On May 21, Denver Public Works crews added plastic bollards to the buffer of the 15th Street bike lane, officially making it Denver’s first protected bike lane.
Protected bike lanes, or cycletracks, are becoming common in central cities around the US. Compared to normal bike lanes, cycletracks are safer, induce more people to bike, and increase business.
Photo from @DowntownDenver on Twitter.
Excellent; I take this route every day. Can vehicles still turn left at intersections (in front of bikes)? I guess they have to. But at least delivery trucks can’t block the lane like they do now!
Finally! Now, where else can we build these without months of study and trips to see what other cities are doing. There must be some low hanging fruit.
I’d love to see the parking lanes removed along MLK from Quebec to Downing creating space for a protected bike lane that would connect Stapleton to downtown. There are very few cars parked along MLK and the sharrows between York and Downing do very little to suggest that the road should be shared and they provide no protection for cyclists.
How can we fast track the rumored bidirectional protected bike lane on Broadway? I’d love to read an interview with Molly North and Emily Snyder to learn more about Denver’s plans and how we can speed up implementation.
A Broadway bike lane ought to be a very high priority. Every time I patronize a business there, whether it’s at 12th, 6th or further south (even south of I-25), I have to make sure I watch for cyclists every time I exit my parked car (on the sidewalk side!) or leave a business, because the sidewalks have become the de facto “bike lanes” all along that busy, wide street. It’s dangerous to both pedestrians and cyclists, not to mention detrimental to the interests of the largely locally-owned businesses along that vibrant thoroughfare. If there were a protected bike lane, that would probably solve the problem 100%.
Technically, Bannock is Denver’s first Cycletrack – even if it’s just a block.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7391428,-104.9901609,212m/data=!3m1!1e3
*7/8ths of a block
Great! It’s kind of funny when they make these improvements and it takes literally one day of construction after years of debate and planing
Great news, but isn’t that photo just a bit ironic. I’m pretty sure that skateboards don’t count as bicycles.
Love it. I would love to have 11th changed to accommodate bike lanes (along most of it) from Osage to Ogden. It would require removing the driving lane from Eastbound 11th at Downing to Grant and the median between Logan and Ogden. Switching Grant to a two-way and removing the third lane to accomodate bike lanes would be great too.
Didn’t stop an orange Lamborghini convertible from trying to kill me at an intersection yesterday, but it’s going to take time for people to figure out how to turn left through this stretch. And really, I probably should have just let him do it — likely would have been more profitable than my job.
I live at 15th and Larimer and wish desperately that these bollards were extended all the way to the 15th St. bridge. The bike path from Lawrence to the bridge is less than useless and bicyclists still insist on using the NE 15th st. sidewalk (both directions!), endangering both pedestrians and themselves. There is no red-line for this part of the lane and cars ignore the green bike signs. What is the plan?