Getting Around The Valley - Randall Reitz

Randall Reitz

I grew up on the poor side of Salt Lake City.  Being a family of 7 kids, we required independence at a young age. During the summers, we’d do chores and music practice in the morning.  After lunch, mom would kick us out with “Be home by dark!”  I loved the freedom.

When I was 9 and my brother was 11, we took music lessons downtown.  To get there, we’d walk 15 minutes and catch a bus.  After 45 minutes on the bus, we’d walk 6 city blocks, catch another bus.  Coming home, we’d do everything in reverse. I loved the freedom.

After a few years, I started taking lessons closer to home and would ride my brother’s bike–a  new red Schwinn 10 Speed.  I’d dangle my clarinet case off the drop bars. The ride was mostly safe, but there was one large street I needed to cross at the base of a short hill.  

One day, I dutifully looked both ways, tightened my grip on the clarinet case, and pushed off the curb.  Just as I was entering the road, a car came tearing down the hill, slammed on its brakes, spun once, and hit my front tire. I wasn’t hurt badly, but the clarinet case cracked open, spilling broken music on the asphalt. The front rim of the bike was bent beyond repair, and my willingness to ride to my lessons never recovered.  

I couldn’t afford to fix my brother’s bike, so it laid unused in a shed until my parents eventually gave it away. 

Since then, Salt Lake City has come a long way.  They were one of the first cities to introduce ADA compliant curbs so people in wheelchairs could easily cross intersections.  Recreation paths parallel most new major roads. They created a master plan to open all canal roads to walkers and bikers–my childhood neighborhood was highlighted in one of the plan’s case studies. 

I believe that the people of the Grand Valley share these same values.  We desire a community where locals can easily cross our towns with whatever transportation best fits their family’s needs, abilities, and resources.  We want to drive our cars, ride our bikes, and walk our sidewalks with comfort and clarity. 

We’ve made great progress by pursuing the science and engineering of safety.  Highlights in our successes include roundabouts that allow cars to flow freely while drastically reducing fatalities,  the riverfront trail that allows bikers and walkers to cross the entire west-end of the valley without ever crossing paths with motorists, and Grand Junction’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan.

All of these efforts recognize that motorized vehicles will remain the predominant transportation in the Grand Valley. My belief is that motorists, walkers, wheelchairers, and bikers are most comfortable when there are fewer interactions between automobiles and other forms of transportation.  We’ve had some success by adding bike lanes to existing streets. But this still puts motorized and other traffic in frequent conflict.  

What we really need long-term are more separate routes for different vehicles.  Imagine:

• Completing the Riverfront Trail all the way to Palisade;

• Creating similar east to west non-motorized corridor across the north side of the valley;

• Converting 9th Street into a dedicated active transportation corridor from the Colorado River, through downtown, across CMU’s campus, and up to Patterson;

• Opening access to the roads along canals and ditches across the valley to families;

• Ensuring on-going funding at the city, county, and state level for a connected network.

Each of these efforts improves the experience for motorists by reducing the number of unexpected interactions with walkers, bikers, and wheelchairers.  Traffic flows more smoothly.  They also greatly enhance the safety and comfort of other forms of transportation.

Grand Valley Streets Alliance will play a central role in the next steps of completing this vision. Alliances align–it’s what we do. We aim to align the efforts already in place in Fruita, Palisade, Grand Junction, and our agricultural byways. We aim to align the desires of all people to move across our valley.  We aim to align access points so a young musician can have the freedom to safely ride a bike to his lessons.

Align your efforts with our Alliance!