The City of Colorado Springs plans to reconfigure Vickers Drive between Academy Boulevard and Union Boulevard.
The lane change will reduce Vickers Drive to one lane in each direction while maintaining the center turn lane. The lane reconfiguration follows 2C work on Vickers Drive that repaved the road between Academy and Union.
According to City Traffic Engineer Todd Frisbie, the changes are occurring for two main reasons.
First, existing lanes do not meet City standards for lane width. The driving lanes will increase from 10 feet wide to 11 feet wide to meet City standards. The center turn lane will increase from 10 feet wide to 13 feet wide. The substandard bike lane width will be increased to the City standard of six feet for on-street bike lanes.
Secondly, the current four-lane configuration has led to excessive speeding and related accidents. Over the last decade, this section of road has witnessed 28 broadside crashes and three bicycle crashes. Broadside crashes are often the most severe injury-related type of vehicle crashes. National research and the City’s experience show that lane reconfigurations of this type are a proven safety tactic that can reduce these accidents by 30-50%.
Travel times are not expected to be significantly impacted through the corridor, Frisbie said. Roads with a single lane in each direction and a center turn lane have a capacity of 15,000 vehicles per day; Vickers Drive’s traffic volume ranges between 6,000-8,800 vehicles per day.
“Our data shows that travel times will only see an increase of about 10 seconds, mostly due to drivers exceeding the speed limit no longer being able to pass slower vehicles,” he said. “Given the tradeoffs, we expect to see in accident reduction and better compliance to posted speeds limits. This is a commonsense change that helps improve safety and makes it easier to travel along the road by widening the lanes, while minimally impacting drivers.”
The change will also feature a buffer between the travel lanes and the existing bike lane. Vickers Drive is part of the City’s on-street bike system. The Vickers bike lane connects to bike lanes on Flintridge Drive and provides east-west connectivity for bikes between Austin Bluffs Parkway and Academy Boulevard.
