As part of Greeley’s goal to eliminate fatal and serious injury traffic crashes, the city tracked every crash from 2014 to 2022.
The study showed that in 75% of crashes during that timeframe, nobody was injured. But of the 320 crashes that involved serious injury or death, 60.6% occurred at intersections.
Heavy traffic fills the intersections of U.S 34 and 35th Avenue on May 3, 2024, in Greeley. The public-transit-oriented project entails the city building a regional mobility hub between two grade-separated interchanges at 35th and 47th avenues. A walking tunnel — which will connect that neighborhood south of U.S. 34 to Centerplace — will also be installed under the newly lifted highway. (Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)Serious injury is defined as an injury that involves a substantial risk of death, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any part or organ. The definition also includes any break, fractures or burns of the second or third degree.
Across Greeley, the city identified 26 junctions as “high-injury intersections.” Those 26 make up just 1.1% of Greeley’s intersections, but accounted for 23% of the fatal and serious injury crashes in Greeley — meaning a fatal or injury crash was 21 times as likely than at an average intersection.
Of those 26, the city identified eight as “priority high-injury intersections”:
U.S. 34 Bypass and 11th Avenue; U.S. 34 Bypass and 17th Avenue; U.S. 34 Bypass and 35th Avenue; U.S. 34 Bypass and 83rd Avenue; U.S. 34 and Weld County Road 17; 10th Street and 47th Avenue; 10th Street and 59th Avenue; Two Rivers Parkway and 37th Street.During the nine years studied, there were 39 fatal and serious injury crashes across these eight intersections — accounting for 12% of those crashes in the city, though they are just 0.3% of Greeley’s more than 2,300 junctions.
That means there were 37.6 times as many fatal and serious injury crashes than at the average Greeley intersection.
Traffic flies by the intersection of 10th Street and 59th Avenue in west Greeley on Friday. This is one of the many dangerous intersections in Greeley. (Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)Though each junction is unique — both in what makes them dangerous and what solutions make sense — most share a few key similarities.
All have at least one road with a speed limit of 45 mph or above. For seven of the eight, that is either 10th Street or the U.S. 34 Bypass. Two Rivers Parkway northbound approaching 37th Avenue is also 45 mph.
Crashes on Greeley roads with a speed limit of 40 to 50 mph were shown to be 2.4 times more likely than the average road. On roads with speed limits of 55 mph or above, severe crashes have shown to be 3.7 times more likely.
“I would say that in most situations, there is one problem and many solutions,” Younkin said. “The one problem is speed, and there are a lot of solutions to that problem.”
Tied to speed, those same seven intersections were all on four-lane roads — on which the most serious crashes were shown to be four times more likely to happen than on a two-lane road.
While state highways — of which both 10th Street, or U.S. 34 Business, and the U.S. 34 Bypass are considered — account for just 9% of Greeley’s roadways but make up 54% of roadways fatal and serious injury crashes occurred on.
The Greeley Police Department take photos of a fatal motorcycle-versus-car collision at 14th Avenue and 16th Street in front of Greeley Central High School on May 2, 2024. (Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)U.S. 34 Bypass and 11th Avenue, U.S. 34 Bypass and 17th Avenue
These two intersections are less than a half-mile from each other and pose a lot of the same problems: many surrounding pedestrians and cyclists.
“A significant portion of the fatalities at both 17th Avenue and 11th Avenue were pedestrian-related,” Younkin said. “And in general, the speeds tend to be a little bit higher through there than the posted speed limit and volume is quite high.”
Cade Campbell, owner of Blue Sky Cycles, lives in Evans but commutes downtown daily for his business. He said he tried biking to work but quit because, even on an e-bike, he didn’t feel safe riding on the streets.
“It’s just a car-centric town,” Campbell said. “I tell people to head down to the river and ride the Poudre River Trail. Stay off the streets.”
Having to cross the U.S. 34 Bypass on Greeley’s east side, Campbell is exactly the type of person the city has in mind when thinking of solutions to the intersections at both 11th and 17th avenues. But the solution may not have much to do with the intersections themselves at all.
