Snowmass to improve pedestrian access between two major nodes

Snowmass will improve the pedestrian link between the Snowmass Center and the Base Village.

Town Council on Monday voted to add more signage, walk paths, flashing lights, improved crosswalks, and a sidewalk in between the two town nodes, hoping to encourage people to travel by foot. 

The vote was split on the quantity and obtrusiveness of the signage proposed by town staff, who suggested adding thermoplastic or colored pavement to the crosswalks at the Carriage Way-Wood Road intersection. Staff also recommended updating the road signs and redirecting the existing medians separating the lanes entering and exiting the roundabout, in addition to  adding blinking crosswalk signs — Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons — for pedestrians crossing immediately to the north and west of the roundabout.

“It’s a lot happening at this space — it’s not attractive,” said Snowmass Town Council Member Britta Gustafson of the proposed changes. “I hope it’s just so much safer that it’s worth the chaotic clutter that it creates.”

She worried the blinking pedestrian lights would give people a false sense of security and prompt them to cross the road without looking for cars.

“Studies show that they increase vehicle yield compliance by 70%,” said Mike Horvath, Snowmass town engineer.

Council agreed to add the lights on Carriage Way immediately to the west of the roundabout but to omit the one on Wood Road to its north. 

Before council’s edits, DJ&A engineering, hired to work on the project, estimated these additions to the intersection would cost between $149,000 and $165,000.

On Upper Kearns Road, council agreed to add a pedestrian pathway on the road’s northwest edge to mark the route from Town Hall Road to the Snowmass Center. But it was split when faced with the potential for a new sidewalk, which town staff proposed adding to the east side of the road. Gustafson debated if the $70,000 cost of the sidewalk is worth the build given that there is already one that exists on the west side of the road. Mayor Alyssa Shenk said it was.

“People, for whatever reason, they will walk on the street,” Shenk said. “I’ve seen it a million times.”

Dayton Crites of the SE Group, which was hired by the town to work on the project, said creating a dual sided sidewalk is like building a two-lane road.

“No one’s debating whether you’re going to put on two lanes for cars,” he said. “So I would just say that in the interest of promoting walking as a viable mode, I think this is why we’re proposing a dual sided sidewalk even when one already exists.”

The town moved to adopt the plan for Upper Kearns Road. DJ&A estimated the changes to the road would cost between $75,000 and $81,000.

The town seeks to add the pedestrian wayfinding signs in the fall and the foundational improvements, including the new sidewalk and blinking signs, in spring 2026.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.