I used to think that people were just ignorant of cyclist's needs, but in a non-harmful way. You know, just an "oops, we didn't think of cyclists, but we will try next time!" kind of attitude. Well as Denver has become more willing to talk about creating safe spaces for cyclists, the glaring missteps become harder to understand.
An easy example is the shared use path that runs along Alameda in Lowry. From the official Denver Bike map, you can see that there is a couple mile stretch where cyclists are to share the sidewalk with pedestrians (noted by the brown color).
There has been recent construction at Alameda and Fairmount Dr. where a new firehouse has been built. In addition, due to the firehouse's need, a traffic signal has been installed for that intersection. What then confuses me is the choice of placement. On the east side of Fairmount, they placed the signal normally, off of the sidewalk, over-stretching the road.
But on the west side of Fairmount, they put the post smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk:
I suppose that they could make the case that it's not that busy, but the lack of attention to detail is just ridiculous. The post effectively causes a bottleneck, and it makes it such that if there are even 2 people approaching the corner, space feels limited. It just seems to further reinforce the idea that only auto travel is correct, and that all other forms of travel are inherently wrong.
In other parts of the city, snow removal sucks. Denver has made a needs based assessment that, unless it snows more than 12 inches, they will only clear major roads. This leaves cyclists in a precarious spot. Either ride on the busiest roads (which typically do not have dedicated space for cyclists) or fend for yourself in bike lanes on uncleared streets.
This year Denver has enacted specialized attention to about 5 cycle routes entering downtown from various directions.
The idea is that while they are clearing snow off of the streets, they will try to not forget about the bike lanes. A couple weeks ago we got to see what that meant for this year as Denver was hit with a decent sized storm that dropped some good snow. This meant that my normal paved trail looked more like a hiking or single track trail:
With that route out of the question, I biked into the city, taking alternate directions to ride up 16th Ave, since Denver Public Works noted snow removal for that bike lane. Even 3 days after the snow stopped, the bike lane was still unusable. Riders were forced into the street, since the bike lane looked as if it hadn't been plowed at all. This just feels like a further failure of looking out for cyclist's needs. It's pretty pathetic to not enact the plans that City Works puts into place 3 days after most of the snow fell.
Lastly I wanted to thank a random taxi driver who asked if I was ok after a driver buzzed me, then pulled over to yell at me. It seems not that often that drivers actually respect cyclists' rights to the road, and this random driver kind of made my day. Thank you yellow cab driver! I'll try to use your company next time I need a taxi.
