Pinal Sidewalk & Safety Improvements

We live in one of the houses on Pinal that was mandatorily gifted a new sidewalk — and here are our thoughts:

PROS:

- Much, much safer for pedestrians — which are a ubiquitous feature of Pinal. As both a resident and driver, I feel enormously better knowing that those people and dogs will [ideally] be located safely on the sidewalk, rather than in the road. I still always drive slowly through the neighborhood, though, because… well, you never know.

- After the botched initial pitch (see more in “CONS”), the City was incredibly responsive to input from affected residents. My husband put together a long, thoughtful list of amendments, and nearly all of them were incorporated into the final design. The City adapted its plans to account for one of our neighbors — a multigenerational family that by necessity has to park along the street. The City’s initial pitch had included a sidewalk (and no parking) along their property line, but the final design instead implemented a continuous sidewalk along the north side of Pinal, with no sidewalk on the other side — thus allowing our neighbors to continue using their curb for parking.

- We have had no issues with the new traffic pattern. (Although, I have to admit that — even before the construction — we’ve always preferentially used the upper exits to the neighborhood — West Pinal and Smith.) I know that the Pinal / Mountain Zion / 19th interchange is now a bit trickier… but maybe I just never hit it at the wrong time of day, because I’ve never had more than a couple seconds of traffic kerfuffle.

- The City was thoughtful about its aesthetic design (again, incorporating feedback from residents), and it even replaced a portion of our old, crumbling stairs to adjoin better with the new sidewalk. The plan was enacted with few issues (see CONS), and overall, we’re happy with the results. It’s a relatively attractive and well-made sidewalk.

- I like that my children are able to get around the front of our property without walking into the street. I, too, benefit from the additional walking space; in the past, some of my gardening had to take place from the street.


CONS:

- I can hardly imagine a worse initial pitch, compared to what the City originally chose to do. Picture this: a mailed notice, on City of Golden letterhead, informing a few of us Pinal houses that — so help us — we *would* be receiving a new sidewalk… and we might just be losing property to make it happen. (As a silver lining, the notice unintentionally catalyzed some great neighborhood solidarity.) Here’s a pithy summary…
How it should have been handled: “We’re in the early stages of planning to add a sidewalk to your street, and we’d like your input!”
How it was handled: “We’re putting a sidewalk in front of your house, and we’ll arrogate as much of your property as it takes.”

- Yes, the sidewalk is obviously wider than it needs to be. That was a piece of our feedback that the City did not incorporate — something to do with making all the sidewalks of Golden as close to ADA-compliant as possible. [Note: Pinal quite literally cannot have an ADA compliant sidewalk because the pitch is inherently too steep.]

- Unsurprisingly, the project took place behind schedule. The projected timeframe was initially July/August — but the actual construction didn’t start until October. Once begun, though, the project concluded relatively quickly.

- Unfortunately, the finish work… left something to be desired. The work crew oversprayed cement onto our rock walls — and, worse, they chucked our border rocks into various orientations across my peony garden. The crew labeled that latter problem — and our lopsided mailbox — with a pink tag… but after the passage of several months, it became obvious that we alone would be responsible for the problem’s resolution. With the approval of our mailman, my husband reoriented our mailbox on his own; however, we ended up having to hire help to reset the border rocks — especially the two-hundred pound “beached whale” that the work crew left perched atop my peonies.


In summary: This is pretty obvious, but… basically every project has both pros and cons; neither entirely good nor entirely bad. Overall, we feel that the pros of this sidewalk project outweigh the cons, and that our lives are better for its completion.

The city wants to make this a referendum on whether the sidewalks are good or bad, when the real issue is whether this solved a problem for the community, and did so in the best way possible. It is obvious it did not.

Use of the sidewalks and crosswalks are limited. While it's valuable for some, the vast majority of users continue to use the desired path and walk on the east side of Pinal as they exit and enter the neighborhood. This keeps pedestrians in the roadway and creates more traffic interference as the streets are now substantially narrower.

