The U.S. Highway 550 corridor running from 14th Street through Animas View Drive, known to locals as North Main, has seen better days and is turning toward a brighter future. In the meantime, North Main Avenue is in a transitional state wherein travelling the corridor – particularly on foot or by bicycle – is less than ideal, in terms of safety and ease of movement.
To address that disconnect on the city’s once and future thriving corridor, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the city of Durango and the Sonoran Institute teamed up to create a plan to improve mobility on North Main. The recommendations are intriguing, but must be implemented strategically to integrate with planned redevelopment, traffic patterns and alternative corridors. Though there is a need for some immediate attention, particularly to help those who walk the corridor, a piecemeal approach overall is likely to compromise the plan’s effectiveness.
Pedestrian access is perhaps the primary mobility issue on North Main, with many sidewalks in shambles, few ramped intersections available and dangerous crossings in abundance. That scenario is compounded by renegade pedestrian behavior – particularly between 24th and 27th streets as well as around 32nd Street – where jaywalking further undermines safety for all involved. The mobility plan calls for improvements to the pedestrian experience at 19th, 22nd, 32nd and 35th streets, with a series of instruments including light timing to allow more time for crossing, ramps at all crossings, as well as a “pedestrian refuge” on the south side of the 19th Street intersection. These are all relatively easy and cost-effective measures that would ease pedestrians’ travel along North Main and help ensure their safety, to boot.
What is less clear is the need to restripe Main Avenue to provide six-foot-wide bike lanes in either direction. While that approach might have worked elsewhere – including downtown Durango and in Salida – to calm traffic, it is not the right answer for North Main. There exists two lovely options for bicycle traffic parallel to the 550 corridor: the Animas River Trail and West Second Avenue. Both arteries provide cyclists with safe and scenic routes. Re-striping North Main to encourage bicycle travel there misses the overall point of improving all travelers’ experience on the corridor. Instead, as the plan additionally recommends, the city and CDOT should invest in improving the alternative bicycle routes – the River Trail and West Second – and connecting them more frequently and easily to North Main.
Such an effort would – and should – integrate with an overall redevelopment plan for North Main Avenue, which is increasingly fulfilling its potential to be a major commerce center for Durango – an extension of downtown, if done correctly. The city and CDOT have the opportunity to shape and invest in an overhaul that will build upon the trend toward more restaurants, shops, offices and mixed-use development north of 15th Street. To encourage more of that activity, the city and CDOT must tier their mobility plan to the potential for redevelopment – and encourage that by making access and flow easier.
If addressed correctly, with significant community investment, North Main Avenue can become a vibrant district friendly to all. Mobility is a start, but in order to complete the effort, the city must craft and deploy a grander vision.
