Goodbye, flashing yellow turn signal at the Bayfield traffic light.
At least during daylight hours.
At a Bayfield Town Board meeting Tuesday night, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced the flashing yellow arrow, which allows drivers to turn left at the intersection if the road is clear, will have reduced hours.
The change will be made within a matter of days, said Julie Conston, a traffic engineer for District 5 of CDOT.
A lack of patience and speeding drivers don't mix well with the yellow light, said Duane Greer of Bayfield, who was among more than 40 people,including about a dozen motorcyclists, who attended Tuesday night's meeting.
"We wouldn't have lost a good friend," if the intersection worked properly, he said to applause from several people at the meeting. He was referring to Jason Dupuis, who was killed at the intersection on March 17 when a driver made a left-hand turn as he was riding his motorcycle west on U.S. Highway 160. His wife, Dawn, was severely injured but is expected to survive.
"It truly was an accident," said another biker, Karl Schreiber. "This light is flawed."
Conston said from 2014 to 2016, there have been 24 crashes at the intersection, and six people have died. Most collisions occur between 4 to 6 p.m., she said. Of those wrecks, 15, or 62 percent, involved left turns.
Most of those were drivers heading west, toward Durango.
With the changes at the light, from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., left turns can only be made with the protected green left turn light, Conston said. Currently, the protected green signal operates from 3:30 to 7 p.m.
There have been no crashes at the intersection at night, when there is little traffic, so CDOT is recommending the flashing yellow signal be used then.
Other attendees at the meeting said more needs to be done for pedestrian safety on U.S. 160, including people who want to walk across the highway from Pine River Pawn to Commerce Drive.
The intersection is a priority for further study, Conston said.
"We're due for four lanes," she said, when asked about the potential expansion of the highway. CDOT is starting to plan for the expansion, but funding is the sticking point.
Phyllis Ludwig asked if writing to the Colorado Legislature could help.
"We fight for every dime we get," Conston said. While Region 5 in Southwest Colorado only has 5 percent of Colorado's population, it receives 14 percent of the state's funding for CDOT.
"I know Denver's big, but our lives are just as important," Ludwig said.
