There are many big and beautiful projects happening in our Denver community, and lots of ways for you to get involved and for your voice to be heard! Today we’re focusing specifically on the Community Transportation Networks project - approximately 40 bicycle projects and 125 miles of bikeways that will be implemented over the next three years with the goal of making travel in Denver better. These are largely being built to make it more comfortable primarily for people who are interested in biking, but are concerned about their safety.
Launched in early 2020, this new program from DOTI aims to achieve better biking networks and bike facilities within Denver that increase comfortability, predictability on the roadway, and giving people who bike a dedicated space. Right now, the project planners are looking for as much input as possible to best represent the needs of the community, and would love to hear from you! There are many opportunities to voice your needs and ideas, including a storymap to view the project in more detail, find existing conditions and propsed plans, and answer surveys on specific projects by 7/22.
The Community Transportation Network program is currently focused on three areas of the city, divided as Central, Northwest, and South Central. Now in the first phase of implementation, these multimodal plans will first include low stress bike projects that not only augment comfort for bikers, but ultimately benefit all road users. Project planners are relying on public input so that these networks will be as complete as possible for people to easily walk, bike, drive, and take transit to where they need to go. Multimodal recommendations based on feedback received through an online map earlier this spring, will be developed later this fall.
Safe Routes Advocate Amanda Christine attended the virtually-held Central meeting, and she's excited that of the 125 miles of bike lanes scheduled to be installed by the end of 2023, the majority of them will be high comfort bikeways - designed so that all sorts of people who ride bikes will have an easier time traveling on it. High comfort bikeways either separating people biking from people driving on high-intensity streets, or provide low-stress and low-volume streets, as planned along N Clay Street, W 41st Avenue, N Perry Street, and more. A planned bikeway on E. Bruce Randolph Street in the Central area is also definitely something to look forward to! Additionally, Amanda enjoyed hearing the overwhelmingly positive support from the community for current "Shared Streets" and extending them for longer. This conversation will be ongoing as the city looks to how they can advance safety, compliance, and educate more users on safe usage as well as on their benefits.
In addition to checking out the website links below, see what Denver Streets Partnership has to say about the project, here: https://denverstreetspartnership.org/what-we-do/community-networks/
To view projects more in-depth and provide input, please click here: https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/transportation-infrastructure/programs-services/bicycles/networks.html
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/23aa1f1e3e7d40a5aa870703b733a725 (open through 7/22)