“They’re relatively high speed, relatively high volume and relatively high conflict,” Younkin said. “We don’t have a great solution to protect pedestrians at the intersection, which is one of the big reasons we’re going forward with the UNC underpass at 15th Avenue Court.”
The John Evans Tunnel, which crosses under the U.S. 34 Bypass at 15th Street Court, already allows most pedestrians a safer alternative to crossing at either 11th Avenue or 17th Avenue.
But, at around just 8 feet wide, the tunnel isn’t accessible for people with disabilities. And with low lighting, the city understands it’s not the most inviting to pedestrians.
Greeley has already secured funding for rebuilding a new tunnel, which is currently under design, Younkin said.
“We (are planning) to make it approximately 20 feet wide instead of 8 feet,” Younkin said. “And add some additional lighting, add some artistic elements to make it more inviting to people.”
Younkin said a bridge or tunnel is always the safest crossing, but because of cost, they are not always the solution that makes the most sense.
U.S. 34 Bypass and 35th Avenue
The city is already well on its way to making the U.S. 34 Bypass safer at 35th Avenue. As part of it’ Mobility Expansion for Regional Growth and Equity — or MERGE — program, Greeley is putting overpasses on the U.S. 34 Bypass at both 35th and 47th avenues.
“We anticipate that to alleviate a significant number of those fatalities and severe injuries because the traffic goes through without coming into conflict with the 35th Avenue traffic,” Younkin said. “So we would anticipate the interchanges would mitigate the crash issues at both 47th and 35th avenues.”
But with construction slated to start late next year and not wrap up until 2029, Greeley Walks Founder and former state Rep. Jim Riesberg said he would like a more pedestrian-friendly solution in the meantime. With a signal pattern that has vehicles constantly moving in all directions — and vehicles entering 35th Avenue from the frontage road just north of the highway — Riesberg believes there should be time set aside exclusively for non-drivers.
“I see it in Denver,” he said. “A period of time when just pedestrians and bicyclists could cross that intersection, no vehicles.”
A similar signal pattern to what Riesberg envisions operates at 10th Avenue and 20th Street at the University of Northern Colorado, allowing all pedestrians to cross in any direction for certain period of time.
U.S. 34 and Weld 17, U.S. 34 Bypass and 83rd Avenue
Moving out west — quite literally as far west as Greeley stretches — the city identified the intersection at U.S. 34 and Weld 17 as one of the most dangerous. Though it is technically still in Greeley, most would say it serves as almost a midway point between Greeley and Loveland, as well as between Johnstown and Windsor when heading north or south.
“It’s an intersection that we identified a number of years ago that people maybe weren’t expecting a light,” Younkin said. “Now, that being said, because of the West Side project, we are looking more toward a grade-separated interchange at that location.”
A few years ago, the Colorado Department of Transportation released a study with suggestions for the U.S. 34 corridor. The intersection at Weld 17 was one of a handful of roads at which the state identified a possible future need for a grade-separated interchange.
“Having signals on roads with high speeds often creates this kind of lack of expectation,” Younkin said. “Sometimes people just simply aren’t expecting to come across (the signal), particularly during off-peak hours.”
Another intersection on U.S. 34 that CDOT identified a need for an overpass: 83rd Avenue, which Younkin said “is somewhat in the same boat in the sense of high speeds.”
But, with Younkin estimating an interchange still a couple decades out, temporary infrastructure likely to be ineffective and cars consistently backing up along 83rd Avenue in peak times, the city is looking for something more permanent in the meantime.
“We are working to find a solution that mitigates that, while also preparing for the potential of an interchange once the traffic warrants an interchange,” Younkin said.
The CDOT study also recommended U.S. 34 overpasses at 35th and 47th avenues — which are both slated to become reality with the MERGE program — as well as at either 71st or 65th avenues.
“It’s hard to focus just on 83rd Avenue,” Younkin said. “Because the whole corridor is going to have very high traffic volumes.”
