Bike Fort Collins was thrilled to host our new Mayor, Jeni Arndt on a ride around town yesterday. It was a great opportunity to get to know her, while not only riding past and celebrating some new bicycle infrastructure that is under construction, but also showing-and-sharing with her some improvement opportunities—some of the same ones we’ve either showcased in our Intersection-Facility Focus series, or in presentations we’ve made to the Bicycle Advisory Board.
We were also appreciative of our friends from Bicycle Colorado joining us for the day. Piep Van Heuven (Director of Government Relations) and Jack Todd (Director of Communications and Policy) accompanied us. It was great to hear their insights too, and we look forward to finding more ways to align our local efforts with their statewide efforts when possible. A special thanks to Jack for the photos below.
Here’s a map of the route we took, and below are some photos from the ride. You’ll note that some of the things we highlighted and discussed on the route included:
- The opportunity that exists to improve the soft surface trails that parallel our current paved bicycle trails with more robust single-track sidewalks (or urban single-track as they are also referred to).
- Celebrating the near completion of the new toucan crossing at Lemay Avenue and Columbia.
- The opportunity to create a new connector trail/bridge from the south side of the Prospect Road underpass at Center Avenue to the Spring Creek Trail, mitigating some of the less safe movements that are currently required of bicyclists traveling northbound on Center Avenue.
- The challenge that exists to better improve a more direct and safer north-south bicycle route on the west side of the CSU campus,
- Celebrating the new toucan crossing that is under construction at Magnolia Street and Shields Street.
- The opportunity that exists with the pending update of the Bicycle Master Plan to address and identify what should and will be the main bicycle routes into Old Town. We entered Old Town from eastbound Magnolia Street, where the dedicated bicycle infrastructure literally stops at the intersection of Magnolia Street, Canyon Avenue and Sherwood Street.
- Celebrated the low-stress north-south corridor that Remington Street represents from downtown down to midtown.
- Riding the stretch of Pitkin Avenue between Remington Street and Stover Street that is tentatively slated for an experimental Advisory Bike Lane
A big thank you to Mayor Arndt for her time and interest.
