GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) - Anger, frustration and a room full of concern for the future. Residents around Grand Junction spoke to the city council about the changes made to Fourth and Fifth street with community members weighing in for and against it.
WesternSlopeNow was able to speak to Casey Dittmer, a local business owner from the downtown area. She told WesternSlopeNow when it came time for the project to initiate, they weren't given much notice and she sees the effect of the changes.
Dittmer states, “We were not thought of when this new implementation happened and the biggest thing for safety is that delivery trucks can come down there, trucks with trailers. But, EMS, even so, our buildings become less safe. Our clients are less safe because we don't have access to emergency services.”
On the other side of the road, WesternSlopeNow also spoke with Benaiah Adams, Co-leader of the GJ bike night, saying it feels safe for someone biking down the street.
Adams explains, “So being a cyclist I'm excited to see the implementation and start of the implementation of the bike plan. A lot of the discussions and results of studies that the city did through 2021 and 2022. And starting to see it come to fruition in the town and seeing a safer route and avenue for cyclists, where it gets them out of the way of traffic.”
Trent Prall, transportation director for the city of Grand Junction, states, “I mean, it was intended to be to create some friction so that people don't feel as comfortable to go as high as speeds as they had been previously down through our downtown core. So that's one of the impetuses here behind the project is safety for all users, as well as creating space for users. Such as the bikes that didn't have a space there before, and walking through the positivity about the bike paths.”
At the end of the day, it is all part of the process of the project taking place within the city.
Prall explains, “This is a pilot program, and so it's allowing the community to test drive this. All we've got invested in it, for the most part, is just paint and plastic. All of that can move relatively inexpensively. So compared to had we immortalized it in concrete to start, that would have been much more expensive upfront cost and much more expensive to change later. So I think it's a really good opportunity for the community to be able to drive it, test, drive it and provide their feedback.”