DENVER — Denver's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) joined members of the community on Saturday at La Alma Recreation Center to celebrate a new protected bike lane.
The new lane along West 13th Avenue allows riders to commute more easily from the Sun Valley Neighborhood to downtown Denver and back, according to a release.
"This provides a really important connection from the west side to the east side of Denver," Nancy Kuhn, DOTI's communications director, said. "That’s new and it’s protected so people feel safer, people are more likely to use it."
DOTI's new lane uses rubber curbs and posts to separate people on bikes from people in cars, they said, greatly expanding the places people can comfortably access by bicycle.
"And our goal is to provide a network of bike lanes for people to ride so if you don’t want to drive your car you can hop on a bike, do so and feel safe about it and get to where you want to go," Kuhn said.
With this addition, the release said, the new "high comfort facility" on West 13th Avenue spans from the Platte River Trail to Mariposa Street, connecting with another protected bike lane on West 14th Avenue that leads to the Cherry Creek Trail, the Golden Triangle neighborhood, downtown destinations and beyond.
"Denver has grown so much, and if everyone's driving their cars there’s going to be a lot of congestion," Kuhn said. "So bike lanes are actually a way to reduce vehicle congestion. It’s good for the environment, no emissions and it’s good for people’s health."
The project was funded by the voter-approved Elevate Denver Bond program, investing $18 million toward bike lanes across the city.
"We’re trying to build a network so they can ride bikes as easily as we can drive cars," Kuhn said.
The city is currently installing 125 miles of bike lanes over five years, ending in December 2023. It's part of the city's Vision Zero initiative to eliminate fatal crashes.
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