Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Every time you drive in a different part of town, it seems, you discover another street that has been Safety-Sized to one-lane-in-each-direction. Yesterday it was East Bijou Street eastward from Hancock Street to Academy Boulevard.
Just by changing the paint job (yellow lane-striping paint) on top of the black asphalt, Colorado Springs City Traffic Engineering has turned East Bijou Street east of Hancock Street into a most pleasant street to walk, bicycle, or drive.
For motorists, the single lane does away with cars passing your car on the right and left. It also discourages fast driving way above the speed limit, and totally eliminates hot-rods darting from one lane to the other.
For bicyclists, the on-street bike lanes (in both directions) run all the way from Hancock to Academy, providing a safer and quieter lane in which to ride your bike.
And for pedestrians, all that traffic calming has to make it pleasanter to be walking on the sidewalk.
As East Bijou Street goes eastward past North Union Boulevard, the pavement widens a bit. There the City has painted a permanent left-turn lane into the middle of the street between the two traffic lanes, thereby making it easier and safer to make left turns.
Where traffic counts are low enough, there is no question that One Lane From Two Lanes is the coming thing for residential streets in Colorado Springs.
