By Corinne Anderson, 303 Magazine
In the third installment of 303 Magazine’s series on Denver’s sustainability efforts, Naomi Amaha talks about connecting the city without cars. Naomi is Vice President of Health Strategies with the American Heart Association Colorado, served on the Denver Climate Action Task Force, and is a member of the Denver Streets Partnership steering committee.
“For the cost of a mile of highway, you can fund an entire city’s bicycle network,” Naomi Amaha, a task force member and representative of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP) explained.
It’s not just about replacing cars with bikes either. Denver’s walkability rating last year was given a C+ overall based on a progress report by DSP on the Denver Vision Zero Action Plan. Amaha said that “progress on building out sidewalks is particularly slow, for which we gave them an F. At the current pace, it will take hundreds of years to fix the 40% of Denver’s streets that have missing or substandard (not ADA accessible) sidewalks.”
So the goal is to design infrastructure that supports multimodal and micro-mobility for everyone and to do it at an expedited pace. In order to make that happen, the city will need to develop connective networks and improve the walkability rating in all neighborhoods — an effort it’s starting with the Denver Green Infrastructure Implementation Plan.
Read the full story at 303 Magazine