News From Denver Bicycle Touring Club

Boulder area riders may not often have the opportunity to ride in the Denver area but those of you who do, or those of you who want to support our ‘brotheren riders’ to the south may want to help encourage construction of new lanes and paths associated with the large transportation initiative in Southeast Denver. Via…………..Tom Tobiassen (tjtobiassen@home.com) writes:

"The Southeast Corridor Project is Happening NOW!

With Colorado voters approving the highways and light-rail bond issues in November, the Colorado Department of Transportation is moving forward on the Southeast Corridor Project. CDOT is planning to widen I-25 from Santa Fe to the Denver Tech Center and extend the Light Rail Transit Line from Broadway to Englewood and Aurora. Billions of dollars are now earmarked to improve transportation for the southern Denver Metro area.

The Southeast Corridor Project is good news to meet Denver's future transportation needs, but more can be done to accommodate the bicycle riding public, thus further increasing the benefits to metro residents. With the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in its final stages of writing, it is critical that we cyclists send our comments and concerns NOW! The document is huge but the following are some concerns voiced by Denver Mayor Webb's Bicycle Advisory Committee:

· At Light Rail Train Stations - No indication of bicycle parking capacity is given. Per Denver ordinance, bicycle parking should be provided equivalent to 5% of the required off-street car parking. The standard bicycle parking rack in Denver and the RTD district is the Inverted U.

Future bicycle and pedestrian bridges at major intersections should at least be planned for in the design, even if not built now, as called for in the Denver Bicycle Master Plan.

· Construction of this project should not impede the use of existing bicycle/pedestrian trails such as the Highline Canal Trail at Yale and the Cherry Creek Trail at Nine Mile Park and Ride.

New light rail vehicles should include provisions for carrying bicycles.

· The Southeast Corridor Project should be planned to encourage bicycling.

Send your comments to:

Mr. Jim Bumanglag
Project Manager
Colorado Department of Transportation
Southeast Corridor
4201 East Arkansas
Denver, Colorado 80222

We can not cover all of our concerns about this project in this article, but asking the project management to support Mayor Webb's Bicycle Advisory Committee recommendations to improve the Southeast Corridor project will go a long way in making the Denver Metro Area more bicycle friendly. Write TODAY!

The deadline for comments is March 24, 2000!

Confused? Well, you shouldn't be after visiting
http://members.aol.com/rcmoeur/part9.html

Richard Moeur, one of the subcommittee members, has provided a helpful background document and a side by side comparison of FHWA's and NCUTCD's proposed changes to Part IX. You'll be able to see just how much better the next Manual will be.

You may see room for improvements in future editions, and that's OK. Right now, we need to support the proposed changes and identify those future improvements so the bicycle technical subcommittee can continue its terrific work.

I don't know all the members of the technical committee so I can't thank them all personally in this e-mail. But, I saw Tim Oliver, John LaPlante, Richard Moeur, James Mackay, Sue MacNamara, Michelle DeRobertis and others last Thursday evening and they were positively giddy about the progress they have been able to make.

I urge you to show them how much we appreciate their commitment. Please, write to FHWA today and support the NCUTCD's proposed revisions to Part IX of the MUTCD.

Return to BBC January 2000 Newsletter