City Council Stands Behind
Main Street Redesign
ALAMOSA, CO
The city will install pedestrian crossing signals at Main Street and San Juan Avenue and Main Street and Hunt Avenue to help with pedestrian safety concerns downtown.
City Manager Heather Brooks told the city council on Wednesday that continuing to improve pedestrian crossings and fixing lane stripping on Main Street are two additional moves the city is taking to address safety concerns on Main Street.
She said the city is adding another disability parking space at State Avenue and Main Street near Milagros Coffee House. The city moved all of its disability parking and bike lanes off Main and to streets to the side of Main when it changed the configuration of Main Street to two lanes.
Brooks relayed the information following comments by two residents who voiced concerns to the city council about the reduction of traffic lanes on Main Street. A third resident, Loretta Mitson, actually raised the question with the city about re-installing a traffic signal on Main and San Juan to help with pedestrian crossing.
Brooks said it wouldn’t be a traffic light but flashing pedestrian lights that will be installed, and later told The Citizen construction should be finished in November. She also said the city is fixing the striping on Main Street to continue to erase striping where the former lanes existed.
City council members voiced unwavering support for the new downtown design. Councilman David Broyles and Mike Carson both said they tested the parking and pedestrian crossing around the three blocks the city changed downtown.
“One of my vehicles is a fairly big truck,” said Carson.
Broyles called the city’s downtown design plan “visionary” and predicted Alamosans would eventually come to appreciate the changes to Main Street.
“I think in the years to come, it will be a great achievement for the city council and the city,” he said.
More Coverage: Main Street Alamosa Arrives
Earlier Coverage: Alamosa’s Changing Downtown