Village Pedestrian Safety Project

2024 UPDATE

The Town of Vail will move forward with a pilot project by the spring of 2025 using grant funding in Ford Park at the top of East Betty Ford Way with two retractable bollards.

SUMMARY

The Town of Vail has contracted with Kimley Horn to complete the design of the Village Pedestrian Safety Project which includes the selection of and the design of approximately 70 bollards and or equivalent safety measures and barricades at various locations within the Vail Village, Lionshead Village, and Ford Park.

The purpose of the project is to control vehicular access into Vail’s high pedestrian activity areas and restrict access when necessary during special events. The bollards, safety measures, and barricades are not only intended to control general vehicular access but are also intended to be impact resistant to provide the safest possible environment for pedestrians in these areas. The majority of the safety measures will likely be automatic retractable bollards with several being removable to allow authorized vehicles to access through them as needed.

PROJECT GOALS

As identified above, the goal of this project is to provide a safe and inviting pedestrian experience within the Town’s high pedestrian areas by installing a flexible vehicular access control program that creates a safer pedestrian environment, and is flexible enough to create more secure pedestrian areas that restrict vehicular access during specific special events in specific areas at specific times, thus mitigating the potential threat of intentional and/or errant vehicle/pedestrian conflicts resulting in injury or death, all while maintaining full access for emergency vehicles and responders.

BACKGROUND

The Town of Vail’s high pedestrian areas are subject to encroachment by vehicles at all times of the day for both legitimate and illegitimate reasons, and each of the areas has multiple vehicular access points that are mostly uncontrolled. This is especially true in Vail Village.

In addition to vehicles that have permission to access these areas, frequently lost vehicles and/or non-permitted vehicles enter these pedestrian areas. The number of vehicles that enter these pedestrian areas has been identified as a safety concern and as a detriment to the pedestrian experience.

For many years, there have been numerous discussions on how to minimize the number of vehicles that enter pedestrian areas, and at that time a significant focus was on loading and delivery vehicles. As a result, the Town implemented the successful E-Courier program that limits the amount of loading and delivery trucks that enter the Vail Village daily by better utilizing the underground loading and delivery facility built many years ago. With the successful implementation of this program, the focus has now moved on to expanding traffic control into these areas by means of retractable bollards and similar devices and or traffic control measures.

In addition to the desire for additional traffic control, there have also been discussions revolving around the ability to incorporate Entertainment Districts into the Village pedestrian areas or portions thereof. An Entertainment District would allow for outdoor dining and open containers within the designated streets in the Villages. One of the many requirements to achieve this is the ability to shut down the designated area to all vehicles. Thus the desire for retractable bollards to implement in these Entertainment Districts.

Another factor that supported the discussion of retractable bollards and other traffic control measures was special events and the safety of the pedestrians attending them. Currently, the Town utilizes moveable barriers to protect some special event areas from errant vehicles. These barriers are difficult to manage and have been under criticism for their appearance. The idea of retractable bollards to replace these has become desirable.

Combining all of these factors have led the Town Council to direct staff to research opportunities to install retractable bollard and other more permanent traffic control devices in these high pedestrian areas.

CURRENT DIRECTION

Council reconfirmed these goals earlier this year but refined the direction to be focused on limited traffic control, not high security. Council directed Town staff to take a “less is more approach” and investigate options and identify preferred locations for traffic control, with the potential to implement a pilot program as early as this fall.

The below concept presented to Council earlier this year provides an idea of how Vail might implement traffic control. It is considered the most aggressive and complete option, staff will look for ways to limit and reduce the scale of this option, and review it with the Council in the coming months.

Regardless of the type of traffic control that is implemented over the next several years, it is likely that traffic operations and access will change to some degree as a part of this program. In the Vail Village there will likely be further limited access with the main access point remaining at Checkpoint Charlie. Within Lionshead Village and Ford Park, access will also be limited and the implementation of additional traffic control devices will restrict the ability to freely access these areas with vehicles without permission.

PUBLIC PROCESS

Public Involvement will be a large part of this process, and this webpage will be the best conduit to provide feedback and watch the progress of the project. Please leave comments on the comment page and map or contact the Project Manager directly.

BOLLARD LOCATIONS

We want to hear from you. In the forum below, please share your feedback and suggestions. Click here to download the maps.