
Cascade Avenue re-striping begins Tuesday
After an injunction, requested by six residents of the Old North End Neighborhood, was overturned last month, re-stripping has been scheduled to begin the third week of August. Bike Colorado Springs joins the Old North End Neighborhood and Colorado College in welcoming this long awaited traffic calming project to Cascade Ave which will improve safety for all roadway users.
As stated by the City in a press release “Cascade Avenue between Bijou and Jackson streets will receive a new traffic configuration beginning Tuesday to enhance pedestrian safety near Colorado College, improve traffic flow onto I-25, and install a north/south bicycle connection into downtown.” This is all part of ONEN Safety Improvements Plan (Our previous article on this plan can be found here). The need for north/south and east/west bicycle connections throughout the neighborhood and into downtown was identified through public input and cited in both the Experience Downtown Master Plan and Bicycle Master Plan.
This Re-striping plan is an update to the previous plan in that it will include welcome changes to the bike lanes already installed on Cascade Ave between Platte and Bijou. According to the city, these changes to northbound Cascade at Kiowa, while increasing bicyclist safety, will also “[…] improve traffic flow for vehicles turning left to access I-25.” As for the southbound stretch between Platte and Bijou, the previous bike lane configuration was often blocked by cars cueing in the right turn lane accessing I-25. According to the city, “The bike lane and right turn lane on southbound Cascade Avenue at the Bijou Street intersection will be modified to reduce conflicts between right turning vehicles and bicycles and will improve traffic flow for southbound vehicles accessing I-25 via Bijou Street.”
As this reconfiguration will extend from Kiowa to Jackson, I-25 access from Cascade onto Uintah will also need to be addressed. The addition of the buffered bike lane swill reduce vehicle lanes to one in each direction, “[…] the left turn lane will be lengthened to accommodate more left turning vehicles with each signal rotation and minimize turning vehicles blocking the through lanes.”
More information can be found at the City’s project site at the link below:
Old and Near North End Neighborhoods Transportation Study