Colchester Ave. bike lane serves commuters

The new Colchester Ave. opened in November of 2019. Photo by Julia Bailey-Wells.

This summer will be Colchester Avenue’s first with a bike lane.

The new lane replaced 39 parking spots along the road from East Ave. to Barrett Street and has been open for use since last November, serving commuters who bike the corridor to travel between Burlington and Winooski. 

Colchester Ave., which begins by the University of Vermont’s John Dewey Hall and proceeds into Winooski, is notoriously busy, populated by commuters driving to work in cars, students racing along the sidewalks to class, and pedaling cyclists. 

“With a large amount of pedestrian traffic in the area, trying to ride on the sidewalk can be slow and difficult. Riding in the road often resulted in high speed unsafe passes,” Ward 1 Walk Bike Council Neighborhood Liaison Jason Stuffle said.

The 15-year Colchester Ave. resident has long been concerned about the street’s safety. Before the bike lane, the narrow corridor had high accident rates, according to Stuffle.

“Part of the issue in this area was the on street parking. It narrowed the road too much in some areas resulting in tight squeezes with buses, ambulances and firetrucks,” Stuffle said. The stretch of road houses local businesses like Kampus Kitchen, as well as the Burlington Fire Department and the UVM Medical Center. 

Colchester Ave. also passes UVM’s Trinity Campus, home to up to nearly 600 students each academic year. Former Trinity resident Olivia Roder, 21, would walk to UVM campus on Colchester Ave during her time living on Trinity. Without a bike lane, people would bike on the sidewalks, which made it hard to navigate her path. “It was almost safer for bikers to do that because they wouldn't have to compete with the traffic,” Roder said.

The road has been an ongoing safety concern for all modes of transportation for years. The first  official revamping discussions started in 2011 with the Colchester Avenue Corridor Plan, a report by Resource System Groups, which can be found on Chittenden County RPC website. 

The plan’s vision was to develop the corridor into a “complete street,” allowing safety and comfort for all its travellers. The report recommended a bike lane between East Ave and Riverside, but cited parking displacement as a potential complication. The plan did not spur the RPC to construct a bike lane at the time, and bike safety remained a concern.

Stuffle began sharing his worries about the perils of travelling on the street with Burlington's Department of Public Works in 2014. Although the DPW did not respond immediately, stating that the road was too narrow to add a bike lane, Stuffle stayed persistent. 

The DPW requested evidence that the street was too narrow—in December 2018, Stuffle sent DPW a photo of a car parked on Colchester Ave. with a shattered mirror.  Burlington’s Department of Public Works responded by organizing a town meeting in the Spring of 2019 to discuss exchanging parking spaces for a bike lane.

The majority of the people agreed that trading street parking for a bike lane and widening the road would upgrade transportations safety, according to Stuffle. 

15-year Colchester Ave. resident Jason Stuffle rides down the street’s new bike lane. Photo courtesy of Jason Stuffle.

In the fall of 2019, Stuffle was ecstatic to find the bike lane outside his house that he had been advocating for. 

While some residents looked forward to the lane during development, there was some controversy with residents and business owners regarding the removal of parking spaces, according to East District City district councilor Jack Hanson. However, after the corridor’s modifications, Hanson said that he has heard few complaints and more positive feedback. 

“Once the on-street parking was removed, the improvement was instantly apparent. Large vehicles could pass through without the very close passes, the door zone was removed for the entire length of the uphill ride and with the parking removed gave space for people on bikes to be that didn't conflict with the main travel lane,” Stuffle said. 

To account for the replaced parking spots, the DPW added two 15-minute parking spots near Kampus Kitchen on the south side of Colchester Ave. to allow deli customers parking.

The elimination of the parking spots in favor of the new bike lane and wider traffic lanes may reduce risk for travelers on the avenue, but the East Ave to the Greenmount Cemetery stretch heading down the hill into Winooski is still a safety issue, according to Stuffle. 

Winooski planning commission member Abby Bleything said that she would like to see Winooski and Burlington work together to address the bridge leading into Winooski’s town center, as the bike lane ends at the entrance of the bridge, placing bikers in a dangerous situation. 

Both Stuffle and Bleything stated that they hope to see both towns continuing steps towards a seamless bike lane, covering the whole corridor. 

“Colchester Ave is an essential corridor—it is a great first step with the new bike lane,” said Bleything.