CB council closing in on transportation and mobility plan for future

Volume versus speeds? Controversial issues eliminated?

By Mark Reaman

While Crested Butte town staff suggested that most of the controversial elements of the original draft transportation and mobility plan (TMP) have been eliminated or put off well into the future, the council is setting aside an hour-and-a-half at a January 16 work session to discuss the proposal. 

Initial council priorities for discussion appear to be traffic calming to slow down traffic in CB and addressing the increasing volume of cars throughout town and in various neighborhoods. While staff indicated the hope that council could provide final direction to complete the TMP at the January 16 council meeting, mayor Ian Billick suggested council will not be ready to adopt the plan at the next meeting. “I encourage the council members to review and come up with their main points that you want to study and discuss,” he said at the January 2 council meeting.

Community Development director Troy Russ said that there has been a lot of public participation with the draft plan that was originally proposed a year ago, “and a lot of the controversy has worked its way out of the plan,” he said, specifically noting the decision to back off the proposal to turn the Butte Avenue pedestrian bridge into a possible vehicular bridge. “An hour-and-a-half should be ample time for council discussion.”

Russ said 1,600 people have provided some input to the plan and while the roundabout at Sixth Street and Red Lady Avenue is considered controversial and remains in the plan, items like whether to heat Elk Avenue sidewalks in the winter, eliminate head-in parking in the Third and Elk area, and whether to promote more use of the alleys for residential traffic are all pushed back or out of the draft plan. Some of those issues will be considered in other upcoming town plans, such as the Elk Avenue streetscape plan.

“Other than the roundabout, I don’t see a controversial item in the plan now,” said Russ. “Things will be implemented gradually and incrementally.”

During a January 2 discussion about a possible town policy defining when and where traffic calming measures should be implemented throughout Crested Butte, a bigger picture discussion emerged tied to the TMP. 

While Russ said there is generally very good compliance with the town’s 15 mile per hour (mph) speed limit that made it “incredibility safe” for pedestrians, some councilmembers felt it wasn’t good enough. Russ said there was an 85% compliance rate within one or two mph of the 15-mph speed limit by vehicles. He said speeds could be calmed more and said flower boxes have been effective tools for doing so. The town constructed about 26 such boxes and they are placed throughout Crested Butte in the summer.

“A frequent call I get as a council representative is that traffic in the summer is too fast and everyone wants a flower box, or a flashing speed limit sign or caution signs in their neighborhood,” said councilmember Mallika Magner.

“This is where a policy would be helpful to council and staff,” responded Russ. “What metric do we use to place those tools? A policy is a balancing act of town resources.”

“If you live on a Crested Butte street with bikes and kids and pedestrians all using the road, that 15% is a lot of cars that are speeding,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “Fifteen percent of say, 800 cars, is a lot of cars.”

“I can change the percentage to 95% as a threshold and come back with new metrics, but the streets are safe,” said Russ.

“It’s a people perception problem as much as a traffic problem,” said Billick. “If we have fewer cars, there are less of them in the 15% percentile. In the bigger picture, should we be doing more to reduce the number of cars travelling in town?”

“I agree we need a strategy to reduce the number of cars in town but from the policy perspective, what is the standard for the deployment of calming devices?” asked Russ.

“Having things in one neighborhood and not another will always be a problem,” said Billick.

“We need to manage our resources. We can’t service everybody,” said Russ.

“If we accept that there will be some dissent, we need an objective and transparent process,” said Billick.

“We will get feedback on the one bad pedestrian experience if there are 10 good ones. I’ve been walking around town a while,” said councilmember Anna Fenerty, who grew up in Crested Butte. “Our town is designed to be divided. There are only a few main arteries. It’s counterintuitive but one way to get people to speed less (on side streets) is to divide more. We should be keeping the slow neighborhoods slow. We heard this during the Butte Avenue bridge discussion.”

“There are consequences to every action,” said Russ.

“I agree with Anna, and I would say that volume is perhaps the most critical thing,” said Billick. “Managing volume, even in different parts of town, is a critical priority. I don’t want to implement barriers to push more cars onto the currently calm side streets.”

“The marshals need to be a part of this discussion and they aren’t in the room tonight,” said Fenerty. “Just the presence of a marshal, in a car or on foot, is important.”

“I’m hearing volume is important,” said Russ.

“Looking at both speeds and volume is important,” agreed councilmember Kent Cowherd. “So is looking at specific areas. For example, near Rainbow Park, putting flower boxes to slow down vehicles seems logical.”

“That goes to Anna’s point, and I agree that different neighborhoods have different standards and expectations. It’s not about absolute numbers,” said Billick. “Living on Sopris, I have a different expectation than people living on Butte. We all notice when change happens to those specific places.”

“Each corner of town is different,” said Fenerty. “It is important to look at the specific nature of each street with this discussion.”

“I am hearing the need for a transportation policy with things like traffic calming but council doesn’t want every street to have the same standards,” said Billick. “It has been a rich discussion. Staff can come back with new ideas based on the discussion.”

Council will start the TMP work session on Tuesday, January 16 at 6 p.m.