Reader: I Just Want a Safe Way to Get Around Without a Car

The road to creating a city that encourages bicycles isn’t pretty, and the Seventh Avenue Historic District has become embroiled in some particularly ugly discussions lately. On July 20, District 5 City Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer facilitated a virtual meeting between Nick Williams, deputy manager of internal and external affairs for the Department of Traffic and Infrastructure, and concerned Seventh Avenue residents who say that the bike lane infrastructure improvements, particularly the white plastic bollards, not only showed up out of nowhere, but are confusing, potentially less safe — and ugly.

“Safety and traffic safety is a top priority. If anything, we’re turbocharging it,” Williams said. “What is there now is theoretically temporary infrastructure. A long-term plan is to build in more hardened infrastructure; typically that is going to be more aesthetically pleasing. … We do not have a solid timeline on when that will happen.”

In the meantime, though, residents and bike advocates have plenty to say about the situation in their comments on the Westword Facebook and Westword Twitter pages with the Seventh Avenue story. Says Neil: 

Those things are an ugly nuisance anywhere they have them.

Adds Jason: 

Waste of money and ridiculous.

Wonders Gary: 

Do they actually work in protecting people on bikes? I find it so visually disconcerting (maybe sensory overload, not sure) that I find it so much more difficult to see pedestrians and people on bikes (or even automobiles).

Counters Emily:

I don’t give a flying crap about aesthetics, I just want a safe way to get around outside of a car.

Adds Dave: 

The thing that I’ve never understood is why anyone would want to drive on Seventh when just one block to the north or south you have Sixth and Eighth avenues. Not only do they not have stop signs every two blocks, but you don’t have to worry about all of the pedestrians, dogs and bikes. It just seems to be so completely self-serving to want every square inch of pavement for your pollution-spewing vehicle.

And then there’s this from the Denver Bicycle Lobby:

Here is our official comment on people valuing the character of their neighborhood over bike safety a few days after a person on a bicycle was killed in Denver:

It’s horseshit.

You can quote us on that.

What do you think of the bollards popping up around town to designate bike lanes? What would you like to see? Post a comment or share your thoughts at [email protected],com.