Bike Denver has scheduled to hold its first official League of American Bicyclists bike education course in January.  A pilot program called Smart Cycling: Traffic Skills 101 will be held in downtown Denver in Webb Building 4.I.5 in early January.  It will be a nine-hour course spread over 3 weekly sessions.  Here is the pertinent information:

Dates: Jan. 7, 14 & 21 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Note: the complete course is comprised of 4 hours of classroom instruction and 5 hours of bicycle instruction.

Cost: $30

Location: Webb Building Room 4.I.5

Topics Covered:
• Traffic principles
• Colorado bicycle laws
• Practical aspects of vehicular cycling
• Safe roadway positioning
• Bicycle maintenance
• Emergency bicycling maneuvers

Special Notes:
• Students must be 16 years of age (13 with parent)
• Students must have headlight, taillight and helmet
• Course is designed for novice and experienced cyclists
• Class is limited to 30 students: first come first served

For more information or to register contact:
Eric Bunch
(573)701-2492
bunche@gmail.com

Please make checks out to BikeDenver and mail payment to:

BikeDenver
1536 Wynkoop Street
Suite 801
Denver, CO 80202

Additionally BikeDenver will hosting an LCI seminar in the Spring of 2008 to train more instructors.  Those interested in either the pilot class in January or the LCI seminar in the Spring should contact Eric Bunch at 573.701.2492 or bunche@gmail.com for more information.

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The City and County of Denver is hiring a Multi-Modal planner! Job responsibilities include:

Coordinates complex multi-modal transportation planning projects, which often require coordination with multiple departments, agencies and/or/multi-jurisdictions. Develops long and short term plans, programs, goals, and policies involving city/wide multi-modal transportation planning initiatives and their potential impact on economic development, environmental stewardship, infrastructure development, and land use. Develops multi-modal transportation planning policies and works to incorporate such policy into the regulatory (zoning code, rules, regulations, permitting) and capital improvement systems.

Participates in the development and maintenance of existing multi-modal transportation plans and other specialized plans pertinent to the Department of Public Works and/or other city agencies. Focus on pedestrian and bicycle planning:

Implementation of the Strategic Transportation Plan
Implementation of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plans
Implementation of the Sidewalk Rules & Regulations
Staffing Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee
Organizing the City’s annual Bike To Work Day events
Develops project scopes of work and schedules which may include preparation of existing conditions assessment, environmental research and assessment, public involvement, data analysis, timelines, and budget.

Serves as a technical consultant and adviser to official planning committees, neighborhood groups, City Council, and other stakeholders related to transportation planning policies/standards, issues, processes, procedures, and regulations and requirements.

Facilitates meetings and/or presentations to bring together interested stakeholders to discuss proposed transportation planning initiatives, assess obstacles, evaluate opposing views and interests, and determine areas of support.

Designs and conducts research to collect and assemble original data from land use maps, plans, reports, and surveys and uses data to define issues, assess trends, make recommendations, and identify relationships among disparate data, issues, and positions.

For more information, go here.

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The third public meeting for the Parker Road Corridor Study, Hampden to E-470, will be held on Thursday, August 21st at the Shalom Park Retirement Community meeting room, 14800 E. Belleview Dr. (behind the Goodwill on Parker/Belleview). This is the same location as the last public meeting held in May 2008.  There will be an open house from 5:00 - 7:30 PM, with a brief presentation by the project team at 6 PM.

Please see the attached postcard, or the project website, www.parkerroadcorridor.com, for further information.

Your input at each step of this project is important to help shape this travel corridor! Please come to the meeting to provide your comments on the second level of improvements evaluation.

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BikeDenver has been working on a big project the past few months with Bikes Belong, Humana, the City of Denver, and others to get 1,000 bikes to Denver for free use during the DNC Convention. Tim Blumenthal was recently interviewed by Westword about the details, read about it here.

The big news for all of us at BikeDenver, “the bikes will be available at six to twelve checkout stations at key locations around the city, and hundreds of volunteers will make sure that the bikes are distributed evenly among the stations and kept in working order.” Those volunteers will be us, and we need your help to make this program a success.

