There is an old adage that says for every problem, there is a solution that is simple, easy – and wrong. And there is a lot of truth to that. It does not follow, however, that all valid solutions must be time-consuming, complex and costly.
Take, for example, what the city of Durango is apparently thinking about the intersection of 15th Street, Florida Road and East Third Avenue. The question naturally arises: Why make this more difficult than it need be?
Reports suggest the current thinking includes a round-about, which would involve considerable expense, the acquisition of adjacent private property and more than a little construction.
The process begins with focus groups made up of nearby neighbors, those who have “biked or walked through the intersection” and others. But everyone in Southwest Colorado has been through that intersection and it is not clear if the city’s focus groups are limited to city residents.
Again, why do all that? That intersection has long been known as Malfunction Junction and the problem has long been understood. The transition from 15th Street to Florida Road (or the other way around) is an intersection in name only. The road barely turns and in itself includes no cross traffic.
The real problems with that intersection involve turns from and onto East Third. So, if that is where the problem arises, why not just do away with those?
It would be relatively cheap and easy to block off East Third and make Malfunction Junction a straight shot with no more chance of collisions than any two-lane road. There would be some other considerations – there always are – but there would be additional benefits as well.
The chief problem would be facilitating residents of the northern-most block of Third Avenue turning south. But that could probably be accomplished in a couple of ways and relatively cheaply.
Besides, the benefits would outshine any difficulties. The whole thing could be conducted as an experiment using little more than Jersey Barriers and some signage. If it turns out not to be what the actual users of the intersection want, so be it. Little would have been lost. And if it turns out that the idea works, the ease of which the barriers and signs could be adjusted would allow for fine-tuning that permanent construction would not. A lasting fix could follow and the term Malfunction Junction might soon be forgotten.
East Third Avenue could also benefit by being returned to its proper function as a residential, religious and cultural center – instead of a cross-town thoroughfare. That would also free the city to allow parking along the center median seven days per week instead of Sundays only as it is now. If it is a neighborhood street instead of a major arterial, that extra lane would not be needed. (I would restrict that center-lane parking to daytime. Office and store workers are one thing, but the neighbors do not need a boost to the 2 a.m. traffic.)
Additional daytime parking on East Third would directly help downtown as well. Reducing use of The Boulevard for cross-town traffic would aid in efforts to reinstitute two-lane traffic – and parking – to Main Avenue. Bump-outs were a brilliant response to COVID-19, but it is time to restore Durango’s Central Business District. With that, we could also drive a stake through the heart of the recurring – but ridiculous –notion of turning downtown into a pedestrian mall.
Most of us moved or stayed here because we love small-town Durango. We may not be able to preserve that feeling, but we can try. Malfunction Junction might be where to start.
From 1990 to 2017, Bill Roberts was Opinion editor at The Durango Herald.