The start of the side walk on Mount Zion is nearly invisible with any amount of snow, and with every measurable snowfall this year, drivers drove onto it. The cam photo laughably captioned " Two SUV's pass with room to spare..." dated 2025/01/22 14:32:30 actually shows a vehicle driving on the start of the sidewalk. There's room to spare because one vehicle is 3 feet off the road!

The stripes in the road are not followed by drivers. This is substantially evidenced by the wear marks that quickly developed on the stripes, and the need of the city to re-stripe it 2 times (3 in total) in 7 months. The last of which was done so poorly it looks like graffiti on the roadway, which can't possibly meet any sort of road stripe standards. As advised by residents previously, a wider roadway here is needed, not a narrower one.

When exiting the neighborhood, the narrowness of the new exit and the stripe locations force vehicles to drive off a curb. This isn't normal, and presents safety issues when traction is necessary in ice and snow.

With regard to the statement that "the City committed to monitoring traffic patterns through the narrowed section to ensure vehicles can continue to pass safely in both directions." That's simply not true. The City committed to in an email dated Dec. 7, 2024 from Anne Beierle, "to monitoring the project area and reengaging with the neighborhood in March to see how it’s performing and discuss if we need to make some modifications or more significant changes." That never happened.

It's obvious now that the City's use of camera's was not to actually monitor use and determine what modifications would be needed, but to simply create evidence their point of view is correct. Every photo posted comes with a tagline that substantiates their thoughts that this is a safe intersection. Never mind the concerns expressed by residents, or the fact pattern of use in the corridor. Extended monitoring would show many instances of problems including head on vehicle engagements, contact with the curb, driving on the sidewalk, pedestrians impeding traffic, trash cans being placed in the roadway, and ice/snow that restricts the corridor to one lane.

Prior to completion, a handful of residents met in person with Anne Beierle expressing significant concerns, and 80 residents signed a petition asking the City to engage them more meaningfully before proceeding with the project. They were ignored.

This project is a classic example of mismanagement, poor community engagement, and a complete lack of accountability. I cannot speak for every person in our community, but will share that the confidence in our City government, their willingness to meaningfully engage, listen to, and respond to concerns and issues raised by the community is continuing to be eroded.

I suspect this feedback process will allow the City to check a box that they "engaged" residents. Less than 50% of the feedback given so far is in support of the work the city has done, however the City will very likely use the positive comments in this forum to justify their position and demonstrate support. It's a classic pattern that prioritizes politics over the community. I challenge the City to prove me wrong.

As a pedestrian I do believe the sidewalk is an improvement. I walk my dog in and out of the neighborhood, and before the
sidewalk went in, it always felt dangerous walking in the street with cars whizzing by. On the other hand as a motorist that area has
become way too narrow leaving no room for error. While the sidewalk is nice, it was unnecessary to make it so wide. We've hit the curb while in my husband's truck
before, trying to avoid hitting another vehicle coming the opposite way. And on trash pickup
days the 3-4 homes on the north
side have no room to put their
trash/recycle bins, creating even
less room for cars. I really feel bad for the drivers of big service type vehicles who have to drive in our neighborhood. It's very for difficult for them. In summary,
driving a vehicle in Golden
nowadays is not as easy as it used
to be. And it's about to get worse
with the massive student housing developments going on in our
community, and the right of way for pedestrians everywhere in our city making commuting in a car next to impossible.

The test case of this past winter has worked well. As always, I just go slowly.

I am very concerned if traffic on 19th will experience the congesting “trickle” effect of students crossing.
with the big increase of pedestrians from the post grad apartments adjacent to Beverly Heights.

Please help us with this as well as the upcoming opening of the Sophomore dorms.

Thanks!

We have been walking to town via Pinal since we moved here. Love the improvements ensuring safety and a walkable route. The Mt Zion stretch appears to be visually narrow, but the 20 mph and the road lines ensure safety. I also appreciate the ability to engage with the city on these improvements pre and post work.

