Plans for bike and bus lanes unveiled

Horses graze Thursday in a high- country meadow near the quickly changing colors of fall foliage in Gold Hill. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Denver Public Works is moving forward with a project that is meant to make one of Denver’s busiest roads friendlier for buses, bikes and pedestrians.

The newest plans for Broadway include:

• Protected and “high comfort” bike lanes.

• A 24- hour transit- only lane. • Loading zones.

• Pedestrian ramps, better visibility and raised pedestrian islands.

Those changes would reduce the number of automobile travel lanes from four to three lanes for the length of the affected section. The bike lanes would run between on- street parking and the sidewalk.

The city already has installed “pilot” bike lanes along a halfmile stretch of Broadway. They drew objections from business owners who feared they would drive away consumers, as well as complaints that the bike lanes saw low use — in part because they weren’t connected to other lanes.

The pilot was meant to test the configuration, not the number of cyclists, wrote public works spokeswoman Nancy Kuhn in an email. “The goal of the pilot was to evaluate our ability to implement and operate a two- way protected bike way on Broadway to inform the corridor- long project,” she wrote.

A city study found that automobiles’ travel times were only a few seconds slower after the change.

The final project will include a “small reduction” to on- street automobile parking and an increase to bike and scooter parking, according to Kuhn. It won’t affect permitted parking for neighborhoods.

The first area to go under construction will be the southern stretch, from Speer Boulevard south to Broadway Station, a distance of about 2 miles. That already is funded by $ 12 million from voter- approved bonds and could be ready for construction in 2020. The final cost will likely be higher than that, Kuhn said.

But the city hasn’t yet set aside any money for the northern segment, from Speer Boulevard to Civic Center.

The city is collecting input through an online survey, and a recent meeting brought a mix of comments: While bicyclists and neighbors were excited, city staff members also heard concerns about automobile travel delays, Kuhn said. Detailed design documents are available at denvermovesbroadway. com.