BIKES

but are unlikely to ride without separate bike facilities.

Emily Kleinfelter, safety and regional Vision Zero planner for DRCOG, said paint isn’t protection. DRCOG advocates for the highest level of protection for bikers and that may be bollards, car parks or a curb, as well as creating a network that connects bikers all over the region without gaps.

“It’s making it so that they’re being able to get home safe to their loved ones,” she said.

Colorado State Senator Faith Winter said another barrier to biking is the cost of a bike. She’s for the incentives Polis is proposing to make biking more a ordable.

“Making sure people have access to what they need to bike, making sure they feel safe while biking, and making sure that it’s easy and easy to navigate.,” she said.

Safer outcomes

Another study co-authored by CU Denver researcher Wesley Marshall, found cities with more protected bike lanes lead to safer outcomes.

“Better safety outcomes are instead associated with a greater prevalence of bike facilities – particularly protected and separated bike facilities – at the block group level and, more of Arapahoe County. e program is also available in Colorado Springs. Residents who are interested in applying for the program must be 60 years or older and/or have a disability, must own, and reside in the Denver metro area or Colorado Springs, and plan to live in their home for at least two years. To apply, call 720339-5864 or email chad@brothersredevelopment.org.

“So many community members need a few home maintenance items in order to stay in their home strongly so, across the overall city,” the results read.

Westminster City Councilor Rich Seymour primarily rides on the weekends between March and October, throwing up dust on the Big and Little Cry Creek Trails towards ornton and Northglenn. He’s ridden on US 36, but doesn’t like the highway noise, he said.

He stays clear of primary and secondary roads, even if they have marked bike lanes.

“Being anywhere near tra c is taking your life in your hands. Distracted and aggressive drivers are wreaking havoc with law-abiding drivers and killing bicyclists and motorcyclists,” Seymour wrote in an email. ornton’s Mayor Pro Tem Jessica Sandgren also thinks e-biking and biking are great for mobility but cited safety issues,

“I don’t think it’s safe on any street anywhere,” she said. “ e way people are driving across the country, I don’t feel comfortable.”

Data backs up his concern for bikers, motorcyclists and pedestrians. CDOT reported fatalities in 2022: 146 motorcycles, 105 pedestrians and 12 bicycles.

Fewer car lanes, more tra c?

Seymour noted Westminster has a mobility plan adopted by a prior council. His concern is the removal of vehicle lanes for bike lanes.

“I’m not in favor of decreasing auto lanes,” he said.

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— which statistically helps them be safer, healthier, and live longer. Painting is a maintenance item that is impossible for our clients to do physically or nancially,” said Brothers Volunteer Department Director Chad Nibbelink.

Painting the exterior of a home can cost up to $5,000 — but the Paint-Aon Program o ers income-eligible homeowners the chance to save big and devote their savings to other important costs like medication or groceries.

Still, Seymour remains all in on the idea of bike lanes. He said more people riding bikes would be great, but the addition of lanes needs to be a slow progression for road users to adjust. ose lanes need concrete, protective barriers for safety, he said.

But not at the expense of car lanes.

“I don’t see enough people using their bikes to commute and to take up road lane miles right now. I think it just adds to more congestion, which people are already frustrated about. We hear about it all the time,” Seymour said.

Seymour isn’t the only one concerned about decreasing lanes. e Weld County Commission, in a letter responding to CDOT’s new rule, said that decreasing lanes may be counterproductive.

“Complete streets or road diets that increase congestion are a popular movement in American cities to encourage walking and cycling. Most cities with high rates of bicycle commuting, such as Boulder, are college towns with young populations. erefore, demographics rather than street design may have the greatest in uence on cycling and walking,” it reads.

It also says that complying with the new rules may present challenges for “rural areas and those with a lower population density” because of differences between urban and rural lifestyles.

Some of the aspirations are unlikely, it says.

“CDOT’s CBA claims of signi cant roughout the Paint-A- on’s 44year history, Brothers Redevelopment has painted 7,729 homes. In 2022, the program painted 94 homes with the help of 1,945, saving homeowners $561,500.

“ e transformation that takes place on houses is incredible — but what’s priceless is what that work means to the homeowners. It makes volunteers see and feel their impact,” said Nibbelink. “ e work this program does changes lives for the better.” cost savings are unfounded because their estimated reductions in VMT are unlikely to be realized. e CBA is driven by aspirational assumptions about transport mode shifts that are unrealistic. History convincingly demonstrates that programs to reduce VMT have failed,” the letter reads. e progression of adding bike lanes needs to be slow, he explained, and constructing bike lanes prior to a demand for them may be adding the cart before the horse.

Seymour pointed to the context of Colorado: it’s a western state that’s still highly dependent on cars.

“If we eliminate people’s ability to travel by car, it is going to have a detrimental e ect on our economy,” he said.

“If we really had that much pent-up desire to ride bikes and commute on bikes, I think we’d already see more bike riders,” he said.

Hultin sees it di erently, that more, safer infrastructure will bring out more bikers.

She challenges local governments to rethink transportation projects and to make biking and other modes of transportation safer. Not pitting modes of travel against each other, but making roads more accessible to a more diverse group of users.

“(Local governments should) take in projects that serve, walking, biking, transit, and make sure that those are a priority for funding ahead of the car expansion projects,” she said.

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