The Feb. 26 workshop resulted in the following overall recommendations and observations by the participating stakeholders The complete workshop summary is available on the study's website.
Grade Separated: bridge/tunnel options
* A bridge over Cascade Ave. was not recommended due to aesthetics, costs, and practicality. Structures create barriers between the community and the college and are too expensive.
* A tunnel
|Tim Roberts, with the City of Colorado Springs, and stakeholders discuss traffic calming options.|
under Cascade Ave. was also poorly received and not recommended due to cost, practicality and safety concerns.
* Students wouldn't use a bridge or a tunnel and both go against the culture in Colorado Springs. Pedestrian/vehicle accident figures are too low to consider a bridge or tunnel. Participants also oppose the loss of trees necessary to build bridges or tunnels.
System-wide transportation options
* Stakeholder overall preferences include anything that will slow traffic system-wide through the campus and the surrounding streets and anything that integrates Colorado College as part of the community.
* Stakeholders liked the approach of reducing lanes on sections of several streets surrounding the campus. They support the community-/system-wide approach of the study noting concerns that if traffic on one street were slowed too much, it might shift traffic to other streets in the system. However, they also recognized that there is ample remaining capacity on the all the surrounding roads.
* Stakeholders generally liked the option of reducing Cascade Ave. to one lane in each direction as long as reducing lanes on surrounding streets is also considered.
* There was support for: a pedestrian stop light at Tejon and Uintah streets; road dieting for Cascade Ave. and the streets surrounding the campus; accommodating bicycles/increasing the number of bike lanes; and narrowing the lane widths on Nevada Ave. north to Penrose Hospital to change the culture of the road.
* Additional recommendations: improve turning on Fontanero St., by reducing it from 4 to 3 lanes; add diagonal parking on Weber Street to improve parking at Steele Elementary school; and remove some of the crosswalks on Cascade Ave. (on campus) to improve safety and mobility.
Traffic calming options
* Group consensus was that the priority should be on neighborhood safety and slowing traffic. Road narrowing and bump outs to decrease speeds were recommended. Speed bumps on arterials were not recommended because they impede emergency vehicles.
* Improved lighting was favorably received; however, lamppost styles should be more conducive to the historic aspect of the neighborhood. Ensure that crosswalks are well lighted to illuminate pedestrians and brightly painted to remain visible.
* There was support for adding "State Law" signs at crosswalks and using diagonal crosswalks to enhance pedestrian safety; adding bike lanes and incorporating, diagonal and parallel parking.