Allen Cowgill Profile picture
Nov 30, 2019 12 tweets 5 min read Read on X
A thread on the #BikeDEN road conditions in NW Denver 4 days post snow storm and how Denver might consider taking steps to truly be a multimodal city year round. Here is what one of the main bike lanes looks like, 29th Ave: Picture of a wet road with ...
Here is the West 23rd Ave bike lane. The city’s current policy is that plows will attempt to plow these when possible, the reality is that they often don’t get plowed at all even days after the storm and sometimes weeks in the cold winter months when it turns to hard pack ice: A snow covered bike lane wi...
Currently there are no provisions in place to plow any of the neighborhood bikeways like this one on W 35th Ave. Bike lane sign for the D4 b...
Here is the Perry Street designated bike route D1, a street that is also not plowed. It is the only major north south designated bike route in this corner of NW Denver, and is also a feeder route for 2 preschools and 3 elementary schools. Image
And here is what many of the sidewalks look like in NW Denver, not shoveled, and many of the busier ones are hard packed ice at this point. People I know in powered wheel chairs in our neighborhood can’t even go out for days or weeks at a time. Image
So it begs the question what can we do if we are truly going to prioritize the safety of people on bikes year round? This write up from @altaplanning offers great details on design and snow removal best practices: altaplanning.com/wp-content/upl…
Prioritization is a big factor in making this work. No one would expect Denver to keep the bike lanes pristine in a snowstorm, but cities that take this seriously have a game plan for which routes to have plowed by a certain time after snowfall as seen in the report: Image
Many cities put on powered brushes on existing smaller vehicles in the public works and parks and rec fleets for this kind of bike lane plowing job since bigger plows don’t work: https://t.co/FLQ2A2k6sM
And the the laws and enforcement in Denver around shoveling your sidewalk are such that penalties are non existent. See this @StreetsblogDen classic on the subject: denver.streetsblog.org/2016/01/05/its…
The sidewalk shoveling lack of enforcement and substandard designs like this sidewalk right along Sheridan Blvd mean that people have to often walk in the middle of state highways. I saw several people walking in traffic today on Colfax because of conditions like this: Picture of snow covered sid...
Here are some ideas from @WRIRossCities on cities that are making it a priority to keep sidewalks cleared, safe and accessible for all thecityfix.com/blog/snow-remo…:
That said, it is still inspiring to see folks out there on their bikes in-spite of the road conditions. After all, we live in Colorado, one of the best states in the country for year round outdoor enjoyment. We just need our bike lanes and sidewalks accessible for everyone.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Allen Cowgill

Allen Cowgill Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @AllenCowgill

Oct 1, 2020
Live tweeting some highlights from the @DenBicycleLobby meetup with Prof. @greg_shill - Talking about his paper- "Should the law subsidize driving". Greg lived in Denver in 2013-2014. Didn't have a car when he lived here.
Driving is both a public health and a climate crises problem. Noted that "secondhand driving" is an issue. Even if you don't drive, you are exposed to the air pollution.
Over 100 people are killed per day by car crashes. Serious crash injuries from cars occur once every 7 seconds. Early data showing during COVID, crash deaths and crash rates are both increasing.
Read 41 tweets
Sep 16, 2020
Four years ago today @kdb2001 and I had a 2 day old son. We were so happy but exhausted. We were about to leave Rose Hospital to go home and a nurse came by our room to tell us there was a man with a gun at the hospital and to barricade the door and shelter inside. Image
Those next 20 minutes were absolutely terrifying. We had no idea what was about to happen & we were so sacred that something could happen to us & our newborn son. Being in Colorado there is always a fear that Columbine, Aurora, or Bailey, or Colorado Springs could happen again.
At one point we heard the person with the gun was on the roof so we tried to squeeze into the corner of the room furthest away from windows and the door. Wondering what might come for us from either side. Image
Read 12 tweets
Sep 14, 2020
Just downloaded recent data on traffic fatalities in Denver. You can its mostly on arterial streets like Federal, Alameda, Colfax, Colorado Blvd, Evans, Sheridan. Our desire to move cars quickly on 4-6 lane roads in an urban environment is killing ppl.
google.com/maps/d/edit?mi… Image
CDOT is talking about expanding I-25 in the name of safety at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars when the reality is that many more people are dieing on arterial streets. Our best investment if we really care about safety and #VisionZero is on our arterial streets.
I was inspired to download this data last night because a person from my church was killed by a driver that ran a red light on one of these arterials last week while he was crossing in his wheel chair. Everyone of these dots has a name every dot has a story. This was Tim’s...
Read 4 tweets
Sep 11, 2020
THIS MAN WAS NOT A STATISTIC. HIS NAME WAS TIM. He went to my church. I can't believe he is gone. He was such a kind soul. I feel so much for his family. He was just on a zoom call with everyone at church last week. Traffic violence is so real. So many deaths on West Colfax. Picture of a man with his d...
He was an usher & a liturgist at our church. Was always happy to talk to you and always had his sweet dog Bella with him. We had conversations about how bad sidewalks are in Denver and how he had to go in the street because of it. He kept a high viz vest on his wheelchair.
He told me about the struggle years ago to use public transit on RTD for people with disabilities on how bad it was, and how many of the sidewalk ramps in Denver are still not ADA compliant and how dangerous they were for his wheel chair. He was such a nice man. So tragic.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 1, 2020
Driver going down the car free open street the wrong way tonight on Lakeshore Drive and then the sidewalk.

@DenverDOTI @denverparksrec could we please put back up the 2nd barricade at west entrance? 2nd time I’ve seen a confused driver this week.
This is what it used to look like and what it looked like today when driver went down it after 2nd sign was removed recently by the city. Really confusing as there is no road closed sign and drivers can go around it now since only one sign. ImageImage
Or could you all please consider changing it from a road closed to through traffic sign to a road closed sign? Thanks for the consideration.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(