One of the local groups involved in getting this project started is age friendly Carbondale. Nikki Delson is the chair of the grassroots group that began in early 2019. Delson says Highway 133 has evolved over the years and as such needs some changes. She says that roads like Highway 133 used to be just a highway to get people from point A to point B, but have become something else.
Delson notes, "So it has businesses, it has medical facilities, it has shopping, it has parks, it has residences. And people cannot safely use those. And so that's more in line with what a street is. A street is a place where people can sit outside and eat.
We have places like that on 133. And they call this kind of a hybrid a strode. And in transportation lingo, they call it the futon of the transportation. A futon, Tries to be a bed, tries to be a couch, it's not very good at either. Highway 133, tries to be a road, tries to be a street, not very good at either.
So the vision And the recommendations are how do you move from this road, streets road that has developed over time to make it more street like and friendly to the people who use it."
Delson says that development along 133 has grown without the infrastructure to enable the people who live in the town to get back and forth between the east side and the west side.
"And that was recognized. When there was an access control plan done by the town, um, and CDOT back in 2013,
That the highway was expanding, both with traffic and with people, without having safe ways to get across. And so that's really what brought us to say, let's study this, let's see what the people of the town think about crossing 133, walking along 133, bike riding along 133 and for people with mobility challenges, what it's like for them to be part of the community is not woven together.
And so we looked at this saying, what data can we get that will support What it is that really needs to be done because we only saw what we saw, we didn't see what we didn't see, and we're not traffic engineers, and then to bring that study, the actual data, both to all of the commissions that are involved in making changes and to CDOT and say, we need to change this, we need to look at What the safety issues are and what keeps people from really participating in the life of the community."
The group presented their report with recommendations for changes to Highway 133 at a town trustee's meeting on July 9th, and Delson describes the response from the Trustees.
"We got a very, very positive response with a recognition that this is something that needs to be addressed. That our data shows that people are afraid. And that people cannot get to their needed services, whether you're on the east side and need to get to the City Market, and there's no way to cross other than going like a half a mile out of your way, so people jaywalk.
And the se people go too fast. There's a 35 mile an hour speed limit that goes All the way through town, including right in front of a school, that does not change when kids are leaving or going to school. It's 35 miles the whole time. So we looked at those intersections, um, along there. And when I say intersections, some are signalized legal intersections.
But there were two that were very frightening to us, where they're people made intersections, which means that people are jaywalking to get to where they want to get, and very often if you go down towards Montessori School, it's children who are running across the street when traffic is moving at 35 miles an hour, because there's no legal intersection there.
It's Takes us away from the articulated vision that Carbondale has of ourselves being bike and pedestrian friendly and not auto centric. And it makes people have to get into cars just because they're afraid to take another form of transportation."
Age Friendly Carbondale's report features several recommendations for improvements on Highway 133. Here's Delson again:
"The first thing, the most important thing is to slow down traffic. There are legal ways within CDOT for us to change the traffic speed, the legal speed on Highway 133. So because we've had so much development. It now qualifies to be a business district from the roundabout to the bridge going to 82. And that would lower the traffic from 35 to 25.
And because there's so many new residences from the roundabout. Going south, it could be re designated, it's now called a rural highway. We have 20 miles speed limit through town, and people rarely are going 20 miles an hour. So, the most important thing, in order to lower the speed, in addition to lowering the speed limit, is to change the design of the strode so that it's uncomfortable to speed.
And that's all infrastructure changes. It's pedestrian islands, it's landscaping, it's signalized intersections, bike boxes where the bikes get to be in front of the traffic and the where it's signalized the bikes and the pedestrians go first. Just before traffic is allowed to move, the recommendations are not something that's an easy fix that comes.
Okay, let's put that in. You know, the budget all in one year, there's one pedestrian island that's in the budget for this year and that should be finished by the end of 2024. And that's a pedestrian access island. At the Cowan intersection and a pedestrian island allows you to push a button and if you can't make it all the way across the street, you get to the pedestrian aisle and push the button again.
And so both sides and that, you know, so you can safely cross the street. And then when we presented to the trustees, we presented a request. We asked for a budget allocation for 2025 to have a pedestrian crossing. From the east to the west side by city market and the trustees at their meeting. We're also talking about seeing how they could also get into the budget (I don't know if 2025 or 26) they're very expensive, is a pedestrian crossing by Montessori schools."
The current construction involves the installation of a raised island, new signage and push buttons at the Cowan Drive crossing on Highway 133. The project is estimated to take approximately three weeks.
