Bike/pedestrian bridge
This isn’t the first time this much needed project has seen the axe.
Both the T-Rex Project and FasTracks removed the bridge from final consideration at the 11th hour. Now, somewhere between the IPTF final recommendations and last week, the bridge was dropped again.
Greenprint Denver calls for “Vibrant, livable urban centers that support walking, biking and mass transit, and that reduce reliance on cars...”
However, when given this opportunity to fund a project that will reduce our reliance on cars, we pass it up.
The City talks a good game about reducing emissions until difficult decisions must be made. Then it pulls a project that would have direct impacts on reducing emissions. This comes at a time when the Metro area has recorded its fourth ozone violation, a threat to people’s health that may result in regulatory actions by the EPA.
City Council Finance Committee, please reinstate this project. After all, what is our priority?
This letter has not been edited.
Right on. I am a bike commuter, and am continually frustrated by the city's lip service about helping people like me get around town safely and their lack of action when it actually comes to doing it. Why doesn't John Hickenlooper just say what he's going to do, spend 99% of the transportation budget on cars, and split the remaining 1% between bicycling and walking projects, then cut those out when the budget gets squeezed. Come on Denver, we can demand better.
Posted by ppc management on July 27, 2007 09:18 AMEvery time I go on the freeway I see empty walk over bridges. Has anyone ever counted how many peole actually use one of these bridges????
Posted by RON on July 27, 2007 09:28 AMRon
How long does it take you to pass a walk over bridge? 3 maybe 4 seconds? Just because you don't see people on the bridges in the few seconds you are there doesn't mean they are not used often.
Riding a bike at I-25 and Colorado is suicide. Please building a bike/ped bridge!!!
Posted by Slim on July 27, 2007 10:13 AMI drive past the new ped bridge daily, and see several bikers/walkers. Projects like these are needed to allow people to pollute less into our brown cloud city.
Posted by BD on July 27, 2007 11:30 AMIt is clear to me that our elected officials talk out of both sides of their mouths. To say the least, I am disappointed that, once again, this important bike-friendly project has been cut. More importantly however, I continue to see things like this that cause me to loose faith in the integrity of our elected officials. It seems that "Greenprint Denver" exists more in name than in reality, especially when you also miss other important opportunities, such as the opportunity to improve the user-friendliness of Cheeseman Park by eliminating traffic flow through the park. A consistent message is being sent by our elected officials: Greenprint Denver? Eh, not so much...
Posted by JV on July 27, 2007 12:01 PMFoe every bike I see trying to reduce ozone, I see 50 immigrants driving hummers, cadillacs or souped up cars. The homes they live in have decimated properties that used to have cared for vegetation that cleaned the air we breath and produced O2.
On a sliding scale we are going very backwards at a rapid pace. I feel that our officials should take another look at what they could do. If they continue to be nice we will suffocate to death.
"Foe every bike I see trying to reduce ozone, I see 50 immigrants driving hummers, cadillacs or souped up cars. The homes they live in have decimated properties that used to have cared for vegetation that cleaned the air we breath and produced O2.
On a sliding scale we are going very backwards at a rapid pace. I feel that our officials should take another look at what they could do. If they continue to be nice we will suffocate to death. "
Clearly an immigrant problem, as only immigrants drive hummers or have ratty lawns. Your well argued and higly logical approach has convinced me completely.
Posted by Kyle on July 29, 2007 03:17 AMFirst, the number of users question: as another writer said, it's impossible to determine the number of users in one's 3-4 second pass. Besides, studies have shown that if the infrastructure is pedestrian and bicycle-friendly, over time, more people will be encouraged to walk/bike.
The inflammatory immigrant comment is almost not worth but responding to, but I'm inflamed enough to do so: it is indeed sad that many immigrants assimilate our most negative cultural characteristics, such as driving big cars. However, the writer is advised to ride his bike or take public transportation and observe the large number of immigrants who commute using these methods--many more than the number who drive Hummers.
Posted by Sarah on August 14, 2007 06:58 AM