On the first day of school this year, Kristen Epstein witnessed a little girl on her bike almost get hit by a car at the intersection of 17th Avenue and Airport Road in Longmont.

On the first day of school this year, Kristen Epstein witnessed a little girl on her bike almost get hit by a car at the intersection of 17th Avenue and Airport Road in Longmont.

“It scared me to death,” said Epstein, who lives in the nearby McIntosh Lake area. “I felt like I had to do something, and that is why I have been so active in trying to protect our children.”

Epstein has a young child who attends Westview Middle School just down the road from the intersection, where children routinely cross on weekday mornings and afternoons.

Several factors — including commuter traffic, the sun’s glare, multiple turn lanes, the convergence of the roadways and the all-around busy nature of the area —make the intersection particularly dangerous, Epstein and other residents have warned.

“It’s a recipe for disaster,” Epstein said. “It’s proven itself to be a recipe for disaster.”

Earlier this month, a vehicle traveling northbound on Airport Road at a high speed blew through the stop sign at 17th Avenue and struck a center median on Fowler Lane, resulting in a rollover crash.

Epstein and others believe putting up a traffic light at the intersection would be the best solution for protecting pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, too.

Carol Schrodt, who works as a crossing guard in the mornings and afternoons at the intersection, said she had almost been hit “many times” by vehicles despite wearing an orange vest and holding a red stop sign.

“They’re not paying attention,” Schrodt said of many of the drivers who utilize the intersection. “If they would slow down — total different story.”

Jim Angstadt, Longmont’s director of public works and engineering, said in an email that the data for the intersection does not indicate high numbers of crashes over time, or deficiencies in infrastructure, as the root cause of crashes, there.

“The past five years of crash history at this intersection shows an average of 4.2 crashes per year with no fatalities, no pedestrian crashes and no bicycle crashes,” Angstadt said, noting that more than 20,000 cars travel through the intersection on average in a day.

The speed limit on Airport Road south of 17th Avenue is 45 mph, and along 17th Avenue, through the intersection, it is 40 mph.

However, the school zone does bring the speed limit down to 20 mph at certain times in the area.

“Traffic staff have inspected the area and the intersection and the approaches are in compliance with city standards,” Angstadt said. “Nevertheless, staff will initiate several short-term improvements to provide an additional level of safety for users of the intersection.”

Those improvements will include lowering the speed limits on Airport Road and 17th Avenue in the vicinity of the intersection, the installation of a “stop ahead” sign on Airport Road, and upgrades to the existing stop sign on Airport Road in the form of a flashing stop sign.

Staff will also be working to provide an improved line of sight, looking west, from the stop sign on Airport Road, Angstadt said.

Epstein made clear that she looks forward to working with the city to make the intersection safer.

“We’re on the same team here,” Epstein said. “Our goal is to protect the residents but most of all, and above all, protect our children.”

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