Ride Boulder Co

Bike Superhighways in Colorado

Posted on 11. Nov, 2009 by Jennifer in Uncategorized

Commuter Routes in Copenhangen

I was reading this great article on treehugger.com – They Are Building Bicycle Superhighways in Copenhagen about  Copenhagen’s bicycle motorway. Their idea is to start linking the surrounding areas via a bike highway to make it easier for people to cycle into town from what looks like ‘bedroom communities’.

There is more extensive information on the Copenhagenize site about this network of bike routes, how it would work, commuter goals, etc.

From the map, it looks like the Superhighways would extend out to approximately 15k or 50 minutes.

Boulder Superhighway

And then I thought about our own situation in Colorado, specifically Boulder, Denver, Broomfield, the L-towns and wondered how the hell we would be able to do anything like that. Does a concept like this even scale without buses, trains and a huge infrastructure change?

I remember cycling to Broomfield from Boulder in the mornings. A 13-mile, one-way journey that sometimes took me into heavy traffic without a shoulder. Would an arrangement like that work if I had children to take to school or even if I had to haul a laptop, extra clothing, etc.. Would I wear heels?

It’s good to see what other cities are doing and adopt what makes sense for our areas. I think it also makes sense to figure out ways to connect different communities.  I just wonder how we are going to scale these ideas out here in the west where great distances separate our communities and we don’t seem to have a culture of mass transit.  It is definitely going to take a shift in behavior as part of an overall change in how we move around.  And then a question.  Which one comes first: a change in behavior or the new infrastructure?