Amends Section 54-44 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code to permit the operation of bicycles on the designated transit way of the 16th Street pedestrian and transit mall on Saturdays.  a) Presentation.  b) Fifteen (15) minutes of public comment on proposal. Two minutes per speaker and equal opportunity for opposing perspectives as determined by the Committee Chair. Individuals wishing to speak must sign up in the Council conference room (3rd Floor, City & County Building, Rm. 391) between 10:00 am and 10:15 am. The order of speakers is determined by the Committee Chair. c) Discussion/Action.  (INFRASTRUCTURE AND CULTURE) Amends section 54-44 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code to permit the operation of bicycles on the designated transit way of the 16th Street pedestrian and transit mall on Saturdays. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 4-8-15.
Thank you, Mr. President. This is an ordinance that allows bicycles to be on the downtown mall on Saturdays as well as Sundays. And I at first had some concerns because of my own personal circumstances. I am one of the few people who has been unlucky enough to be leveled by a bicycle. When I was on the sidewalk, I mean, I went splat everywhere. Sunglasses, damaged, bleeding. I mean, I know how it is to to be hit by a bicycle. And so I just wanted to be to get a question answered from the police department as to how they intend to enforce having no bicycles on the sidewalks and what they do anticipate happening. Good evening. We have officers assigned to the 16th Street Mall to enforce violations such as riding on the sidewalk. And our position is that we we try to educate people with regards to what's permissible or not, but we enforce and cite for obvious violations. If we have somebody that's behaving egregiously, recklessly and not willing to cooperate, or if we get complaints in a particular area on the mall, on the sidewalk area where we get repeated offenses. But our objective is to partner with Downtown Dare and partnership the ambassadors and the officers that we have work in fixed posts and routine patrol on the mall, ma'am, to educate and then take enforcement action when the need arises. So on a case by case basis, they could very well be cited if they, for example, if they're from out of town and they're not, they rent a bike and that are where the procedure and we contact them and they're cooperative and then we can get them back into the traffic lane where they should be. And that's more of a election release type of situation. If we have an individual that isn't cooperative, is well aware of what the ordinance is and refuses to comply with our requests, then they're more they're more likely to be cited. But we take that very seriously. Ma'am. I appreciate that. Commander, please know that speaking from a pedestrian standpoint, I don't want to see those bicycles on the sidewalk. It brings a terrible memories. And I don't want somebody else going through what I went through. Yes, ma'am. Commander, introduce yourself for the record. Sorry. My name is Tony Lopez. I'm the Denver District Six commander. I apologize. There's a lot to offer. Yes, Councilman Brooks. Yes? Just just a comment. No need to stand up here, Commander Lopez. Appreciate your service. I just wanted to mention. Well, first of all, I'm so excited to have your support councilwoman fights on this bill. I, I just want to mention that this is something that we can do on the 16th Street Mall. This is an exciting deal. We're open up the 16th Street Mall to ride bikes in the transit lanes and not on the sidewalk. And we're really excited about this. The several neighbors, all generations are excited about this. But there was some fear around, you know, how do we make sure people follow the rules? And so we will be putting up signs of public works and downtown have a partnership. And, you know, District six police officers will be looking for this. So we will make sure that enforcement will be happening. But this is a good thing for the city and county of Denver. We have one of the Marshall fellows that I mentioned is from Copenhagen. So I know she's excited about this opportunity as well. But this is this is really good for the city and I'm excited and and hopefully we'll see more biking opportunities in the city and kind of a thank you. Thank you, Councilman Brooks. All right. We had one more bill that was called out, brought to my attention, 197 called out by Councilwoman Monteiro. What would you like for us to do with this? I just want to make a comment. Go right ahead. Thank you. So, council bill 197, it's on bills for introduction. But this is a bill that that we're that works with 38th and Bleecker Street Sidewalk Project. And many of the folks in this area, especially around 38th and Black Street, are really excited. What it does is the nutshell in a nutshell, it's $2 million in federally funded projects. Dr. COG Second commitment via our TD Regional Transportation District. It creates new sidewalks from 35th to 40th on Lake Street on the southeast side of the street. And RTD is doing the other side concurrently. So it helps to improve pedestrian safety and connectivity in the area where there were no where there were no sidewalks. There'll be new street lighting along Blake Street. New dedicated bike lanes will be installed from 35th to 40th. There'll be painted bike lanes. 20 new bike parking spaces around the future. 38 and Blake Street Light Rail Commuter Rail Station. So I just bring this up because a portion of them are in Council District nine in the River North neighborhood. So thank you so much to all of our partners and especially to public works for all of your hard work on this. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman Monteiro. All right. See no other bills call out. We are ready for the black boots. All of the bills reduction are ordered published. Councilman Nevett, will you please put the bills on final consideration on the floor for final passage in a block? Yes, sir. Mr. President, I move. That the following bills all series of.