Although a sidewalk was needed, the idea that it had to be a full 6-ft wide when no other sidewalks in the neighborhood even come close, was misguided. Technically to be ADA compliant, the minimum is 36". What it has caused is issues when the snow melts and refreezes. It's now so narrow that there is really no "sliding" room in the case of slick roads. It also is on a semi-blind curve and at night when people decide to walk on the east side of the Mt Zion/Pinal entrance, in the dark, and IN dark clothing, it's a little scary when you suddenly come upon someone walking/cycling on that curve. In the instance of ice/slick road, it's downright dangerous to the drivers and the pedestrian. Why wait until someone actually gets hurt before addressing this? That should've been talked through with residents in the whole neighborhood that come and go that way, not just the few people whose properties were actually impacted prior to construction. Also, since there is no one that currently seems to reside in the house on that curve, the tree on that property has not been trimmed up so one can see through to determine if there is a pedestrian or cyclist in the curve that can't quite be seen.

The sidewalk is a huge safety improvement. I have two young children and the old design presented a major risk of being struck by a vehicle. The new design forces drivers to slow down a tad and offers pedestrians a place to walk. Thank you for the improvement!

I understand the need for a wider sidewalk. I also understand the constraints. But this is simply not a particularly brilliant solution. "Traffic calming"??? Really? Turning all of Pinal into a pedestrian mall would clearly calm traffic even better. Or how about making Mt Zion one way northbound? That would calm traffic and eliminate those pesky yellow busses all in one swoop. Who cares about the safety and convenience of residents/taxpayers/voters who actually have to drive cars in and out of Beverly Heights several times per day?

No. No. No. Widening sidewalks with utter disregard for the consequences of narrower vehicular traffic lanes is not the right answer. It is only quicker and easier.

BTW, how much calmer will traffic be at Pinal & 19th at 8am weekday mornings when the new dorms fill up? Maybe a one-way Mt Zion and a traffic light where the student crosswalk current resides will be the city's next brilliant move.

I think that the work was done thoughtfully and safely. Photos from the traffic cam are helpful to understand how school buses and cars fit at the narrow section. One side-effect of a narrower section is traffic calming. Slowing down in cars and on bikes will help us navigate the section safely.

I like the wide sidewalk for walks with my husband, grandkids, and dogs from our home on Mt Zion to our Pinal loop.

I feel the blind corner is now too narrow for two cars to safely pass at the same time.

I have lived on Mt Zion Drive for about 35 years, and this sidewalk provides me with a greater feeling of safety when I use it. There may/will be a problem during our snowy months due to a narrowing of the traveled/road way due to the snow berms created during plowing and possibly total coverage of the sidewalk. This will require additional attention by the snow plow operator. I like this improvement, but there may be future consequences that will have to be addressed.

While I like the addition of the new sidewalk the road is too narrow particularly when we have snow plowed making the lane even narrower and then add trash day to this and it is a one lane road. Not well planned in my opinion.

Without reservation, I like the improvements. Easier flow of pedestrians and cars. I live on Mt. Zion Drive.

The improvements are fine, but please ask the USPS to place a mailbox in this area. The previous mailbox on 19th Street was removed a few years ago in connection with that streetscape project, and Beverly Heights/new Mines Park desperately needs a drop box for mail. Thanks

Making Pinal one way and the addition of the sidewalk is great. Having a sidewalk on Mt. Zion is good, but the landscaping and yard of homeowner on one side of the street was much more impacted than the other. Also, the sidewalk is so wide on Pinal it makes driving it really awkward. That width may be code but since precisely none of the other sidewalks in the neighborhood are that wide it adds less benefit than it’s worth.

It needs priority when it snows. Traveling south by car on Pinal, I had a couple slides on ice that formed after partial melt/refreeze that would have resulted in fender benders had someone been coming the other way. No snow can be piled on the uphill/west side of Pinal in this narrow area, not only does it block the sidewalk, it hangs around for days and ends up creating a sheet of ice.

I love the new sidewalk. I feel much safer when walking my dog or taking my toddler to the park. Previously the blind curve made me very uncomfortable with limited room to walk.