Where things stand with VAMOS - 11/6 Edition

We're having great discussions with folks at the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure. Most recently, we analyzed the official Denver bike map relative to the VAMOS map. Here's what we found:

Denver's goal is to have a complete high-comfort bike network, which means access: people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds able to comfortably move through their community. "High-comfort" routes include trails, neighborhood bikeways, and protected bike lanes. Buffered bike lanes and plain ole bike lanes don't count.

Here's what Denver's current bike map looks like:

From 20,000 feet, it looks like a complete network. Heck, in Denver, you can even ride your bike to the airport! (Technically, the shoulder of Peña Blvd is a bike route.)

😱

When we remove existing routes that are NOT high comfort, the picture is very different. It's clear that it's hard to go places on high-comfort-only routes. That's a huge turnoff for the vast majority of potential riders.

Good news: there are a lot of new bike routes being developed:

But when you remove the non-high-comfort stuff, here's what the map of upcoming high-comfort routes looks like:

Here's what the map looks like when you combine the existing and upcoming high-comfort stuff. Better, but far from a complete network. Even in this future state, most people can't ride to most places.

Fortunately, city plans call for 250 miles of additional bike facilities that haven't really been planned yet. This map shows some potential locations, but it's not locked in.

What if we used these 250 miles for the VAMOS network? When we layer the VAMOS map on top of the existing and upcoming high-comfort maps, a complete high-comfort network emerges.

This would make it possible for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to ride a bike to any destination in Denver. So, um, 👇