Mission:
“Promoting safe and fun bicycling through education, awareness, and collaboration”
Vision:
“Douglas County becomes one of the safest places anywhere to ride a bicycle for transportation or recreation”
Invited guests, Fred Koch and Larry Corcoran, Engineers with Douglas County’s Department of Public Works, Engineering Division discussed several ongoing and upcoming projects that are of interest to bicyclists in Douglas County including improvements along the Centennial Trail (C-470 Trail) where it crosses major thoroughfares.
At Yosemite, signage will be improved to better alert drivers traveling north and south bound on Yosemite and west bound Park Meadows Center Drive to the presence of cyclists and pedestrians using the Centennial Trail. The Park Meadows Metropolitan District is providing funding to construct a bike bridge over Yosemite and have asked Douglas County to do the engineering for this project. The projected start of construction for the bike bridge is early next year.
At Quebec, Douglas County is doing a feasibility study for rerouting the Centennial Trail under Quebec. This work, if it was found to be feasible, would occur along with planned widening and reconstruction of Quebec from Countyline Road to south of C-470.
At the Colorado Boulevard, Douglas County is planning to reroute the Centennial Trail under Colorado Boulevard and along C-470. The current access to Colorado Boulevard from the trail would remain.
At University and Broadway, Douglas County will be looking at improving bicycle crossing and safety island access for bicycles in conjunction with future improvements at these intersections.
Douglas County will be seeking input and review of plans from Bicycle Douglas County on projects with potential impacts on cyclists.
The discussion led by Fred Koch and Larry Corcoran was followed by a Question & Answer session during which attendees asked questions about specific concerns dealing with lane striping, shoulder sweeping, shoulder width and other subjects.
Announcements:
The U.S. House of Representatives will be voting to remove Transportation Enhancement funding from the new highway bill. Many bicycling specific projects are funded through the Transportation Enhancement legislation. Judy Siel made calls and sent an email to Representative Tom Tancredo opposing the proposed action and encouraged others to send emails to Rep. Tancredo also.
Bicycle Douglas County will be sending a letter to the Park Meadows Metropolitan District in support of the proposed bike bridge at C-470 and Yosemite.
Letters will be sent to several Douglas County and metropolitan district officials to formally introduce them to Bicycle Douglas County and alert them to our general goals and concerns. A draft letter will be emailed to members for comment.
Bike Jeffco is looking for volunteers to help them in conducting a survey of the Centennial Trail that will be provided to Colorado DOT. CDOT will use this survey in planning future maintenance activities on the Centennial Trail. If you can volunteer to ride the Centennial Trail with the Bike Jeffco folks to document problem areas call Dave Evans (303) 262-2320 for this project.
Gay Page, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for CDOT will speak at next month’s meeting, August 18, 2003.