In our September 2025 issue of The Pedal Post (eNewsletter), Bike Fort Collins posed the question: “Have you experienced conflict or felt unsafe while traveling through the intersection of East Swallow Road and South College Avenue?”
Thank you to those who responded. Below is a recap of the results.
WHAT HAPPENED?
In addition, for those who reported conflict, we asked them to describe their experience. Here is a sampling of the responses we received:
- “Unmarked very narrow space for cyclists on both sides of swallow a striped bike lane is needed.“
- “A driver went straight from the right lane of Swallow.“
- “I feel this is a safe intersection. If I’m on Swallow approaching from the west (heading east) I always push the walk button for added safety.”
- “Heading east on Swallow other vehicles trying to merge into the right turn lane I have experienced being cutoff or nearly sideswiped. The frontage road also presents problems with vehicles blocking my forward progress or attempting to inch their vehicle past me while I’m clearly in the bike lane.”
- “The light doesn’t always allow for cross traffic to cross so while it wasn’t a conflict, it was probably 5 minutes of sitting there. It was dark so ended up crossing without the light but that was only possible because of the late hour and there being minimal traffic.”
- “The bike lane is narrow and you have cars on both sides of you with only a little room. Additionally because of the frontage road particularly on the west side of the intersection there are cars super focused on getting from the frontage road to the intersection that may not be paying attention. Also there are lots of cars coming in and out of the dealerships multiple entries on the west side and out of the DMV area parking lot and mall area on the east side with low visibility and cars in a hurry to get out due to not a lot of opportunities to exit those areas,so it feels like a super busy area without a lot of room and visibility for bikes even though it is a bikeway and main way to get to the Mason trail”
- “The frontage road on the west side of College makes this intersection tricky! The Swallow bike lane disappears, but drivers are often not keen to have you take the lane and then the Swallow bike lane on the east side of College takes a bit to reappear and there are often folks parked in it.”
- “The same problem as every other unsafe intersection, callous drivers not giving space and right of way to cyclists”
HOW CAN IT BE IMPROVED?
Finally, we asked respondents how they thought the intersection/facility could be improved. Here is a sampling of the responses we received:
- “Stripe for designated bike lane on Swallow.”
- “Eliminate the E. Parallel Lane. along College and put a right turn only barriers off of Swallow.”
- “There’s no bike lane so must merge with the center lane if traffic going straight through.”
- “Signage and lane markings (solid green pavement marking to indicate bicycle zone.”
- “Make sure the lights change to allow for cross traffic. More clearly mark the bike lane on the west side so cars that are turning right onto the frontage road clearly see the bike lane.”
- “Maybe a lot wider bike lane with protected bollards, and maybe closing some of the exits like from the DMV area parking lot because there is a street they can also come out of, similarly with the dealerships, fewer entry points onto Swallow.”
- “Flashing yellow lights activated by cyclist crossing College.”
- “This is the least sketchy bike route if you are eastbound from College. Horsetooth and Drake and Prospect are less than ideal avenues east. This is the safe route I use whenever going east-west across College.”
- “Don’t have the Swallow bike lane disappear around the intersection! also need a better way to integrate frontage road traffic.”
- “Driver education, required driving tests for license renewal.”
Again, thank you to all who responded—and for sharing their experiences. Stay tuned for additional surveys inquiring about other intersections and bicycle facilities.
If you have an intersection that you would like featured, please contact Timothy Wooten at tim.wooten@bikefortcollins.org