Published Oct 29th
The efforts continue from Bike Fort Collins, the Scott Ellis Memorial Fund and YourGroupRide.com (YGR) to coordinate the replacement of existing “Share the Rules, Share the Road Signs,” or “Share the Road” signage with “Bikes May Use Full Lane” and/or “Motorists Must Give 3-Feet Clearance” (“3-Feet Clearance”) signs. In our last report, CDOT had been awaiting approval of the 3-Feet Clearance sign format from the FHWA for the Colorado Supplement of the MUTCD. While that approval subsequently took longer than CDOT expected, it has now been approved and the final design(s) have evolved to the two versions pictured below.
The first ten sign locations along Highway 34 between Loveland and Estes Park were scheduled for installation by CDOT in October, but intuitively, the schedule has been impacted by the wildfire/threats for that area in the past weeks–from the Cameron Peak Fire (burning west of Fort Collins) and the East Troublesome Fire (threatening Estes Park from the southwest). We are awaiting a new timeline from CDOT for their installation. We are hopeful that they will still get installed by the end of year, but it may be early 2021.
The ten sign locations for Highway 14 between Ted’s Place and Stove Prairie Landing are still being identified, and thus their locations and installation will not happen until spring 2021. CDOT is developing guidlines that will help dictate when these sign formats should be installed going forward—ensuring they are installed more proactively, rather than through community urging such as what we’ve been doing, or other prompts. Identifying the Highway 14 sign locations will be based on these guidelines, once developed.
As for the remaining 60 signs/locations slated to be added to roads throughout Larimer County representing either spots where conflicts have been known to occur, where actual accidents have happened, and/or are prone to potential conflict—the county was waiting on the approval of the state’s 3-Feet Clearance sign design (above), as they want to ensure uniformity and standardization between the signs they’ll be installing and those CDOT will be using not only up Highways 34 and 14, but statewide. Now that the 3-Feet Clearance design is approved, a next step for us is to reconnect with county traffic engineering and have them share their 60 identified locations, based on their data and the input we provided (from locations gathered from stakeholders across BFC, YGR and Scott Ellis Memorial Fund). We will also look to confirm an installation timeline, as the county has shared that there’s still a chance the first phase (approx. 20 signs) could get installed yet this year.
And, as a new development related to this effort, the City of Loveland has recently installed four “Bikes May Use Full Lane” signs—two in each direction along 57th Street between Garfield Ave (on the east) and Taft Hill Ave (on the west), which will be very supportive for cyclists traveling on 57th while connecting from the North Trail that runs east/west from Boyd Lake–and currently ends at Garfield–and the Longview Trail that begins at Taft Hill. Thank you Loveland!
