Advocates say the new infrastructure is mostly good. And they want more of it.
By Nathaniel Minor, Denverite
The city and county of Denver has built 137 miles of new bike infrastructure in the last five years, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced on Wednesday.
That surpasses the goal of 125 miles Hancock set in 2018.
“These are new opportunities for people to get to work, to the store, to school, to recreation, to do it safely and comfortably,” Hancock said as he stood next to a new bike lane adjacent to Rocky Mountain Lake Park in northwest Denver. “These alternative modes of transportation and travel … improve our health and our climate.”
The 137-mile figure needs a caveat, however: The city double-counted some of the new bike lanes. So one mile of a street with two opposite-direction bike lanes counts as two miles of bike lanes.
Hancock, who was driven to the event in a large black SUV, has long pushed plans with goals of reducing driving in favor of cleaner modes of transportation like walking and biking. One 2017 plan, for example, set a goal of increasing the percentage of commuters who walk or bike from 8 percent to 15 percent by 2030.
The push to quickly build bike infrastructure is one of the most public ways his administration has tried to manifest those plans.
“The old single-mode transportation system in Denver no longer applies,” he said. “We have grown exponentially over the last decade. We have to be a more multimodal city and we got to have the infrastructure that supports it.”