanded hours in those lanes, legislative efforts targeting trucking fines ... the reality on the ground is still frustrating.

"That doesn't make anybody feel better when they're sitting there for 5 hours idling ... none of that makes anybody feel better," Godes said.

The financial investment in I-70 has been substantial, especially in the last decade. From the expansion of the Twin Tunnels to Floyd Hill project and hundreds of millions of dollars , our areas with high incident rates are seeing serious spending to help create a safer mountain pass for everyone. Godes said those projects are all helpful in keeping I-70 flowing as more traffic piles on, but that crews are running out of solutions that are relatively cheap ... in comparison to what else can be worked on.

"Now we have to get really creative and a lot of that creativity starts with price tags in the billions," he said.

One of those billion dollar ideas involves moving commercial trucks off the interstate for part of the high country route and placing them on train cars.

The short term fix, though, according to the ? Hop on that that moves people back and forth from the mountains. Which is easier said than done, because culturally, we love to drive ourselves.

"We all know public transportation is fantastic ... for other people," Godes said with a laugh. "You know, we want other people to take it."

While it offers a way to ease congestion, Godes said the slight inconvenience of adhering to others' schedules often deters individual drivers from carpooling up.

So in an effort to curb the hour-long closures and traffic stalls we so often see along I-70, Godes challenged the public to be "part of the solution because we are all, all of us, part of the problem."