10th Street and 47th Avenue
There are no plans for any grade-separated interchanges on 10th Street, Younkin said — in large part because they physically don’t have the room due to surrounding businesses and other properties.
That doesn’t mean the city is without options.
They have already changed the traffic light patterns to what is called split phasing, meaning all lanes in a direction get a green light — or green arrow for the left turn lane — at the same time.
Up next, at least if it were up to Younkin, would be the right turn lanes. As currently constructed, the turns aren’t very sharp and are relativity easy to get through at higher speeds. That’s great for drivers in a hurry, but less than ideal from a safety perspective — especially with the level of pedestrian traffic at the intersection.
“We would look at changing the geometry of those turn lanes to make it more, I would say, suitable to the context,” Younkin said. “This is close to Walmart. There are a number of people who walk here.”
Reducing the radius of the turn — essentially making it sharper — forces drivers to slow down more and to slow down earlier, giving them more time to react to someone in the crosswalk.
“What tends to happen is people are trying to gauge that right turn gap,” Younkin said. “So they’re looking left, and they’re looking 300 or 400 feet down the road. They’re not looking 8 feet in front of them at the person walking or pushing a stroller. “
10th Street and 59th Avenue
Further west on 10th Street, 59th Avenue poses slightly different challenges. The volume of traffic entering 10th Street is reduced, but the road really starts to open up and feel like a highway out of town.
“You reach the top of the hill at like 54th Avenue, and then — it’s very interesting — if you drive that road you get a sense of openness, right? Like you can see the mountains, you’ve got a really beautiful view. You’ve got a wide-open street and your brain just sort of tells you to step on the gas.”
Though the issue posed is different, Younkin said a lot of the potential strategies are similar to 47th Avenue — where changing the geometry of the road can help improve driver behaviors.
“We can have some signal phasing, timing improvements as well,” Younkin said. “But I would say that the geometric speed improvements are going to be the most substantive changes.”
Officials are considering making both intersections safer by lowering the speed limit in the area.
“One of the major things we’re looking at doing in coordination with CDOT is traffic calming from 47th Avenue to 71st Avenue, trying to drop the speed limit to 45 mph throughout that section.”
But it isn’t as easy as simply changing the number on a few signs. If drivers feel a road allows them to go 55 mph, Younkin said, it wouldn’t makes sense to try and enforce a 45 mph speed limit.
“We have to redefine the street because it is currently designed to drive at 55, given how wide open it is,” Younkin said. “We have to make it feel more constrained.”
Younkin said a simple way to do that would be adding a median. Other options — though maybe less ideal for that stretch of road — include converting lanes into use for bikes or public transit, or planting trees along the street.
A roadside memorial at U.S. 34 is one of many that can seen along the dangerous stretch of highway in west Greeley. (Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)Two Rivers Parkway and 37th Street
Since the study concluded, crews have installed a stoplight at this intersection. The city expects this to mitigate at least part of the junction’s danger.
“It has recently been converted from a stop sign to a signal,” Younkin said. “I don’t have specific numbers to see if the crash numbers have maintained, but my suspicion is they’re less since the signal was installed.”
When to expect changes
Though these eight intersections are statistically the most dangerous, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are the first road safety projects the city will tackle. The study identified what projects would increase safety the most for the amount of money spent.
“Our priority list is based on: if we have X amount of dollars to spend, where are we going to get the best value for the location?” Younkin said.
With funding for several projects still up in the air, there is no defined timeline for many of these improvements. And improvements will likely not be solely to the intersections, but often the corridors surrounding them.
Due to the stoplight already installed at Two Rivers Parkway and 37th Street, and the MERGE project already underway to improve 35th Avenue and the U.S. 34 Bypass, neither are included on the list.
Here’s where the rest ranked priority-wise:
14th: 59th Avenue and 10th Street 16th: 11th and 17th avenues at the U.S. 34 Bypass 26th: U.S. 34 Bypass and 83rd Avenue, though an overpass is unlikely in the coming decade 30th: 47th Avenue and 10th Street 37th: U.S. 34 and Weld 17 Read More Details
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