Jordan Friedlander, 35, commuted from Lakewood to Denver every day for years. On a scooter. Sometimes Friedlander would travel on Interstate 25. On a scooter.
Now he lives in northwest Denver and uses either his scooter or his bike to get to work downtown.
Friedlander long ago decided to stop using a car to get to work. And he’s happier for it.
“You can go through lots of areas you can’t go to with a motorcycle,” he says. “Like being able to park
wherever you want to park. You can drive it briefly on the sidewalk if you need to, and you don’t get looks.
“There’s the whole gas issue. My wife’s minivan gets 12 miles to the gallon; I get 65. It’s a lot more maneuverable, more like a bicycle than a car. There is no such thing as a closed road with a scooter.”
But maybe a scooter commute from Highlands Ranch to downtown is pushing it a bit. So you’ve got to drive, but then there’s that parking fee, that $90 or $140 or $200 you’ve got to fork over every month for the right to wedge your car between a bunch of other cars.
Here’s an idea: Park the car where it’s free, and where there are no two-hour parking limits. It won’t be especially close to your office, it will be at least a 20-minute walk. But bring a foot-powered adult scooter, a skateboard or a bike, and cut the walk time in half.
Biking, of course, is one of the more common alternatives to driving and using public transportation.
Cynthia Ferry, 43, a hospital analyst from Wheat Ridge, has biked the 10 miles between her home and southeast Denver for two years. She starts in May, and does the commute by bike at least several times a week until the evening commute is too dark, in September.
The ride wakes her up.
“It beats a cup of coffee,” she says. “And I really enjoy how beautiful the ride is. I go by Sloan’s Lake, I go on the Cherry Creek bike path. It’s a good way to get close to nature and just enjoy the morning when it’s nice and cool and quiet out, and in the afternoon, when you get some sun.”
The percentage of bike commuters in Denver could be higher – the area ranks 16th among big cities, with 0.99 percent of commutes being performed by bicycle.
No. 1? Tucson.
But officials are working to boost the number of local bike commuters.
Among other things, the city sponsors the Park Hill Thriving Communities program, a pilot program that aims to encourage healthy lifestyles. Part of it will involve the promotion of biking, and the city now is working to hire someone to help open a community bicycle repair and education center, to be called the Bike Depot, says James Mackay, the bicycle planner for the city.
For more about biking in Denver, turn to , the Derailer Bicycle Collective at , Bicycle Colorado at and the League of American Bicyclists, .
– Douglas Brown
