Last December, we introduced DeWulff Engineering, a group of CSU engineering students who were developing a proposed design solution for the intersection of East Elizabeth Street and College Avenue as part of a class project.
As we had shared back then, Bike Fort Collins was excited to hear they recognized the same problem that BFC had brought to the attention of the City’s Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) and Transportation Board via a presentation in a joint meeting with both groups in February 2021, as well had surveyed the community on in March 2021. The main problem at East Elizabeth & College is for bicyclists leaving campus and wanting to travel eastbound on Elizabeth. The Gold Trail on the campus side has cyclists and pedestrians cross College on the north side of Elizabeth, yet a bicyclist ultimately needs to be on the south side of Elizabeth to pick up the bike lane. Rather than cross College Ave. at the existing crosswalk, and then also cross Elizabeth (on the east side of College) via the existing crosswalk to get to the south side of the street (which is also referred to as a Dutch crossing, and is time consuming) the intersection elicits dangerous and potentially conflicting movements by cyclists by either crossing diagonally over College Ave. to get to the south side of Elizabeth, or crossing College at the crosswalk, and then diagonally crossing mid-block along East Elizabeth to get to the south side by the time they hit the Remington & Elizabeth intersection (see videos below showcasing both behaviors).
In December we shared the three design options they had developed for consideration. At that time, following a robust review process, the option they recommended and that was ultimately selected to move forward with entailed the reconfiguration of the Gold Trail, splitting it and adding a spur that connects to a to-be-added crossing of College Ave. on the south side of Elizabeth.
As a member of their Advisory Committee, BFC sat through their final presentation showcasing their final design and construction estimate. We were also appreciative of a similar presentation they made our Board of Directors.
To reiterate, Team DeWulff is comprised of Albert Marquez (Team Lead), Anne Cushnie, Salim Al Abri, Jaber Al Sabah, Saud Al Amri and Daniel Norman. We congratulate them on a job well done and we hope to see their plans come to fruition some time. A special thanks to CSU (again) for including BFC in this process.
FINAL DESIGN
It’s a great solution and works pretty cost effectively with existing infrastructure. It solves the north and south sides crossing on College. An underpass is preferred to avoid the light, but that would be extremely expensive and still wouldn’t solve the crossing of Elizabeth before the intersection. With the structure traffic flow the students created the best possible design.