A regular customer called Margie Wilson to order books.
They chatted, the customer presumably at home and Wilson at her downtown business, Grand Valley Books, 350 Main St.
The order was set and then the customer asked for something Wilson didn鈥檛 expect.
鈥淐an you pop it in the mail for me?鈥
Wait a minute, Wilson thought. This customer lives only about a dozen blocks away, around 11th Street and Ouray Avenue, practically downtown already. What was up?
Larry Robinson / The Daily Sentinel
City of Grand Junction workers move traffic barriers at Fourth Street and Grand Avenue on Tuesday as part of recent traffic changes to the downtown area.
And then came what has for some become a common refrain: Fourth and Fifth Streets, the one-lane changes, navigating white vertical delineators and so on.
鈥淚 just don鈥檛 want to come downtown to pick it up,鈥 the customer told Wilson, who isn鈥檛 the only business owner who has heard from customers about the city of Grand Junction pilot project that was implemented late last summer.
Aimed at reducing speeds and improving safety on Fourth and Fifth streets through the downtown corridor, the $1.2 million project switched the streets from two lanes to one each, parking was reconfigured in some areas, bike lanes were added and vertical delineators were placed at various turns or other areas to direct the navigation of vehicles.
Some modifications, including widening each street鈥檚 one lane, have been made since the August implementation, and more modifications are scheduled for the coming months to adjust or replace some of the vertical delineators, change the bike lane placement and improve sight lines at corners.
Ted and Judy Fawcett feed coins into a parking meter in downtown Grand Junction on Tuesday.
However, the whole subject of the two streets has become polarizing, with people taking sides like the one-way streets they are arguing about, and 鈥渢o me the controversy is what鈥檚 concerning. Controversy isn鈥檛 good for business,鈥 said Brandon Stam, executive director of Downtown Grand Junction, which includes the Downtown Development Authority and Business Improvement District.
He has heard from downtown business owners with customers 鈥渃omplaining about it one way or another,鈥 he said, noting he also has heard from people who have gone on with their day-to-day and not heard anything.
But 鈥渋t鈥檚 fair to say the feedback, it seems to be more negative than positive,鈥 he said.
"The whole pilot concept is challenging." There is no one thing that makes everybody happy, said Stam, who was hopeful the coming modifications to the project would establish more of a 鈥渕iddle ground.鈥
Traffic makes its way past parked vehicles at Fourth Street and Rood Avenue.
SLOWING DOWN
鈥淚 applaud them for trying and I applaud them for changing,鈥 said Sydney Garvey, owner of Garvey鈥檚 Gardens, 137 N. Fifth St.
鈥淭raffic was definitely fast,鈥 she said about Fifth Street, which like Fourth has a speed limit of 25. It 鈥渢ended to be a highway, I guess, until people hit Grand (Avenue).鈥
The speed limit north of Grand Avenue is 30 mph.
It was a thoroughfare for emergency vehicles, and there was more traffic in general 鈥渨hich for a business is not a bad thing,鈥 she said.
Those high speeds have come down since the pilot started, and it has been awhile since she has seen a vehicle going the wrong way on Fifth. Drivers used to frequently and frantically turn into her small parking lot to get themselves going the right way, she said.
Cars drive past parked vehicles on 4th St. on Jan. 28, 2025.
However, when it comes to her customers and the new street configuration, 鈥渋t just added a lot more obstacles,鈥 she said. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e on the fence about coming to the shop, they鈥檙e not, because they don鈥檛 want to deal with it.鈥 She now encourages concerned customers to drive to and from her floral shop on Rood Avenue.
For herself and her employees, it has taken a while to get used to the vertical delineators. 鈥淲hen people hit them they sound like a shotgun,鈥 she said.
She鈥檚 also seen traffic issues related to emergency vehicles, particularly when there was an accident at Fifth and Rood. Traffic was completely stopped, and nobody could get by. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no shoulder anymore,鈥 she said.
鈥淚 love the thought behind it and I love the trial and error because you don鈥檛 know until you try something,鈥 Garvey said. 鈥淚 hope they continue to adjust. And also recognize the need for both parking and traveling lanes.鈥
Likewise, Darin Mack, co-owner of The Trophy Case, 131 N. Fourth St., sees the Fourth and Fifth street situation as an 鈥渆volving鈥 one.
Trucks drive past parked vehicles on Fourth Street on Jan. 28, 2025.
鈥淲e just hope that it continues in a positive way,鈥 he said referring to bikes, scooters and vehicles sharing the street. But, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that what鈥檚 out here is that.鈥
Nearly every workday morning for 15 years, he used to bike to work down Fourth and he took Third Street home. While he currently doesn鈥檛 bike to work because he moved farther from downtown, he鈥檚 not unfamiliar with approaching the road from a cyclist鈥檚 point of view.
