Neighbors, businesses upset with parking displaced by bike lanes

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DENVER (KDVR) — The City of Denver is getting ready to place a protected bike lane in a neighborhood near Sloans Lake. The new lane means less parking for nearby businesses and neighbors and they are not happy about it.

A protected bike lane is coming to 29th Avenue in Denver, neighbors said the city did not take their needs into consideration before moving forward with the plan.

“We have scores of people here evenings and weekends especially, so we really need all the parking we can get,” said Lucy James, a main teacher at Kadampa Meditation Center on 29th Avenue.

James and other staffers at the Kadampa Meditation Center worry about a protected bike lane coming to 29th avenue.

“This whole neighborhood needs more parking, not less parking because of all the new apartment complexes going around- over there, over there. So when we heard, or we didn’t hear- we found out almost by accident through our neighbors, that hey were thinking about putting in the bike lanes, we were like what are we going to do? Existentially, this puts us in some awkward situation,” James explained.

The project bringing the protected bike lane to the area is a part of the city’s “Denver Moves” bike enhancement program. The city already repaved 29th, removing the existing bike lanes to make space for the new ones. Neighbors said they feel discouraged that DOTI and City Council members did not hear their calls to reconsider the new lanes.

“I think we’re just hurt because we weren’t involved in the project and after reaching out to them they said that there was community involvement. I was excited that they were going to bring safety to the streets, I think everyone in this community wants that for all modalities: pedestrians, motorists and cyclists,” said Alicia Wilkinson, a 29th Avenue neighbor.

The lanes are set to span two to three blocks in their area. On top of the impact on businesses, neighbors worry about safety with some driveways facing the street.

“I’m really stuck on a bike lane for two and a half blocks that starts and stops so abruptly, that just doesn’t seem safe for bikers or vehicles merging back into traffic. We have a son who bikes to school every day. That’s not a bike lane that I would want him utilizing. It just doesn’t make sense,” Wilkinson said.

Jill Locantore is the Executive Director of the Denver Streets Partnership.
DOTI and Locantore both said the city included input from community members.

“There’s still parking in the area, it’s not like we’re removing parking from all of northwest Denver. It’s just on this particular street and it’s not even the whole length of the corridor, there are some places where on-street parking will be preserved,” Locantore said. “It’s been in the works for a long time, the city has done a lot of data collection, community engagement and the final design reflects what they heard from the community, both in terms of the desire for safer opportunities to bike and concerns about parking, it’s a compromise. Not everybody is happy but we think it’s definitely an improvement over how the street functions today.”

Locantore said the effort shouldn’t take long to begin. She said lane barriers will be made out of plastic, making them easy to remove if the city sees too many problems occurring there.

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Gabrielle Franklin

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