Two B-Cycle riders cross 17th Street as they ride along Lawrence Street with a view of Denver’s Union Station in the background on Friday, April 3, 2015. (Cyrus McCrimmon, Denver Post file)

Denver’s much-touted bike and pedestrian mobility plan is moving at a snail’s pace because city officials have failed to set aside enough money to pay for it, a new audit says.

The Denver Moves plan, approved in May 2011 when Mayor Michael Hancock was still on the City Council, aimed to add 270 miles of mostly on-street bike lanes as well as multi-use trails to the 172 miles that existed then.

Big projects are in the offing that would improve safer street access for bicyclists, especially in and near downtown. And the city has added 68 miles of bike lanes.

But the audit, issued Thursday, found that the city has carved off just $2.8 million for bike lanes and pedestrian-oriented projects from its capital improvement fund since 2013. That’s a smidgen of the plan’s overall estimated cost of $119 million. Some other money has been set aside from economic development funds and state sources, but the audit says the lack of dedicated funding has hurt the plan.

DOCUMENT: Read the complete Public Works Denver Moves Plan Performance Audit

“Talk is cheap, and apparently so is the funding of the plan,” said a statement issued by Auditor Dennis Gallagher, who will end his third and final term Monday as Tim O’Brien takes office. “The mayor and City Council have identified Denver Moves as one of the city’s foremost priorities, yet insufficient funding is resulting in a failure to meet the goal of an easy-to-use network for bicycle and pedestrian transportation.”

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