Pat from Lakewood writes, “What’s driving you crazy? The acceleration lane on Morrison Road that allowed Bear Creek Lake Park traffic turning east to merge with traffic was removed. There have been several accidents with injuries, two of them seem to be due to the removal of this acceleration lane. I believe CDOT is responsible for Morrison Road and the removal of this lane. Is there anything you can do to help this situation?”
I’ll start with the good news for you, Pat. After I talked to the Colorado Department of Transportation about your complaint, a crew went out and put back the acceleration lane. Originally CDOT told me it would wait until the spring, but decided to repaint the roadway now instead of waiting a few months.
The reconfiguration of Morrison Road was originally done by the developer of the nearby Red Rocks Ranch with review and approval from CDOT and the City of Lakewood. What the developer did was add various auxiliary lanes, including a westbound acceleration lane from S. Rooney Road towards C-470. Additionally, bike lanes were added to both directions of Morrison Road along the development's frontage area, which resulted in the removal of the Bear Creek Lake Park eastbound acceleration lane.
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The problem came after those changes. When traffic picked up at Bear Creek for last summer’s season, there were several vehicle crashes associated with the new entrance layout. CDOT told me, it's not sure the additional crashes could be attributed to the Morrison Road modifications, given that the wrecks were associated with left-turning movements, rather than the northbound to eastbound right turn that was removed. However CDOT said, the increase in collisions did draw attention to the recent changes, and the decision was made to revert the striping back to the previous configuration.
Last year, the cities of Lakewood and Morrison along with park personnel managed traffic during busy times, utilizing temporary traffic control devices. That consisted of cones, signs and portable message boards. Officers also helped out with managing traffic flow at times. Even after it changed back, CDOT and the cities expected that at peak times, traffic would still have to be managed coming in and out of Bear Creek Lake Park with those temporary traffic control measures.
I asked CDOT if there is any discussion of putting in a traffic signal here to help with future traffic flow. CDOT told me, no because Morrison Road is classified as non-rural principal highway. Per the Colorado State Highway Access Code, traffic signals should be spaced at least a half mile apart on this type of roadway. Since there are signals roughly a quarter mile from the signals at C-470, one will not be installed here.
As far as the little section of bike lane that was removed to accommodate adding back the turn lane, CDOT said the wide shoulder remains to the east of the acceleration lane and can still be utilized by cyclists.
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