Increase in cars driving through Covered Bridge spurs action in Vail
Vail will begin testing the bollard technology, with Ford Park slated for the first area of implementation
Courtesy image/Kelsie Papiersky
Many locals have seen it or heard about it — the wayward automobile, driving down Bridge Street, perhaps even through the Covered Bridge, where cars are not allowed.
But one local worker who has a front-row seat to the action says the problem is getting worse in the age of Google Maps, when driving directions can quickly turn to walking directions without motorists realizing the car icon has switched to that of a walker on the popular application.
Shaun Filiault says in his 18 years working at Pepi Sports on Bridge Street, he has seen a lot more cars making wrong turns onto Bridge Street in recent years than he ever saw in years past.
“In the old days, nobody ever tried to drive over Bridge Street, or they saw people standing outside kind of waving at them to try to tell them not to drive there, they’d roll down their window,” he said. “Nowadays, people just follow the directions on their app, and if you try to say something to them, they just look at you like you’re crazy.”
Filiault says he’s even seen vehicles drive through the Covered Bridge.
Support Local Journalism
“My suggestion would be to use removable posts like they have in Dowd Junction down by the bike path,” he said.
Filiault’s suggestion, known as traffic control bollards, was echoed at a recent Vail Town Council meeting by resident Douglas Smith. Smith worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from October 2009 to November 2013 and said while working that job, he started his morning every day by reading “the most horrible things that humans would do to one another.”
Smith referenced a pair of recent incidents that brought to light, in his mind, the need for traffic control bollards for Bridge Street.
“As we saw in the tragedy at the Christmas market in (the German city of Magdeburg), as we saw in New Orleans, this is a persistent and constant threat,” he said.
In Magdeburg, six people — including five women aged 52, 45, 52, 67 and 75, and a 9-year-old boy — were killed and more than 200 people were injured when a car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market on Dec. 20.
In New Orleans, a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, then exited the truck and engaged in a shootout with police before being fatally shot during the early morning hours of Jan. 1. Fifteen people were killed, including the perpetrator.
Both incidents are considered to be acts of terrorism by investigators.
But, Smith added, it doesn’t have to be a bad actor.
In 2003, 89-year-old George Russell Weller accidentally drove his car through a farmers market in Santa Monica, California, killing 10 people and injuring more than 70.
Smith said he has heard stories similar to those recounted by Filiault in recent weeks.
“Two days ago, a friend walking out of the Bridge Street ski lockers watched a Jeep drive across the bridge to pick up his skis,” Smith told the Vail Town Council on Jan. 7. “Innocent mistake, but things can go awry quickly.”
Smith said traffic control bollards work well in Europe, and he’d like to see something similar used in Vail.
“It’s colder in Davos than it is here, and yet, they have bollards that work,” he said. “Something needs to happen before we come before this council and we’ve seen a great tragedy happen here.”
The town has responded, and will begin testing the bollard technology in Vail, with Ford Park slated for the first area of implementation.
