Jefferson County has completed a draft of its bicycle-and-pedestrian plan, which is available for public comment.
The plan includes two maps — one bike and one pedestrian — that were developed by the county’s Transportation and Engineering Division with the purpose of guiding the county in developing a network of bicycle and pedestrian corridors. Comments can be made at .
“They identify bike and pedestrian facilities to create a coordinated effort through Jefferson County,” said Kevin French, director of transportation and engineering for Jefferson County.
Implementation of any of the proj ects could be a ways off as a budget has not been set for any of the projects and no money has been allocated.
The next step, according to French, is to meet and prioritize projects and then begin to discuss implementation. French said many of the projects are likely to be instituted when major road construction is being done. That way, the county can seek additional funds to help with the costs of adding a bike lane or pedestrian sidewalk.
He said the first project to commence likely will be on Quincy Avenue between Wadsworth Boulevard and Simms Street, where construction is already scheduled.
“That project would incorporate the bike plan into the capital-improvement project,” French said.
Another major project that is something of a highlight of the plan would be a bike lane that runs north and south on Kipling Street from C-470 up through Arvada. French said the plan would be to add a 4-foot-wide bike lane on both sides of the street.
Bike Jeffco, a nonprofit organization focused on cyclists in Jefferson County, has been working closely with the county on this project and hopes the end result will be more people using their bikes to commute.
“There’s lots of recreational cyclists in the county, but a lot of them hang up the bike to drive to work. If the system was more usable, people would use it to commute more,” Bike Jeffco chairman David Evans said.
Evans said he is a big fan of the plan for Kipling Street and said that it would be a “backbone route” similar to the bike path along C-470.
He also said Bike Jeffco will host an open house from noon to 4 p.m. Jan. 21 at Wheat Ridge Cyclery, 7805 W. 38th Ave., for cyclists to come and get more information on the plan and have their voices heard.
Interested parties can also visit their website at .
“This is a good start,” Evans said.
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396 or jvaccarelli@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Because of a reporting error, a story that appeared Monday on Page 12A about a Jefferson County bicycle and pedestrian plan gave an incorrect Web address for residents wishing to comment on it.
Comments should be directed to
