Bike riders, advocates consider options for getting around

With push for transportation options, is area ready for more e-bikes?

BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Governor Jared Polis’ push to get legislators to approve $500 rebates for electric bikes is pushing bicyclists and transportation advocates to wonder if the infrastructure exists in the northern Front Range to support them.

For Carl Christensen, a 61-year-old resident of Northglenn, there is. But it hasn’t always been that way.

“I used to fear for my life to get from my house down to where I can pick up the South Platte trail at 104th and Riverdale,” Christensen said.

Back in 2009, he started to incorporate biking into his daily commute. He used to ride his bike to the bus station, rack his bike on the bus, take it down to Union Station and ride the last mile to his o ce

Since 2010, he has made the 18mile ride from his home in Northglenn to the TIAA building downtown and champions the added bike lanes and trails that make it possible to do so.

He doesn’t ride for environmental reasons or to save on gas. In fact, he owns four vehicles. He rides because the trips make him feel good.

He says it’s healthy, too. Both mentally and physically.

“It was a great way to clear my head and it keeps me healthy so I can actually eat the way I like,” Christensen said.

Rachel Hultin, sustainable transportation director for Bicycle Colorado, sees it di erently. She said the Front Range doesn’t have enough infrastructure to support biking and electric biking because development has been focused on cars.

“Our present situation is really the result of 100 years of (car-centric) transportation planning and investment in which the leading question for transportation projects has been ‘how do we make it easier for cars to travel quickly through communities and down corridors?’” she said.

How comfortable it is for drivers and easy for cars to travel through a corridor has long been the measure for success, said Hultin, who also serves on Wheat Ridge City Council.

“And the outcome of 100 years of that thinking and those investments is a transportation system that overwhelmingly serves cars because that’s what we’ve been measuring,” she said.

Communities, Hultin said, started to realize the current transportation system doesn’t work for everyone. It needs to be more bikeable and walkable, with more transit to serve everyone. Not just car owners.

Northern inventories

Transportation o cials in the Metro North have taken some notice.

In 2018, Northglenn adopted the Connect Northglenn Bicycle and Pedestrian plan. According to Amanda Peterson, director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, the plan identi es needed trail connections and gaps in the existing network.

So far, 6.41 miles of on-street bike lanes have been installed, which adds to the 35 miles of o -street trails. e trail network also includes three bike repair stations.

Northglenn also provided 550 refurbished bikes at no cost. ey come in as donations and volunteers x them up, with funds from the city and donations.

ornton hosts a combined 396.5 miles of trails, including local and regional o -street trails, on-street bike planes, paved shoulders designated for bike lands and 8- to 10-foot-wide sidewalks designated as trails. e city is applying for grant money to complete studies to identify the roads where protected bike lanes make sense. ose studies are planned to start in the third quarter of this year, which will include public outreach. e process to decide which types of bike lanes to build follows street resurfacing projects. None were stand-alone and included funding for constructing barriers. at may change, Le wrote in an email.

Darrell Alston, a tra c engineer for ornton, said for the past decade new resurfacing projects have included painting on-street bike lanes.

However, with a segment of the population feeling uncomfortable riding in the street, the city is actively trying to provide separated and protected bike lanes. at may include a physical bu er, a vertical separation or a completely separate bicycle track.

“On a lower speed corridor, you can probably get away with some type of a simple vertical separation like pylons or maybe the periodic placement of decorative planters. When you get onto a higher speed roadway, you’re probably looking at some kind of a bigger physical separation, like curbs or a cycle track further away from the roadway,” Alston said.

Some of the corridors the city is considering include 88th Avenue from Pecos to Dahlia, 128th from I-25 to York, Pecos from Milkyway up to ornton Parkway and Huron from 84th to 88th. ose streets are based on high bicycle tra c already there.

Alston said providing bike lanes on the long arterial roadways with connection to the trail system can serve both short commutes and long range.

In Westminster, the 63.5 miles of on-street bike lanes, 17.3 miles of shared-use bike routes and 150 miles of trails help get bikers around. According to Andy Le, a spokesperson for the city, all bike lanes and shared-use bike routes have paint and symbols, with some bu ered lanes.

However, none are protected by pylons, curbs or anything other than striping, he said.

From Westminster, it is possible to commute to either Boulder or Denver. To Boulder, the US 36 Bikeway is a paved concrete trail from 88th and Sheridan north.

More money

More money for bicycle infrastructure could be coming, thanks to the Greenhouse Gas Planning Standard, a new rule adopted by the Transportation Commission of Colorado in December 2021. It requires agencies to measure greenhouse gas emissions from projects, with limits on how high those emissions go.

Jacob Riger, multimodal transportation planning manager for the Denver Regional Council of Governments, said his group has already modi ed its 2050 Metro Vision Regional Transportation Plan based on the rule.

DRCOG will now send more money to 11 bus rapid transit corridors by 2050, and budget more for bike lanes and better multimodal mobility options and less for road improvement projects, such as DRCOG’s Interstate 25 project.

It’s a way to reduce emissions, and according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, transportation is the second highest contributor in the state.

Emily Lindsey, active and emerging mobility program manager for DRCOG, said people are ready. Of the 15 million daily people take in Metro Denver, 43% are less than three miles and 19% are less than one mile.

“So, super bikeable, even more so with e-bikes,” she said.

ere just needs to be more dedicated active transportation infrastructure.

“ ere’s not perfect infrastructure throughout the region. ere’s always room for upgrades to our safety, our comfort, and our connectivity,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey said area cyclists are ready to ride but are concerned about their safety. In fact, according to DRCOG’s survey Active Transportation Plan, about 59% of the region’s adult population are interested in biking,