Midland fix is excessive

Our View
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
January 29, 2008

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Glenwood Springs City Council has now moved toward the next solution to the traffic-calming question surrounding Midland Avenue.

We have to say the kind of money that’s been mentioned for this newest project is a little excessive.

Council has OK’d the first phase of the project with a $1.7 million price tag that includes 14 traffic-calming devices. The goals of the project are as follows: Improve safety, maintain vehicle capacity, reduce speeds to the 25-mph limit, encourage nonaggressive driving, maintain neighborhood access, define neighborhood identity through streetscape, incorporate wildlife-sensitive landscaping and make it easy to maintain.

This has been a subject as smooth as trekking through scrub oak. But the Midland Avenue discussions never disappear, plan after traffic-calming plan. Planters that were placed in the road in an attempt to slow down traffic turned out to be a mistake and were subsequently removed. For that reason, City Council needs to carefully consider whether it wants to go down a similar path that could also be a mistake.

A letter written to the Post Independent asked a very interesting question: Why not use the money to hire another police officer to consistently patrol the area?

Obviously, hiring in this region isn’t always easy, but the point is that other possible alternatives should be looked at. Especially considering that a $1.7 million investment is the current solution.

What can’t be overlooked is the impact this avenue’s traffic volume has on residents of the area; however, this is still an alternate route for thousands of people to get through Glenwood Springs every weekday.

Obviously, the bigger question is what does the future hold for possible alternative routes through town. This should also come into consideration when decisions concerning how best to spend $1.7 million are made.

With a speed limit of 25 mph, there’s a definite safety factor involved. But when you look at some smaller towns like New Castle, a 30-mph speed limit through town works. Why not raise the speed limit to 30 mph on Midland Avenue?

Midland Avenue has turned into an answerless riddle, with consultants providing recommendations and council spending valuable time trying to find possible solutions.

It might be one of the most traveled streets in Glenwood Springs, but why is so much time and money spent on this one thoroughfare?

Maybe the answer to the Midland Avenue issue lies in asking a simple question: Is Midland so badly broken it requires a $1.7 million fix?