Bike to Work
June is Colorado Bike to Work Month and Wednesday, June 26 is
Bike to Work Day! GVB and GJ City staff
are dedicated to an even more awesome celebration this year and will begin
coordinating on Thursday, March 21 at
5:30pm in the Mesa Land Trust meeting room, at the northeast corner of 10th
& Main. See you there!
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TBD
Colorado
Governor Hickenlooper has an online forum to discuss
transportation and education issues. Join
in the conversation at http://www.etbdcolorado.org/
Roads built for cars will result in traffic, but if you build
roads for people you will get a
livable community. Some GVB board
members attended a TBD Colorado meeting yesterday and emphasized the need for
safe walking and biking options everywhere cars are. We also suggested active transportation for
students as a “two-for-one” solution, since 25% of vehicles in rush hour
traffic are parents bringing children to school and kids who are regularly
active tend to do better in school and on tests. School District 51 board members, county
commissioners, the governor’s staff, GVB and many other important players had a
great dialogue-you should join the conversation online.
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Got Debris (where you want to bicycle)?
Spring is here, and the City of Grand Junction would like to make bike lanes safer for you. Use the Fix-It
Form on the City website at www.gjcity.org to report exact locations of bike lanes that are filled with debris. They'll send a street sweeper to clean them off.
I have a question about bike safety. In Colorado, is it legal to ride on the sidewalks? NHTSA (federal government agency) noted that each state has their own rules governing this. I am a teacher and I am about to teach bike safety and was wanting to present this to my students. Thanks, Suzie Nelson, d51 teacher :)
ReplyDeleteSuzie, I apologize for the tardy response!
ReplyDeleteThe City of Grand Junction only identifies Main Street an illegal place to bicycle on sidewalks. All other sidewalks in the Grand Valley are legal to bicycle on.
Bicycling on a sidewalk seems safe and sometimes very well is the best option on a given road in Grand Junction. Be aware that it is statistically the most dangerous to bicycle. If you are going to bicycle on a sidewalk use all the rules that apply to pedestrians:
-look all ways (esp. behind!) before crossing a street,
-make eye contact with drivers before crossing in front of them,
-ideally ride in the same direction as traffic-cars will more likely be looking for you (imagine making a right turn in a car, you'd most likely ignore looking right until you've begun accelerating).
We should chat about incorporating more Safe Routes to School info/program into your class! grandvalleybikes@gmail.com
Thanks for being a teacher,
Elizabeth Collins
GVB Board Member