Denver Could Add Bike Lanes to Major Streets

Denver planners are suggesting a change to the city’s bike lane strategy. After years of adding bike lanes to side streets, transportation planners now want to begin adding protected bike lanes to major arterial roads. “Some of the new bike lanes would be part of a new ‘core network’ that would help cyclists travel more directly over longer distances. They would use high-quality, permanent materials like concrete and would accommodate a high volume of cyclists, planners say.”

According to an article by Nathaniel Minor in Denverite, “Some of the city’s current bike lanes and low-traffic “neighborhood bikeways” abruptly end. Or, as with the 16th Avenue bike lane in the Uptown neighborhood, they run a block or two parallel to busy commercial corridors full of shops, restaurants and other destinations.” Putting more bike lanes on major roads would help people on bikes reach their destinations more easily and safely and avoid a ‘last-mile’ gap where they have to ride in mixed traffic or walk their bikes. Minor adds, “Denver law prohibits riding a bicycle on a sidewalk under most circumstances, but it makes an exception for cyclists reaching their final destination.”

Any changes to state highways such as Colorado Boulevard would require approval from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). CDOT officials say the agency is currently planning a new bus rapid transit (BRT) line for that road, as well as sidewalk improvements.