safety

Denver Business Journal Editor Neil Westergaard went old timey in a piece last Friday with the headline “Bikes are OK, but Denver plan goes too far.” The article was behind a pay wall for subscribers, but there are some excerpts below that give readers the gist. Westergaard frames the city’s efforts to improve conditions for bicycling as a … Continued

Before Mayor Michael Hancock and Denver City Council members made transit infrastructure a top budget priority for 2016, Council Member Mary Beth Susman was on a mission to bridge the gaps in the city’s Swiss cheese transit system. The 67-year-old made the case for better bus service in the Denver Post editorial pages last year, then got scolded … Continued

The Blake Street Bridge over 38th Street is a dangerous mess with three driving lanes, no sidewalks, and no dedicated space for bicycling. All of that is about to change, though, with a makeover that will narrow the space for traffic while adding sidewalks and striping bike lanes in each direction. This piece of Blake Street is an important … Continued

The Department of Public Works has been working on a groundbreaking analysis of cyclist crashes and injuries in Denver that could lay the groundwork for major safety improvements, but the release of the document is now behind schedule. On March 12, a DPW representative showed an overview of the study to the Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation’s transportation committee. The presentation was … Continued

Colorado is falling behind other states when it comes to bike-friendliness, according to new rankings from the League of American Bicyclists. Utah has leapfrogged the Centennial State, which dropped one position compared to last year. While Colorado can still claim a high ranking, the Bike League is grading on a curve: Scoring 53.9 out of 100 … Continued

At the same time that Denver seeks to become more walkable and transit-friendly, the city is pursuing road-widening projects that work directly against those goals. Sometimes the city even tries to do both things in the same place, and that’s what happening on South Broadway right now. In 2008, Denver adopted a Strategic Transportation Plan beginning with this … Continued

The Department of Public Works wants to add two pieces to the growing list of bike infrastructure projects in Denver: a partially buffered bike lane on West 29th Avenue in the Highlands, and a neighborhood bikeway on West 35th Avenue to complement it. While the initial plans boast some solid elements, they could also go a lot farther to … Continued

On Denver’s streets, pedestrians and cyclists are at the bottom of the food chain. Dangerous designs and high-speed traffic jeopardize people walking and biking most of all. That’s one of the countless reasons Denver should adopt Vision Zero, a policy approach to street safety that recognizes traffic “accidents” can be prevented by smart design and enforcement. In 2015, seven people … Continued

Two protected bike lanes are in the works for the north and south ends of Broadway, in what could be a major breakthrough for creating a safe, connected bike network. But the Department of Public Works has no plans to link the two segments, leaving a nearly two-mile gap for the foreseeable future. A continuous protected bike lane … Continued