Midland Corridor Transportation Study

Rescheduled Hybrid Meeting Wednesday April 6th 6:00-7:30 pm

In Person at: City Administration Building 30 S. Nevada Avenue, Room 102

If you care about a safer, more pedestrian friendly Colorado Ave and a safer more connected corridor for bicycling along the westside, now is your chance.

As a stakeholder for this study, Bike Colorado Springs has been involved since this effort started in 2020. We haven’t seen the final plan yet but below is what we’ve seen in previous drafts.

While we would like to see protected bicycle infrastructure on Colorado Ave, the previous versions of this plan have shown a significant move towards prioritizing safety throughout the corridor. While the parallel routes of Pikes Peak, Cucharras and Midland Trail are good options, challenges must be addressed such as; Safety and connection as Colorado Ave is the only option connecting Downtown to these neighborhood streets, connectivity through the westside (Midland trail in OCC, Pikes Peak ave hill) and the fact that the destinations people want to visit are on Colorado Ave. All of this being said, this is a step forward for safety which will make getting around the westside an option for a wider range of riders. The status quo cannot remain in this historic, vibrant, (and thankfully due to being built for walking) inherently walkable and bikeable neighborhood in spite of Colorado Ave. Speeding on Colorado Ave must be curbed and crossing Colorado Ave by foot or bike must be made less difficult and dangerous. Making Colorado Ave three lanes will address safety, reduce speeding and make crossing easier with less lanes to cross. Additionally, it will make driving better by providing more street parking in the OCC commercial district and the center lane will allow for safer left turns no longer requiring stopping in a travel lane.

Colorado Ave

Previous versions of the plan have proposed lane reallocation on Colorado Ave with the goals of reducing speeding, easing pedestrian access, making left turns easier, and providing additional parking through the Old Colorado City Business district. No bike infrastructure has been recommended on Colorado Ave west of Walnut Street.

Our primary concern with the proposals we’ve seen is that there are no plans to improve the speeding or roadway safety along the recently developing, western commercial corridor on Colorado Ave, between Walnut St and 8th St. While Colorado Ave is currently the safest on-street way to connect the Westside to Downtown across I25 via bicycle or foot it is far from a comfortable connection that would appeal to riders of all ages and abilities.

Pikes Peak Ave/Cucharras St

While Pikes Peak and Cucharras are currently both designated bike routes, previous versions of the plan recommended that these streets be made bicycle boulevards, optimizing them for bicycle travel with lower speed limits among other treatments. We have made it clear that speed limits alone won’t make these streets safer and more comfortable for the casual rider. We’ve recommended different traffic calming approaches for these connections and are interested to see what the final recommendations from the study are.

Midland Trail

The Midland, in the name of this study and trail, refers to the former rail road alignment which is now occupied by Highway 24 leading into Ute Pass. Interestingly, the Midland Trail does not follow the former railroad but instead follows the former trolley line which connected Downtown to Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs. A recommendation we expect to see in this study is to complete the missing Midland Trail link between 21st and 25th streets.