Monday, December 17, 2012

Grand Valley Bikes , your local 501c3 bicycle advocacy organization, applauds the City of Grand Junction of setting their goal to be “The Most Livable Community West of the Rockies” by 2025.  We appreciate the added bike lanes, sidewalks, wider shoulders, and trails that have been added as new projects have been built. The continuation of the Riverfront trail has been an outstanding example of adding to the livability of the Grand Valley. We encourage the City Council to continue adding multimodal facilities to create safer pedestrian and biking in Grand Junction and to continue toward being the Most Livable Community West of the Rockies.

GVB has seen many issues come up that highlight the need for pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure around district 51 schools, community parks, east-west bicycle corridors and connectivity to those areas. There is now an opportunity to improve and clean up some of the problem areas that have developed in past years. The City of Grand Junction is asking Grand Junction voters for permission to retain tax revenues to continue to fund projects that benefit the community and the economy. The full story can be found on the city's website.

A livable community allows everyone to move around safely, especially those that aren’t driving including elderly populations and school-age children. We want to welcome a burgeoning retirement community, who may target the Grand Valley as home, as well as young professionals looking for a great place to move to and raise children. A walkable, bikeable, livable community benefits all ages of people and improves the economy, health and of our community.

PLEASE take the two-question online survey. Perhaps suggest the City take this opportunity to make our Grand Valley The Most Livable Community West of the Rockies by 2025 by devoting upcoming funds for multimodal transportation infrastructure in areas where problems currently exist.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

We want 100 miles of bikes lanes for Christmas


How would you improve the community of Grand Junction if you had $100 million dollars to spend?

The City of Grand Junction is asking Grand Junction voters for permission to retain tax revenues to continue to fund projects that benefit the community and the economy.  The full background story about the funds can be found on the City of Grand Junction’s website at http://www.gjcity.org/Administration.aspx?id=2147530954.

The two leading project ideas on the table target car-based investments and, we believe, don’t accomplish the city’s goal of becoming “The Most Livable Community West of the Rockies” by 2025.

Grand Valley Bikes has seen many issues come up that support the need for pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure around D51 schools, community parks, and just about everywhere you want to go in the Grand Valley. The City Council should be encouraged to add bike lanes, sidewalks and trails as a major component to any potential plans. (We’d like to see 100 more miles of bike lanes, but you can't get everything you want for Christmas.) A walkable, bikable, livable community benefits all ages of people and improves the health, environment and economy of our Grand Valley.

Please! Contact City Council and give your opinion:

1) Attend the Open House

Thursday December 6 at the Two Rivers Convention Center from 4-7pm

2) Take the online survey and give written comments


We know the holiday season is busy and fun and open houses are, well, not that fun, but if you love the simple pleasure of bicycling please take the time to comment before December 21.  This is a crucial topic with easy ways to be heard by the City Council.

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Also, on the state-level, CDOT is revising their Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. Your input is encouraged through an online survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XVK9HSS. Deadline to respond is December 21.