Residents want to see safer routes for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, and the city has identified more than 450 projects to improve transportation.

The Multimodal Transportation Plan draft outlines all these construction projects. It was unveiled Monday at Carver Brewing Co.

The draft plan will be presented to the Durango City Council in December, and if adopted it will help guide construction projects and transit service.

At the unveiling, members of the audience raised questions about hot topics facing the city such as transit funding and electric bikes. The ongoing safety concerns about the East Third Avenue, 15th Street and Florida Road intersection, and Camino del Rio pedestrian crossings.

Funding for transit was not a main concern in 2012 when the first plan was adopted, but it captured about 9 percent of the more than 400 comments this year.

“With the uncertainty with future grant funding it has come to the forefront,”said Amber Blake the transportation and sustainability director.

Durango Transit could face a major reduction in funding 2018 in depending on how the Colorado Department of Transportation reallocates federal grants.

However, at many meetings, residents have asked for expanded transit service, and a survey showed about 76 percent of the ridership depends on bus and trolley service, Blake said.

“We will find a way to fund transit,” she said.

The city decided not to address e-bikes in the transportation plan because they are prohibited by city ordinance, Blake said.

City advisory boards are considering if e-bikes should be allowed and how they may be regulated.

The transportation plan identified the intersection of East Third Avenue, 15th Street and Florida Road, also known as malfunction junction, as a problem, but a solution is not laid out, Blake said.

Improved pedestrian crossings along Camino del Rio are also a needed, and the city plans to examine where they should go, Blake said.

After 25 meetings, safety was the main theme among comments submitted – representing about 38 percent.

Cyclist Brendan Trimboli’s observation fit into this category: He would like to see an underpass built along north Main Avenue, potentially near Junction Creek, “before some poor high school kid gets struck,” he said.

The underpass could be modeled after those in Boulder that follow the path of the creeks.

mshinn@durangoherald.com