| Due to the numerous concerns voiced by neighbors over pedestrian safety in our neighborhood, especially around schools, City Staff* would like to meet with us to discuss the topic. The ONEN Board will be advocating safety measures outlined in the ONEN Master Plan which is detailed on ourwebsite. The meeting will be Wednesday, July 18th 7:00-8:30PM in the First Lutheran Church (1515 North Cascade Avenue) Fellowship Hall (in the basement).
*Planned City Staff Attendees:
Dave Krauth
City Traffic Engineer
Kristin Bennett, AICP,
Senior Transportation Planner
Nonmotorized Transportation and School Safety Programs Manager
Parking on-site or adjacent streets. Enter through first set of double doors from alley south of Caramillo Street (by the two pine trees-Map Below). Go downstairs to basement. Fellowship Hall will be straight ahead at the bottom of the stairs
Handicap Access:
Handicapped parking and automatic opening doors in the alley behind and on the East side of the church campus (enter from Caramillo St) The elevator is just inside the automatic doors.
Steele Improvements
Construction will begin on replacing the existing mid-block school signal at Steele Elementary starts next week. That signal will be moved a little to the south to get the kids out of the commercial driveway they are crossing from now.
Likewise, mid-block bump-outs will be constructed with it to shorten the crossing and also prevent people from parking in the crossing area, which was a complaint from school staff and some parents who walked their students in from east of the school. The signal will also be converted to a Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon – more information on these can be found at http://www.springsgov.com/News.aspx?NewsID=766.
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I was unable to attend last night’s meeting with City Council due to a previous commitment. However, I would still like to voice my opinion in regard to the traffic calming issue proposed by Colorado College.
We live on San Miguel between Nevada and Weber. At most times during the day, when I travel west attempting to cross, or connect, to Nevada, southbound traffic is backed up for one and one half blocks north of Uintah. Proposing to calm traffic by reducing it to one lane in both directions makes absolutely no sense to me. We will still have the same amount of traffic, but it will simply move slower. Also, some of that traffic most likely will move to other side streets.
When the pedestrian traffic issue with students at CC was addressed several years ago, it was recommended that CC build a pedestrian bridge over Cascade. President Celeste’s response was that “such construction would take up too much land on our campus.” Other comments were, “students wouldn’t use it.” Well, if they were concerned about safety, perhaps they should consider doing so.It greatly offends me that the citizens of Colorado Springs, and particularly the residents of the ONE, must continue to give into our CC neighbor when they are unwilling to be flexible when it doesn’t serve them. In my eyes, this is not a respectful, considerate relationship.
I witnessed a CC student commenting on television that she was afraid to cross the street, because she wasn’t sure traffic would stop for her. For that reason she was supporting traffic calming. Might I suggest that if two lanes of traffic won’t stop for her, then one lane of traffic won’t either? Perhaps it is time for the individual student, or pedestrian, to take it upon themselves to be responsible for their own wellbeing. As a pedestrian, although I have the legal right of way in Colorado, if I think a vehicle might not stop for me I won’t be stupid enough to walk out in front of them. Students continue to ride their bicycles and skateboards on the pedestrian walks without waiting for the lights to become activated, running in front of traffic that has little or no warning. To what extent should our neighborhood be responsible for the lack of someone else’s common sense? Perhaps the answer to this problem is crossing guards at CC.
In conclusion, I would support something like speed bumps in the areas of Nevada and Cascade, between Cache la Poudre and Uintah. I would also support the same on Nevada and Weber near Steele.
Thank you,
Jeanne Galvin
Jeanne,
This page is for a meeting that was held in 2012 prior to the installation of the Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon at Steele Elementary. Coincidentally, this same type of signal is being considered for Nevada Ave around San Rafael street through the CC campus.
For more info on the 2016 efforts to improve safety and calm traffic in and around ONEN visit: https://oldnorthend.org/pedestrian-and-bicycle-safety-plan/
Here is our response to your comments about the 2016 Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Plan:
Thank you for your e-mail comment on the Old North End Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Plan. I will gladly speak to your concerns.
City Traffic Engineering is well aware that two lanes of traffic are needed to pass under the traffic signal at Nevada Avenue and Uintah Street. For that reason, southbound one-lane traffic on Nevada will end at Columbia Street and cars will have two blocks to form up into two lanes for passing under the traffic signal at Nevada/Uintah. Nevada Avenue will then continue southbound as two lanes through the Colorado College campus and on downtown. The backup of southbound traffic on Nevada at the Uintah traffic signal should remain exactly the same under safety-sizing as it is at the present time.
Notice that it is the traffic signal that causes the backup at southbound Nevada and Uintah and not the number of traffic lanes.
It is true that the root cause of all this attention to pedestrian and bicycle safety in the Old North End is the unfortunate accident in January 2016 when a woman student was struck crossing Cascade Avenue and dragged under the automobile along the roadway. Fortunately she is recuperating and is now able to resume attending her classes. It was the classic case of a car stopping in one lane and a moving vehicle in the second lane overtaking the stopped car and striking the student. The best way to prevent this type of accident is to get “One Lane From Two.” That is reducing the street from two-lanes-in-each-direction to one-lane-in-each-direction.
I agree that some college students can be irresponsible about crossing streets, particularly when on bicycles and skateboards. But anything we can do to make pedestrians safer is wise. Elementary school students at Steele Elementary and Corpus Christi Elementary face the same problem the CC students do – having to cross two lanes of moving traffic in each direction when walking to and from school. Our plan not only narrows to one-lane-in-each-direction at Colorado College. It also does that at Steele and Corpus Christi as well as on streets near Penrose Hospital and First Lutheran Church. Accidents go down when pedestrians only have to cross one-lane in each direction rather than two-lanes-in-each direction.
I am attaching a PDF of our Plan { https://oldnorthend.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/OldNorthEndPedestrianSafetyPlan-7.pdf} in case you have not seen it. You might want to look at pages 9-10 which summarize the reasoning behind One Lane From Two. Almost 1,000 families in the Old North End area will benefit from the quieter streets that result and the safer walk to school for those families with school children. Drivers will benefit as well as speeds will drop and “hot rods” will not be able to cut-off other drivers by darting in and out from one lane to the other.
If you have further questions, please e-mail me back.
Bob Loevy
Member
Old North End Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Committee