The City of Glenwood is in the midst of a public outreach campaign regarding transportation safety and is soliciting input from residents and regional commuters. The process will wrap up at the end of next week, with an online survey closing on March 7. 

Lee Barger is the transportation engineer for the City and has been in that position for about a year and half. His department kicked off the process to develop a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan in the summer of 2024, having hired consultants from Consor Engineers and Alta Design and gathering public insight.

That initial outreach garnered 500 hits on an online interactive map, where people could identify specific areas in need of safety enhancement. The corresponding survey saw about the same number of responses. 

Over the last few weeks, the team has gone to various schools and other public places around town to present proposed solutions, drawn up as a result of that initial round of outreach, and ask for additional input on said solutions. Overall, attendance has been low, with the biggest turn outs being at a Glenwood High School basketball game in mid-February and at the 27th Street Park and Ride. Spanish interpretation is provided.  

“The first phase was harvesting that input from everybody of, ‘Where do you not feel safe?’” explained Barger. “This second round our consultants have a whole number of different solutions … in certain locations or wholistically, throughout town.” 

Wholistic possibilities include instituting no right turns at red lights, installing red light and speed enforcement cameras, enhancing crosswalks, improving lighting, “all kinds of different things,” Barger continued. 

He said that they have discovered there’ve been lots of incidents involving pedestrians and vehicles making right-hand turns. “There’s two sides to it,” he said. “Right turns on red was instituted a long time ago when we were trying to produce less idling in downtown cities … but there’s that conflict if there’s a pedestrian right there.”  

Not too surprisingly, most of Highway 82 (Grand Avenue) — where more than 27,000 vehicles traverse daily — and a section of Highway 6 were deemed “high injury networks” by the consultants. Some areas where there are schools, bus stops or other public gathering places are considered “high-risk networks,” which also takes into account accident data. These networks are identified in red (high injury) and blue (high risk) on the online map. 

The current interactive map goes a step further and inquires which types of suggested solutions might be appropriate at any given area. There have only been 42 contributed pins on the current map. The map is color coded, and easy to use. 

And it’s not just Glenwood Springs residents who are invited to complete the survey. “We’re hoping you can get the word out to the folks in Carbondale and up in that part of the Valley, so we can get some more responses,” he suggested to this reporter. People commuting from Parachute, Gypsum, etcetera are encouraged to participate. 

Some improvements, of course, would be more affordable than others. Adding signage or enhancing crosswalks is not very costly, compared to a whole roadway makeover — from narrowing streets to enlarging sidewalks. Barger foresees getting to the lower-cost items, which could still have a significant impact, pretty quickly once the plan is approved. 

The intention is to have the plan in front of city council by June. A finalized plan will give staff direction when prioritizing and planning out future projects, and chasing the necessary funding. 

There are two final chances to participate in person before the survey will be closed. The planning team will be at Glenwood Springs Elementary School on March 4, 5 to 7pm, and at the Community Center on Midland on March 5, 4 to 6pm. What direction staff takes when presenting to city council, will depend on what matters to the people participating in the process. 

For more information and to complete the survey and drop a pin on the interactive map, visit www.gwssafetysurvey.com