Oro Blanco Now Safer for Students and Bike Riders

If you’ve traveled along Oro Blanco Drive recently, you’ll notice a significant change in how the street looks and feels. The City of Colorado Springs has recently reconfigured the roadway, introducing new buffered bike lanes as part of a broader effort to prioritize neighborhood safety and traffic calming in the eastern part of our city.

A Focus on Our Students

While the addition of bike infrastructure is a major win for our network, the primary driver for this project is the safety of our youngest residents. Oro Blanco is a critical corridor for students attending four nearby schools:

• Doherty High School
• Sabin Middle School
• Penrose Elementary School
• Carver Elementary School

By reconfiguring the roadway and narrowing the feel of the travel lanes, the city is using proven safety counter-measures to naturally discourage speeding. In a high-traffic school zone, these extra seconds of reaction time for drivers can make all the difference for a student crossing the street.

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Closing the Gap in East COS

For the those who bike around our community, this project provides a much-needed improvement in a part of the city that has historically been challenging to navigate. These buffered lanes provides more space between cars and bike riders offering a more comfortable space for riders of all ages and abilities.

Oro Blanco connects directly to the Homestead Trail serving as a vital neighborhood link that makes accessing the trail system significantly safer and more intuitive for those living in the surrounding blocks.

Balancing Community Needs

We recognize that changes to road configurations, specifically the removal of the center turn lane, can be an adjustment for neighbors and daily commuters. However, when we weigh the trade-offs, the data is clear: reclaiming road space to reduce speeding creates a more livable neighborhood while having a minimal impact on travel times for drivers and protecting the hundreds of students who walk and bike to class every morning.

Moving Forward

Bike Colorado Springs is grateful to see the city take proactive, multi-modal steps to address safety. By designing streets that protect our most vulnerable road users—our children—the city is simultaneously building a more connected and accessible bike network for everyone.

Have you ridden the new Oro Blanco lanes yet? We’d love to hear how the new configuration feels on your next trip toward the Homestead Trail.