Avon sizes up options for improving pedestrian safety on Highway 6

After collecting feedback in December, Avon town staff presented to the Town Council on Jan. 9. some potential pedestrian crossings along U.S. Highway 6 in Avon, including two options for the Stone Bridge Road and Highway 6 intersection.

Town Council last discussed the Highway 6 safety improvement project in October during the budget process, allocating funds from the town’s capital improvement plan to create pedestrian crossings.

Avon’s goal is to add four pedestrian crossings on Highway 6 in Avon in specific sites near high-traffic bus stops.

At River Edge and Eaglebend Apartments, and Mountain Stream Condos, the town plans to install pedestrian crossings, sidewalks, flashing beacons, overhead streetlights, lighting to illuminate the bus shelters, and widened medians to slow traffic and serve as refuge islands for crossing pedestrians.

Due to Colorado Department of Transportation rules, the flashing beacons and pedestrian crossing painted lines cannot be installed in locations along Highway 6 where the speed limit is above 35 miles per hour, but other improvements can be made in all four locations in the meantime.

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“They will not permit us to add formal crossings to the other three crossings located at River Edge, Eaglebend, and Mountain Stream, so we came up with a concept, working with CDOT, that let’s go ahead and add landscape median refuge islands adjacent to the bus stops so that transit users are just crossing one lane at a time,” said Eva Wilson, Avon’s public works director.

Two potential options were presented to the council for the Stonebridge intersection.

The first option is to put in a traffic signal at the intersection of Stone Bridge Road and Highway 6. This would involve relocating the driveway access of River Forge Townhouses and Whitewater Condos. With the traffic signal, a painted pedestrian crossing could be put in at the light, and pedestrians could push a button to be added into the cycle of traffic movement, providing clear right-of-way to drivers and pedestrians. A sidewalk would also be put in running from the pedestrian crossing to the bus stop and River Oaks Apartments.

The traffic signal is not necessary with current volumes of traffic along that stretch of Highway 6 — it would only be implemented to protect pedestrians. However, traffic at the bus stops is growing rapidly.

“I know from a report that I got for Eagle Valley Transit Authority that this year is, on average, not on those stops (at the four sites), necessarily, but on average, up already about 20% over last year, and last year was about 20% over the year before,” said Amy Phillips, Avon’s mayor.

The second option would be to not install a traffic signal and try to slow traffic with wider medians, which would also serve as refuge islands for pedestrians crossing the road. This option would also include the installation of a sidewalk on the north side of the road, and would not involve relocating the driveway.

The town initially worked with the Colorado Department of Transportation to design a roundabout at the Stonebridge intersection to slow down the prevailing speed of cars to 35 miles per hour. With the design nearly completed, however, CDOT reversed course on supporting the roundabout, citing concerns about the size of the roundabout, the grade of the slope around the roundabout, and proximity to a residential community, among other reasons, according to Wilson.

Both the traffic signal and the non-traffic signal options have CDOT support.

The total budget for the project is $3.5 million, including two Colorado Department of Transportation grants, and Eagle County and Avon contributions of $200,000 and $300,000. Town staff estimated the total amount to be enough to cover the no-signal option, but it would likely fall short of the traffic signal’s total cost. The council would need to raise additional funding if proceeding with the traffic signal option.

“Right now, due to cost, we’re recommending the no traffic signal option, because we’re not sure we have enough funds to do option one,” Wilson said.

“If you recall the roundabout design, when we were at about 80-90% design, we were $6 million short,” Wilson said.

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To council member Chico Thuon, a higher price for a safer crossing was worthwhile.

“Whatever the price is, it’s the price of a life,” Thuon said. “I really have to stress that we need some pedestrian lights.”

“If you go with the traffic signal, it’s likely to be a little bit over budget,” said Eric Heil, Avon’s town manager. “We can find places in the capital improvements plan to cover it,” he said.

River Edge, which is Vail Resorts employee housing, lies just outside of Avon, on unincorporated Eagle County land. Council member Lindsay Hardy said that Vail Resorts and Eagle County should assist with the project.

“It’s shocking to me that we aren’t doing more, and by we, that is technically county property, and I would like the county to care more. I would like Vail Resorts to get involved, and care more about their employees that are living there, trying to cross the road,” Hardy said. “If we really want bus ridership, we need to protect those people trying to get on the bus, so I think it’s money well-spent trying to create safety in these corridors, and I’d like to see the county get more involved, financially, as well.”

Several council members, including Rich Carroll, advocated for a traffic light at the Stonebridge intersection.

“If pedestrian safety is our primary concern, which it is for me, then we need to install a signal,” Carroll said. “We need to do everything we can to make sure that the pedestrians crossing in all four of those areas are as safe as possible. If we’re going to do all of this, do it right.”

The Avon Town Council voted in favor of pursuing putting a traffic light at the Stonebridge intersection and moving forward with traffic calming efforts at the other three crossings.