All bike and walking planning should include the new electric skateboards, bikes, hoverboards and the rest in the planning. In many places I visit, and in GJ as well, people are zooming by on sidewalks and walking paths on these newer electric powered devices, which may soon dominate the future of transportation. Some agency (the city, developers, builders ?) should improve the needed transportation issues much earlier than is currently the practice. Right now builders are constructing over 100 new homes, duplexes, apartments, a new Mormon Temple, and new business in the vicinity of Horizon Drive, 27 Road, and G Road. There are also plans for landscaping Horizon Park off of 27 Road north of G Road. Currently to walk or ride a bicycle anywhere in this area requires use of very busy and narrow roads with cars going 35 mph or faster. Kids and adults in these new subdivisions could not safely walk along or cross Horizon Drive, 27 Road (12th Street north of the roundabout), or G Road. There are no crosswalks or sidewalks along 27 Road or G Road. Solutions are needed now and should be built now!

Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the Grand Junction Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan. 1. Tenth Street should be a Bicycle Boulevard from Belford to Main Street. This route is heavily used by cyclists and pedestrians, and vehicle use is less than 1000 per day. If it was a Bicycle Boulevard the route could be made safer with enhancements such as refuge medians on Grand and Gunnison, which would also discourage driving on Tenth Street. This half-mile route provides access to two schools and CMU. Alternative routes are available on 9th and 11th Streets. 2. page 47. The 24 Road/Redlands Parkway overpass should be a high priority for a trail, cycle track, or protected bike lane, instead of low priority as currently shown in the draft Plan. The current route is not safe for cyclists and pedestrians accessing Mesa Mall, Community Hospital, Canyon View Park and other important destinations in this area. 3. page 31. For buffered bike lanes, cross hatching should be required even if the buffer is less than 3 feet wide. The City has done this in the past and it clearly highlights the buffer, so it should be included in the Plan. 4. The Plan should recommend use of automated counters for bike and pedestrian use so that changes in active transportation use can be measured as the Plan is implemented.

I was at your open house last night but didn't have time to leave comments so hear are some I would like to add to the list: 1. broaden the concept/name to a wider range of non-auto users - walkers, runners, stridor bikes, strollers, bikes, trikes, ebikes, scooters, escooters, skateboards, eskateboards, hoverboards, etrikes and who knows what else will come. 2 add a soft path either adjacent or better detached along as much of the riverfront trail as possible, esp as new areas get built or changed from asphalt to concrete. We need to accommodate not only more users but a much wider range of speeds. 3 consider an underpass beneath Patterson Rd to access Matchett Park/CRC ( I understand 28 1/2 Rd or Indian Wash could be options) 3 make bike/pedestrian signal buttons more convenient when they are far from the actual crossing (N. Ave and 10th, where many CMU students, etc cross) is one example. (some newer intersections have done that). 4 Improve wayfinding signs by moving the map lower (many signs have an upper green sign showing distances to various points and right below it a map - the sign is easy to read but the map is too small and high to be easily read - this would be an easy fix. 5 consider opening the Highline Canal ditch bank along Matchett Park to the public, if the city has that ownership or easement - is high enough for great views and could help break the canal bank barrier. 6 complete the detached path along the north side of S. Camp - that will help complete the Redlands Loop without crossing S. Camp once the Monument II trail is built. 7 Make sure new subdivisions have as many connecting paths between homes as possible to kids can easily visit friends without having to navigate busy streets. Also continue adding paths to canal banks wherever possible to play for future canal bank trails.(this already done in many places I am aware of) 8 try to keep bike lanes as clean as possible. In particular, Monument Rd heading down is often so full of sand and gravel its hard not to swerve out onto the road, at least on a road bike (Monument II will help correct this). I greatly appreciate this effort and all the other ideas I saw last night and think this will go a long way towards making GJ and better place to travel car-free for pleasure, shopping and work.

Can you give us more information on the Shared Micromobility? Selected companies, exact launch date?

