32nd Street Traffic Calming

Public meeting

An Open House was held on August 24, 2022 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Durango Community Recreation Center in the Eolus Room. Around 50 people attended the open house and provided feedback on the 60% design plans, which can be found here. A summary of the meeting can be found here. 

Audio from the conceptual plan meeting on September 30, 2021 can be found below. 

  1. About the project
  2. Current status

This project will involve designing traffic calming elements on 32nd Street from E 2nd Avenue to Holly Avenue to create a safer corridor for pedestrians and cyclists. 32nd Street is one of two minor arterial roads (the other is Florida Road) that connect the northeast side of Durango to Main Avenue making it a busy roadway for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists.

The project will integrate with improvements for County Road 250/251, which are also in the design phase. 

Project design cost: $198,070

Project funding: 2015 Half Cent Sales and Use Tax Fund

  1. What is traffic calming?
  2. Why on 32nd Street?

Traffic calming is the use of roadway design elements to slow traffic speeds and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. These can include: 

  • Vertical elements such as landscaped medians and bollards
  • Narrowing of the roadway with bike lanes and reduced travel lane widths
  • Pinch points created by curb extensions at crosswalks
  • Traffic calming circles  

Designing a roadway for slower speeds reduces the need for traffic enforcement and helps reduce the number of accidents. Traffic calming is a long-term, more equitable solution to reducing speeding. More information about traffic calming from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) can be found here and from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) here. 

The images below show existing conditions on 32nd Street and what 32nd Street could look like with traffic calming design elements such as buffered bike lanes and intermittent landscaped medians. Design elements such as medians would be used in locations that do not restrict access to driveways, not the entire length of the roadway. 

32nd Street currentlyGraphic showing existing cross-section with two lanes and a center turn lane

32nd Street with traffic calming elements: Landscaped median (planting strip) and narrowed travel lane with bicycle lane buffer

Graphic showing the proposed cross-section for 32nd with bike lanes and a median


The city will be working with engineering professionals at Bohannan Huston and community members to determine what traffic calming elements will be best suited to improve the safety of 32nd Street.

For more information, please contact multimodal@DurangoGov.org or 970-375-4955.