After attending a recent meeting on the city’s College Drive and 8th Street safety project, I came away thinking we’ve good people working on public safety, but is the project itself a good one in its current form?
Jim Horn of Russel Engineering explained the plan to reduce College Dr. down to 3 lanes (2-lanes + a center turn lane). Also included would be; bike lanes on each side (to “create friction & slow traffic” Jim said), sidewalk enhancements, bump-outs, 3 bus stops, ped-Xings, and a possible ‘hot flash’ light crossing (like 7th & Camino Del Rio). All this and the current 800-1,200 cars per hour, and Jim assured us would this would be possible without traffic slow-downs (other than at rush-hour times). It would also improve safety and increased business traffic. I hope he’s right. If not, I and others at the meeting fear that if the flow of traffic slows (along with the speed limit), cars will move to side streets like 7th St. (with only 1 stop sign at 5th Ave.) to get from 8th St. to 3rd Ave. On the biking front, I tried to explain that as a city commuter and biker, I try to avoid busy traffic streets like College Dr. or Main St., and instead use side streets (which have bike route designations). Even with bike lanes, why would I want to bike with more traffic, and have cars turning right on my side of the street - either having to wait for me to pass the intersection, or speed up to turn in front of me? All things being equal, I think the city is right in trying to improve traffic flow and citizen safety with this project. I just hope the 1 million dollars the city is matching with the grant moneys it has received, will not create traffic and safety problem on adjacent streets to the project. I urge the city to also have an action plan if the proposed re-configuration doesn’t work as promised.
Timothy J. Thomas
Durango