This is a great thing for Grand Junction and I applaud the foresight for bringing this forward. The one thing I see as a vital piece missing is the utilization of the canal system. While I understand these are corporately owned parcels and cause a lot of stir when brought into this conversation, they are existing natural pathway that cross through the entire city. The views are great from many sections and the grades are relatively flat. They are a pedestrian/bicycle superhighway that already intersects a vast majority of the city. The cost saving and safety improvements from incorporating these into a master plan would be great. The irrigation companies need to be brought on board with the fact that the utilization of these pathway is for public benefit. There are plenty of city’s that have symbiotic relationships with their irrigation districts for the utilization of their Maintance roads.

The rough draft of this plan looks incredibly well thought out from a layperson's perspective. I have to commend the team working on this. I hope that momentum is able to continue so that we can have a profitable and healthy city.

A fundamental change needs to take place..... placing more focus on Bike/Pedestrian access as it relates to business city center..... For example, North Ave is lined with business, neighborhoods, lincoln park and a university. Yet the city still treats the traffic flow on North Ave as a priority. The priority needs to be pedestrian and bike access to the thousands of people that live city center...alongside North Ave and the businesses and university. It should be more efficient for pedestrians and bikes to access this corridor. Bike Lanes on North Ave, 30 MPH speed limit and the addition of multiple cross walks should be added. You want to create access and efficiency between the people and businesses they visit. Instead what we have seen is the push to increase the flow of traffic....and restrict access and efficiency by elimination left turns onto north and installing bus turn outs that insure that the pace of traffic is sped up..... see the focus of public trans port was relegated to second place in an effort to keep the cars moving..... Thats not what you want to do in high density city centers full of businesses like found along north ave. Will traffic be slower and congested...yes, with the area thrive and grow....yes.

There are some great resources with the Strong Towns nonprofit that relate to making more profitable and pedestrian friendly cities. Many changes to make our city more economical seem counter-intuitive to standard infrastructure improvement practices, but the data back them up. For example, making streets feel less safe for drivers (making them narrower, adding trees to the sides, etc.), actually makes them safer for pedestrians because drivers naturally slow down. This kind of thinking could have been applied to the First and Grand intersection, which was "improved" by designing faster car throughput, which makes it significantly less safe for pedestrians and cyclists. More pedestrians and cyclists is financially beneficial for our city. Less need for vehicles frees up resources for low income to spend on other basic needs. Less infrastructure wear and tear. More dense shopping and more taxes collected from buildings that were once on parking lots. Less money spent on healthcare as folks are healthier from not having to sit in a car, and the list goes on. Denser downtowns produce more tax $ per acre and require less infrastructure maintenance. We (GJ) could go so far as to hire Urban3 to do a fiscal analysis, but only need to look at their hundreds of existing analysis' to see these trends. I am very excited that GJ has this initiative and am ready to volunteer my time to improve our great city to this initiative! Sources (I would be ecstatic if someone reads these): https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/6/the-key-to-slowing-traffic-is-street-design-not-speed-limits https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/1/16/why-walkable-streets-are-more-economically-productive-3bzg5 Urban3: https://www.urbanthree.com/

The Lincoln Park event was very poorly promoted. Disappointing to read a cover story in the Sentinel after the fact instead of before the event.

The Northeast corner of Orchard/28 1/4 RD is unsafe for wheelchair users. The slope of the wheelchair ramps are extreme when rounding the corner on the sidewalk, causing my chair to tip sideways. The bike lane coming down 28 1/4 Rd. suddenly jumps over a lane when crossing Orchard, and is also unsafe.

I would love to see a pedestrian and cycling overpass/underpass across 12th to CMU. It’s such a congested area with a history of accidents, it could be a practical and potentially beautiful solution to this problem!

On Redlands, South Broadway has no shoulder. Bicyclists are allowed to use a full lane. The law requires a 3’ buffer. How does someone driving a full sized pickup or SUV leave a 3’ space if cyclists are using a full lane? Do the math.

As a firefighter for the city it would be great to see improvements made to result in lowering our call volume of avoidable accidents. My wife works at SMH and is also currently attending CMU, both of which are popular places for these accidents to occur. Getting a call at either location always makes me nervous that she is potentially who was hit. I believe that raised crosswalks similar to 1st St would prevent these accidents from being as frequent. 7th St from Patterson to Bookcliff, and 12th St from Orchard to North Ave I believe are the worst and would benefit from these.