The new bike lanes 鈥渉ave been great from a biker perspective,鈥 he said, noting that a cyclists can now get from North Avenue to Pitkin Avenue without stopping except for traffic lights.
鈥淏ut that was the whole point of vehicles,鈥 he said. Fourth and Fifth were a 鈥渟uper way for people to get across town north and south.鈥
The population of the Grand Valley is growing, 鈥渁nd yet you鈥檙e bottlenecking a main thoroughfare through town,鈥 he said.
The white sedan, right, accidentally hits a traffic barrier with their front right wheel while trying to parallel park on 4th St. on Jan. 28, 2025.
If the pilot program was truly about slowing traffic and safety, 鈥淚 think they could have done that with some traffic lights, he said.
Instead of sequencing the lights for continuous flow of traffic, as was the case on both streets, the city could have tried switching up the lights to stop traffic more often to encourage slower speeds.
That goes for bikes and scooters, too. Mack said he鈥檚 seen bicycles going 20 miles per hour down Fourth. He has seen near-misses when drivers haven鈥檛 seen a fast bike in a bike lane. He has seen drivers try to parallel park but not see cyclists in the bike lane alongside the parking spot. 鈥淚t鈥檚 recipe for disaster,鈥 he said.
Some business owners are not on the fence at all. One of them is Josh Niernberg, who owns Bin 707 and TacoParty.
鈥淚鈥檓 in full support of it,鈥 Niernberg said in an October Daily Sentinel article. 鈥淚 think it makes the downtown such a nicer place. It鈥檚 slower, it鈥檚 friendlier, it鈥檚 easier to cross streets. I think it鈥檚 more conducive to having the downtown core be kind of a shopping/retail/restaurant hub of our 69传媒, and it鈥檚 working.鈥
City of Grand Junction workers move traffic barriers to widen lanes as part of recent traffic changes to the downtown area and 4th St. on Jan. 28, 2025.
SAFETY 69传媒NCERNS
鈥淚t鈥檚 just not safe anymore,鈥 said Brian Oliver, general manager for The Rockslide Brew Pub, 401 Main St.
Anyone on Colorado Avenue trying to cross Fourth can鈥檛 see oncoming traffic until they get to the middle of the intersection and this is in addition to watching out for bikes and people walking, said Oliver, who wasn鈥檛 convinced that the city鈥檚 vision for downtown is in line with what the 69传媒 wants.
Nearly a year ago, a USA Today list of top main streets in the country, ranked Grand Junction鈥檚 eighth, calling it 鈥渧ibrant鈥 and 鈥渄ynamic鈥 鈥 did it need to be changed? Oliver asked.
And when he looks at comments about the pilot project on social media, he sees negative comments with few exceptions and even posts about boycotting downtown.
鈥淲hy would we want our 69传媒 to want to boycott an area?鈥 he said.
Cars drive past parked vehicles on 4th St. on Jan. 28, 2025.
According to a city memo, data from the DDA showed 鈥渘o reduction in downtown visitation since implementing the Fourth and Fifth street improvements.鈥
But some businesses are reporting lower sales.
鈥淢y sales are down, but you can call that anything,鈥 Oliver said. 鈥淚鈥檓 talking for November, December and January.鈥
Because multiple things can influence sales, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 put a lot of weight into that. I do put a lot of weight into what my customers say 鈥 nothing but complaints,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 have noticed a financial hit. In December, I had to push really, really hard to make my sales goals,鈥 said Wilson, who stayed open extra hours and Sundays during the month. 鈥淚 want to have a great December because January crashes. 鈥 That happens every year historically. And it鈥檚 been true this year.鈥
Larry Robinson / The Daily Sentinel
City of Grand Junction workers move traffic barriers at Fourth Street and Grand Avenue on Tuesday as part of recent traffic changes to the downtown area.
鈥淚 noticed that there were customers that we normally see during the holiday season that we didn鈥檛 see (last) year. And they鈥檙e letting us know, saying, 鈥榶ou need to fix downtown before we鈥檒l come back,鈥欌 Wilson said.
鈥淚 haven鈥檛 had anybody who has said it was good,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 would tell you if I did.鈥
If speeding was the concern, then why not try adding more stop signs, speed bumps, traffic cameras or additional enforcement of the speed limit, she said.
And if safety was a concern why do vehicles now have to drive across bike lanes that can鈥檛 be easily seen? she asked.
鈥淭his is a horse of a different color. This is creating safety issues where there weren鈥檛 before,鈥 said Wilson, who has contacted city council members as well as city staff members about the project, something she plans to continue doing.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 give up easily,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what they鈥檙e hoping will happen.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檇 like to see it go back,鈥 said Mack, who also has been in contact with city council members.
However, I don鈥檛 see them changing it back, to be quite honest. It will be interesting to see the next change that they make here based on the feedback,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 would just like to not have our customers say we don鈥檛 want to come downtown. 鈥 That鈥檚 not what we want here,鈥 Mack said.
