March 2018 Meeting Notes
by Geneva Hooten

On-Demand Shuttle and Dockless Bike Share Pilot in the DU Area – Chad King, DU Sustainability Director, and Stuart Anderson, Ex. Dir. Of Transportation Solutions

The University of Denver community covers a large area, too far to walk for many trips within the area and beyond to the light rail stations, restaurants, businesses, and student housing throughout the area.

How can people move efficiently in the DU area while increasing connections to the existing RTD infrastructure? The university, in conjunction with Transportation Solutions — southeast Denver’s Transportation Management Association — are soon to launch two exciting pilots: a shuttle service and dockless bike share, together providing efficient and easy mobility in the area. Both pilot projects were born from their strategic planning efforts and ultimately strive to reduce car commuting to and within campus.

1. A dynamic app-summoned shuttle service operated by Chariot will provide microtransit to move people across campus, reduce single occupancy commuting to campus, and provide crucial connections to transit. Users must download the Chariot app and can pick up a ride on one of the multiple fixed-service lines. This shuttle will have five bike racks and a ski rack. It will be subsidized, then move to market-rate pricing.

2. Dockless bike share provided by Ofo – launched in April – is a dockless bike share system with 200 bikes for the DU area. These bikes will increase access to transit, serve as intra-campus transportation, and reduce the parking demand on campus (for both bikes and cars). The campus will add special parking zones for the 200 bikes that have flooded their campus. The pilot area extends beyond the confines of campus and any bike left in that area for more than 48 hours will be returned to campus. In addition, data collected about bike share usage will be shared with the City to support its planning and engineering efforts.

Download the full presentation slides here!

Getting To and Around Denver’s Parks — Kelly Ream, East Denver Parks Planner, and Dan Raine, Senior City Planner

Thanks to Kelly Ream and Dan Raine who provided an overview of transportation planning to and within our parks. Understanding the different scales of focus can help us all be better advocates and informed citizens. For transportation to the park, the on- and off-street active transportation networks are informed by the Denver Moves plans. For park access and entry points, park master plans and supplemental studies serve as the guiding documents. Then, within the park, internal circulation and use is informed by park master plans and supplemental studies.

Using the 2018 City Park Master Plan Update, Kelly showed how each piece of the parks planning process informs the Plan’s recommendations. For instance, the Garfield Street Neighborhood Bikeway is a project that provides critical access to the Park, but not within it.

Ultimately, neighbors should get involved in park master planning efforts, but also use citywide studies such as the Vision Zero Action Plan (https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/vision-zero.html) and the soon-to-be-finalized Denver Moves: Pedestrians and Trails plan to advocate for improved pedestrian, bicycle, and transit accommodations.

Download the full presentation slides here!

The Future of Bike Share in Denver – Nick Bohnenkamp, Executive Director of Denver Bike Sharing (Denver B-Cycle)

A huge thanks to Nick Bohnenkamp for his grand opus of a presentation to INC. Since our March meeting, Nick announced that after nine years he will be leaving Denver Bike Sharing. From all of us at INC, thank you for your service and for making Denver a better place to get around!

Have you heard about dockless bike share yet? Dockless bike share is taking off internationally, bringing both the opportunity for broader coverage and risk of disorganized bikes blocking sidewalks. Dockless bikes are a wild card in bike share technologies, now sparking healthy debates about whether and how dockless systems can be incorporated into the transportation landscape.

Nowhere is that conversation more ripe than in Denver where Denver B-Cycle, one of the nation’s first station-based bike share systems, calls home. We already have a well-used, well-known, and well-loved bike share system and the City and County of Denver is waiting to see how dockless fares in Dallas, Seattle, and even Aurora, before permitting dockless bikes to hit the streets. So, for now, we have just one bike share system. Nick provided a vision for what the future of that system may be.

As Denver Bike Sharing looks to a fleet replacement and longer-term financial health, now is the time to begin reevaluating how a different bike share model could work for Denver. Nick thinks that a smart bike, hub-based system, similar to Portland’s BIKETOWN, is the best option for Denver. This option would add the flexibility of ending a trip anywhere, without losing the predictability that stations provide.

To guarantee its financial longevity, bike share should be deployed as a public-private partnership. It would help keep the system afloat while providing a key service to achieve the City’s mode split and air quality goals.

Why? Supporting a different bike share model in Denver means that we can:

• Bring bike sharing access to a larger portion of Denver’s population
• Replace more vehicle trips with bike share trips to keep some cars home.
• Connect more people to transit, solving that intractable problem of the first and final mile.
• Make bike sharing the most affordable mobility service in Denver to help incentivize bike share as a “first choice” among all service providers
• We look forward to seeing future developments related to bike share in Denver and hope that bike share can continue to be a reliable, connected, and affordable transportation option.

Download the full presentation slides here!

Over the Colfax Clover — Critter Thompson, Project Team

The current Colfax and Federal Boulevard Interchange consists of a large, 29-acre grade-separated “cloverleaf” design. This design creates dangerous conditions for people walking and biking who must deal with high-speed traffic, unprotected crossings, and difficult-to-navigate connection points. Critter Thompson, part of the Over the Colfax Clover project team, has brought together community members, local technical experts, and jurisdictional stakeholders to develop short- and long-term design solutions. He shared those potential designs with the Committee (thanks to WalkDenver for the summaries!). Either option would provide better connection to the existing assets, such as the trail and West Line, more regular intersections, and opportunities to develop the land in more people-friendly ways.

1. The first concept is at-grade and would eliminate the Colfax Avenue viaduct and the Federal Boulevard flyover to create a more traditional intersection that includes wide sidewalks and protected bike lanes. This option would open up several acres of land for redevelopment.
2. The second concept presented was a split one-way design that maintains the grade-separated intersection but transforms the Federal Boulevard bridge into a one-way, southbound street for vehicles between 19th Avenue and Howard Place. The new street design would incorporate a two-way protected cycletrack and a wide pedestrian path that could become a signature destination for Denver with fantastic views and public spaces. Northbound traffic would be routed on a parallel street before joining back up with Federal Boulevard, similar to the way Broadway and Lincoln join up near I-25.

Design ideas will be on display during a one-day demonstration on June 3rd. Similar to 2015’s tactical urbanism event Reimagine West Colfax, a temporary design demonstration to bring to life some of the more people-friendly elements the community hopes to see incorporated into the design of the intersection. The team will be taking over the southwest leaf of the clover to celebrate this collective effort and the community’s vision for a more people-friendly neighborhood.

Download the full presentation slides here!