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Over the last five years, there has been a significant amount of planning that focused on, or addressed to some extent, these issues. In 2004, the Campus Area Transportation Management Association (CATMA) was approached by the Ward 1 Neighborhood Planning Assembly (NPA) to facilitate and organize a Colchester Avenue Task Force to address the issues which kept arising at the NPA meetings. These issues included:
A Burlington City Council Resolution formally established a Colchester Avenue Task Force which met over the period of two years. The Task Force developed a broad plan that includes neighborhood, street design and public transit objectives and concluded with some specific short term recommendations ranging from installing new bike paths to cross walks and pedestrian signalization to enforcement issues. The Task Force also recognized that all recommendations and next steps for the Colchester Avenue Corridor require more detailed analysis and funding for both planning and construction of short-term and long-term improvements. In addition, the Task Force asked that Colchester Avenue be examined more thoroughly as part of the Burlington Transportation Plan.
The Burlington Transportation Plan, was completed in 2007 and recommends implementation of a complete street design for Colchester Avenue. The complete street concept incorporates many of the neighborhood, street design, and traffic calming objectives identified by the Colchester Avenue Task Force in 2006. It also includes reducing the number of travel lanes from four to two. Additional analysis and public input are required to develop a better understanding of how that change will affect pedestrian and bicycle access, safety, transit operations and congestion and will be evaluated in greater detail as part of this Colchester Avenue Corridor Plan.
This plan will evaluate the complete street concept, refine the existing list of specific recommendations and general strategies, supplement the list with new ideas, and most importantly, provide a launching point from which the City can begin implementing the highest priority projects in partnership with the other stakeholders in the corridor.