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Public and staff debate Fourth/Fifth bike lanes, Seventh Street options; city clarifies pilot cost
Summary
Public comment praised the Fourth and Fifth Street bike lanes while other speakers questioned staff outreach and data for a proposed Seventh Street redesign; City Manager said the bike-lane pilot cost about $170,000, not the $1 million reported in the newspaper, and staff will post updated Seventh/Ninth Street options on the city engagement site.
Speakers at the Feb. 5 Grand Junction City Council meeting voiced support and criticism for recent and proposed street redesigns, and city staff clarified the cost and next steps for the Fourth/Fifth pilot and a separate Seventh Street study.
Quinn Rodriguez, a sixth grader at Redmonds Middle School, addressed the council during public comment: “Please continue to add things like Fourth And Fifth Street bike lanes to Grand Junction with the future generations in mind.” His remarks thanked the city for the existing lanes and urged continuation of bike infrastructure.
Other public commenters expressed concern over staff outreach and data used for proposed changes. Andy Smith, a small business owner, said he attended a Seventh Street public meeting and that staff responses felt “fairly canned” and that staff lacked specific data about the nature of the referenced accidents. He asked whether accident counts distinguish pedestrian- or bicycle-involved crashes from vehicle-on-vehicle crashes.
City Manager Bennett addressed a factual error published in the Daily Sentinel about the Fourth/Fifth pilot. Bennett told council, “we did make a correction to the Veil Sentinel related to the recent article on Fourth And Fifth Street that, incorrectly noted that we, had spent, over a million dollars on the pilot. It's, we're at about a hundred and 70,000 on the pilot study. There was a million spent on roadway improvements in in that area, including those streets that had nothing to do with the pilot.”
Bennett also said staff will post updated information on the city’s engagement site (referred to in the meeting as Engage GGA) reflecting council direction from a recent workshop. The updated materials will show options intended to preserve travel lanes on large segments of Seventh Street while presenting alternatives — including an option focused on Ninth Street — that would not reduce general travel lanes.
Council emphasized that the SS4A grant discussion (approved separately) is an implementation and education step, not a precondition for imposing lane reductions. Staff said the SS4A funding would buy mobile speed-feedback signs and fund outreach, and that larger implementation requests would return later should council choose construction projects.
No formal vote was required on roadway design at the meeting; staff will continue public outreach and post revised materials for citizen review.