If you want to volunteer to be either a bike ambassador, a bike station agent, or a mechanic (roving and stationary!), contact us with the subject “DNC Volunteer”, and we’ll make sure you have the coolest job at the DNC this summer.

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How much easier can supporting bike advocacy be than eating delicious food? We’ll be kicking off our Bicycle-Friendly Business program on Monday, Feb 25 at Watercourse Foods, which is generously donating a percentage of the day’s sales to BD. Ride your bike to 17th Ave & Emerson and we’ll see you there! Information table and Bicycle-Friendly Business award presentation at dinner.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Specialized Bicycle Helmets

Units: About 3,000

Manufacturer: Specialized Bicycles, of Morgan Hill, Calif.

Hazard: The helmets fail testing required under CPSC’s safety standard for bicycle helmets. This can pose a head injury hazard to riders in a fall.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: This recall involves the Specialized helmets, model 2D. Model “2D” is printed on the sides of the helmet in the rear. The helmets were sold for men and women in matte black, white, silver, blue, pink, and team colors.

Sold by: Specialized through its authorized retailers and online stores between July 2007 and October 2007 for about $200.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled helmet immediately and return it to an Authorized Specialized Retailer to receive a free replacement or a full refund.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Specialized toll-free at (877) 808-8154 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. MT Monday through Friday, or visit the company’s Web site at www.specialized.com

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All,

It’s time to let your voice be heard about the Colorado bike/ped bridge being dropped. Please submit a comment in support of the bridge.

We’re working with City Council and with other advocates to get this project back on the ballot in November and need you to let your voice be heard.

Thanks!

Read the editorial here.

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For those of you who aren’t aware, the City of Denver is proposing a bond issue to the tune of $550 million to address infrastructure and maintenance needs in the City. An Infrastructure Priority Task Force was assembled to create a list of projects to be funded by this money. Once the list was whittled down, one bicycle project remained: the bike/ped bridge over I-25 at the Colorado Center light rail station. This project was included in both the T-Rex and FasTracks plans and were removed at the 11th hour. Recently, the list was trimmed again and the bridge was eliminated from the list.

BikeDenver needs your help on this issue! The City Council Finance Committee is the next group to take action on this. Their meeting is scheduled for 8/1 at 1:30pm. At that time, they will make a recommendation to bring to the entire City Council. The Finance Committee members are: Faatz, Boigon, Brown, Lehmann, and Robb. Please contact your City Councilperson and urge them to reconsider. If you don’t know who your City Councilperson is, you can enter your address and find out here. Links to Council’s web pages are here.

If you are unsure of what to write, we have put together a form letter for you to send to your Councilperson. You can copy verbatim or add your own edits. Be sure to copy the at-large Council members Linkhart (linkhartatlarge@ci.denver.co.us) and Boigon, (carol.boigon@denvergov.org) as well as Mayor Hickenlooper (MileHighMayor@ci.denver.co.us). Let them hear from the bicycling community!

The text follows:

Subject: Infrastructure Priorities Task Force List

Dear Councilperson (insert name here),

It has recently come to my attention that the lone bicycle-related
Project on the Infrastructure Priorities Task Force’s list has been cut in the final recommendations provided to Council. As a cyclist in Denver, I am disappointed to see that the Colorado Light Rail bridge, which provides a critical bicycle and pedestrian connection, was removed from consideration.

This bridge is key in connecting the neighborhoods on both sides of
I-25 to the Colorado light rail station and provides an important north-south connection for cyclists. Supporting cycling by funding this project follows the directives of Greenprint Denver which aspires to complete transportation connections that support multi-modal transportation options for more of Denver’s citizens.

This is not the first time that the Colorado light rail station bike/ped bridge was recommended for funding and then removed. This project was originally included in the T-Rex plan and the FasTracks proposal and removed at the 11th hour. I urge the City Council not to let this happen again.

Please reconsider the final selection of bond projects for the upcoming November ballot by including this much needed improvement.

Sincerely,

John Q. Citizen

CC: Councilman At-Large Doug Linkhart
Councilwoman At-Large Carol Boigon
Mayor John Hickenlooper

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