What is “Denver Bike Streets”?
- The community-created Bike Streets Map features 400+ miles of quiet, neghborhood streets and trails. Used more than 500,000 times.
- Crowd-sourced maps.
- Collect and map low-stress bike routes around the city.
- Tend to be residential streets with less and slower traffic.
- No infrastructure = No cost to City / County / State
- Routes are more pleasant.
- Volunteers were recruited to lead bike rides on these routes.
In the Netherlands and/or Denmark (source?) 80% of funding for bike infrastructure goes to lowstress bike streets and 20% for engineering at the “bad” intersections.
Let’s focus on the 80%.
Avi Stopper (creator) interview on Colorado Matters (2019):
Highly recommend the Bike-Streets Map as a great way for exploring & navigating Denver by bike.
What is the VAMOS Bike Network?
Let’s Go! Achievable in just a few months – No need for expensive engineer and years of waiting.
Multiple examples of Bike Streets have already been adopted:
- Denver’s growth plans mandate expanded access to low-stress bike routes
- City created “Shared Streets,” which reduce traffic cutting through neighborhoods and created havens for neighbors, walkers, and people on bikes (during COVID shutdown)
- Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation, which represents Denver’s Registered Neighborhood Organizations, has encouraged the City to adopt the Bike Streets Map
- Very popular e-bike rebate program demonstrated huge demand for bikes and bike infrastructure
- We have the tools to do it. Just need the willpower. Let’s build the VAMOS Bike Network now!
- Paint and plastic poles (bollards)
- Denver could be best bike city in America in a matter of months.
- Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) already using these all around City
- DOTI “bulb-outs“ – slow traffic and shorten the crosswalk for pedestrians
- Make the streets better for neighbors, walkers, and people on bikes.
Bike Streets in Jefferson County
- Collect & select routes
- Routes should link destinations: parks, shopping, libraries, businesses, etc.
- Comfortable way to ride from point A to B
- Jeffco routes should interconnect with Denver and adjacent communities.
- Map Jeffco routes (piggy back on Denver?)
- Identify gaps: within Jeffco and connections to adjacent communities.
- Signage would improve route finding.
Contact Peter McNutt (petemcnutt@yahoo.com) for more information.
The figure below is just one example of Bike-Streets routes between Lakewood & Denver.
Upper portion partly follows Denver “Garden” route. Lower portion follows parts of Weir Gulch.
Examples of some gaps circled – challenges to bikes / peds / strollers / disabled, etc.
One third of the population does not drive: young, old, disabled, too costly, elect not to, etc.).
