Jefferson County’s draft Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Maps are now available for public comment. The two maps, one for the Bicycle Plan and the other for the Pedestrian Plan, were developed by the Transportation Planning team in the county’s Transportation and Engineering Division. The purpose of the two plans is to guide the county in developing a network of on-street bicycle facilities and off-street paths, sidewalks and trails.
In creating these maps, the Transportation Planning team made regional recommendations by incorporating various municipal bicycle and pedestrian plans. Using a regional approach, the bicycle and pedestrian facilities will be continuous and consistent in the cities, towns and unincorporated county areas. An important feature of this plan is to utilize Kipling Street as a north-south multi-modal “backbone,” connecting to a ladder-style network of east-west connections. No funding is currently available to implement the plan, but projects will be implemented as individual roadway corridors are developed.
This plan shows a long-term vision for Jefferson County and represents significant future investments. Reviews and comments on the plan maps are being accepted through January 31, 2012, at www.jeffco.us/bike-plan. Please make your voice heard on this important plan.
For more information, contact Will Kerns, AICP Transportation Planner, at 303-271-8497 or wkerns@jeffco.us.
Several comments:
1. Kipling South of Alameda to C-470 is shown as being equipped with a parallel shared-use path. Why is a bike lane proposed that is essentially redundant?
2. Deer Creek Canyon Road from the hogback to Phillipsburg is shown as already having an adequate paved shoulder. I question the accuracy of this designation over the length of this section of road. There are some pretty tight corners as you head up Deer Creek Canyon.
3. Highway 40 up Mt. Vernon Canyon: This section of highway is shown as a proposed paved shoulder, but my expereince is that it already has a very adequate shoulder for cyclists.
4. The Plan does not appear to coordinate with the RTD light-rail stations being constructed along the light-rail corridor. Bicycle access along Johnson Road north of Highway 6, Highway 6 and Union Blvd. and at the Wadsworth station (especially from the east and west) looks very limited.
5. I commute down Garrison from 6th to the Hampden frontage road, and it is an excellent cycling corridor. One big advantage of this lane is the relatively small amount of vehicle traffic compared with Kipling or Wadsworth and the reduced vehicle speeds, which helps minimize the stress of a commute. If this condition can be reproduced elsewhere, that would be preferred over bicycle lanes on very busy arterial streets.
Thank you for your consideration to the above.
Great feedback, Barry. Thanks for sharing here, and don’t forget to go to http://www.jeffco.us/bike-plan to provide direct input to Jefferson County planners.
Bike lanes on Kipling under 6th seems tricky, but I did provide feedback asking for bike lanes over 6th on Union/Simms.
I commute using Kipling from c470 to Alameda. I would like to see a bike lane on Kipling. I find the shared use path too dangerous when I need to cross streets. Right turn on red cars do look or give the right of way.
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