Old North End Safety Improvements
Bike Colorado Springs position on Old North End Road way improvements Proposal
BCS supports this plan as it will provide bicyclists with much needed safe, continuous, on-street routes into, and through downtown Colorado Springs while also providing safer roads for drivers and pedestrians who live or just travel through the Old North End. As early as this spring, the proposed plan will complete the crucial connection to the new bike lanes that were installed on Cascade Ave last year. The current Old North End Roadway Improvement plan, which is in line with multiple council approved masterplans, was developed with the input of ONEN neighbors through the course of three neighborhood meetings. We applaud the city on their thorough public process in making safer streets a priority.
Over the last few months the City of Colorado springs has been holding public meetings and conducting transportation studies to address safety concerns on roadways in the Old and Near North End neighborhoods of Colorado Springs. One of the results of these meeting and studies is the planning and implementation of two continuous north south bike routes, into and through Downtown Colorado Springs. According to an email from Kathleen Krager, Colorado Springs Traffic Engineering Division Manager, “Input from residents showed that Cascade Avenue and Weber Street were the preferred streets to incorporate a north/south bike route.” Cascade Avenue will be the first road to be completed, getting restriped with one through lane, a buffered bike lane, and parking in each direction between Jackson and Boulder streets, connecting to bike lanes already striped through Downtown. Additionally, the crosswalks at Colorado College across Cascade will be reduced from four crosswalks with flashing signs to two standard crosswalks. These design changes, being implemented in early spring of 2018 will improve pedestrian safety and provide an important bike facility that connects with downtown.
Speed limit changes will also accompany the changes being implemented throughout this part of town. Speed limits for on Nevada, Cascade, Weber, Uintah, Wahsatch and Fontanero will be reduced from 35 to 30 mph while speed limits for Wood and Tejon will be reduced from 30 to 25 mph.
The changes outlined above will be the most immediate but other improvements to other streets in these neighborhoods will be rolled out starting now with completion by the end of 2020. Of the bike related changes being implemented, Fontanero Street between El Paso Street and Wood Avenue will be restriped to include two travel lanes, a center turn lane and bike lanes. While Weber Street between Colorado Avenue and Jackson Street will be restriped to accommodate two through lanes of travel with a center left turn lane, bike lanes and parking. This section of Weber Street will be striped with bike lanes next to the travel lane as the number of driveways does not accommodate a parking protected design. Fontanero is slated to be completed in 2019 while Weber will be restriped in conjunction with future repaving by 2020.
These bicycle routes through this critical section of our city will provide much needed connections, in and through Downtown. Additionally the Fontanero bike lane will provide a much needed east/west connection for bike users connecting with the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail.
Upcoming meetings, beginning in March, will be organized to discuss additional traffic concerns in the neighborhood, including parking problems at Colorado College and Penrose Hospital, median criteria for traffic improvements, transit routes through the neighborhood, and sidewalk ramps at intersections. There are also plans for an additional work session to specifically address concerns on Nevada Avenue.
For more information on these projects and future meeting visit the city’s site for these projects at https://www.coloradosprings.gov/ONEtransportationstudy
