A proclamation designating the week of June 25 through June 29 as “Bike Week” and Wednesday, June 27, as “Bike to Work Day” in Denver.
None, Mr. President, about communications. None, Mr. President. All right. We do have two proclamations. Councilman Susman, will you please read Proclamation 695? Certainly, Mr. President. Thank you. This is a proclamation designating designating the week of June 25th through 29th as bike to work week, whereas the city and County of Denver partners with the Denver Regional Council of Governments, local bike organizations and bike enthusiasts each year to plan activities and events intended to promote awareness of the benefits of bicycling . And. Whereas, Bike to Work Day is an annual event designed to encourage people to ride their bicycles for transportation on a consistent basis to reduce congestion, improve air quality, and benefit public health. And. Whereas, the Department of Public Works hosts the Civic Center Park Breakfast Station, where people on bikes can celebrate their commute to work with free snacks, raffle prizes, music and educational outreach offered by organizations in the region. And. Whereas, the Department of Public Works celebrates continued progress building out its citywide bike network and ramping up efforts in the coming years to implement 25 miles of bikeways annually as recommended in Denver's Vision Zero Action Plan. And this year, installing a new grade separated cycle track on Brighton Boulevard in the River North District and adding new bike lanes on Ulster Street, Florida Avenue, 19th Avenue and 20th Avenue, and whose plans to install additional bike infrastructure and to upgrade existing bike infrastructure are contributing to Denver's designation as a top bicycling city. And. WHEREAS, The Department of Public Works continues to build out the city's bicycle network to provide people with convenient and connected access with the goal of ensuring every household is with a two minute bike ride or a one quarter of a mile of a comfortable and low stress facility to make bike riding an attractive way to get around for more commuters. And. Whereas, Denver will keep growing the city's bike network and we'll plan improvements this year for 50 miles of bikeways, which will be rolled out in the city over the next several years, thanks to our Denver voters who overwhelmingly approved the Denver 2017 Geo bond in November of last year. Oh. Whereas the bicycle and pedestrian safety continues to be a top priority for the Denver City Council of the City and County of Denver, which is supporting funding for additional and expedited multimodal improvements that will increase bicycling in our city. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council, the city and County of Denver, Section one, that the council designates the week June 25th through June 29th, 2017, as Bike Week, and June 27th as Bike to Work Day and encourages citizens to stay safe this summer no matter what your mode of travel and Section two that the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall attest, and a the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation and that a copy here of before awarded to the manager of public works. All right thank you that Sussman your motion to adopt I. I moved to adopt proclamation 18 dash 0695. All right. It has been moved in second and comments by members of council council on assessment. Thank you, Mr. President. Yes. This is always a very big pleasure of mine to be able to make a proclamation like this. The city is investing in our bikeways, and we need to make even more investments that we are. We encourage this constantly, thanks to the good citizens who voted for the Go Bond will be adding many more, many more bike miles to the city. And if you are not a biker, just realize that if we build more bikes, somebody is going to use it. And that's going to be one less car on the road. So please, I ask my fellow council men and women to join me in proclaiming this week to be bike week. Excellent. Excellent. Councilman Clark. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm very excited about this. I regularly ride my bike to work, but it's great to have a day to celebrate it. And I think, Councilwoman Sussman, for bringing it forward. Everybody on the city side who does stuff. But I really want to give a shout out to our Dr. COG partners who put a lot of time and effort and resources into really I think we have I think you might have spoken to up the size of the biggest bike to work days in the country and it's really exciting to see. And so hopefully lots of people will get out there, try a bike. It is so much better than being stuck in your car honking at people. You get the fresh air, you can bike on our awesome tree lined streets and enjoy it and then hopefully stick with it. If everybody just found one day of the week that they could get on a bike and get out of their car. We are 20% reduction in traffic and congestion on our roads. It would make your other four days in the car just as spectacular as your one day on your bike. So I hope everybody will participate and and see if they're able to make this a regular part of their commute. Thank you, Mr. President. It is such an incredible stat that no one heard it, but nine out of ten people hate traffic, and I hope they understood what you just said. Okay, Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. Actually, I thought it was 11 out of ten people who hate traffic, it seems sometimes. Thank you to Councilman Clark for mentioning Dr. Craig and their leadership on this. But I also want to add to that our thanks to the employers and nonprofits and the other organizations that provide services along the way, refreshment bike corrals and other other services for the folks who are taking part in it and hope it gets bigger and better each year, not only for participants, but for those who who provide the sponsorships and the and the refreshments along the way. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Flint. Councilman Black. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilman Clark. Thank you for inspiring people to ride their bikes. So in District four, I started a movement called No Drive Fridays. So beginning in February, I have ridden my bike to work every day and we have a social media campaign and every community meeting. We're getting people to ride their bikes on Friday because it is the number one complaint I think of people in Denver is the traffic. And the argument is, as Councilwoman Sussman says, if you're riding your bike, that's one less car on the road. So super excited about that. In the fall, we have all the elementary schools lined up to do a competition on Fridays to see how many people will not drive, have their parents drive them to school. I'm really excited about that. And as always, I will be biking to work on Wednesday. It's ten miles from my office. Councilman Clark told me, if you get sweaty, just start pedaling. But I told them. But then my bike stops and it's supposed to be 99 degrees that day. So if any of you have meetings with me, I will be sweaty. Thank you. Thank you for that warning. Okay. Councilman Clark is a little unfair because he has an electric bike thing that. Pedals for him. So I love this proclamation. Thank you for bringing it forward, Councilwoman Sussman. It's a it's a real issue. You know, just this week, we kicked off because of an incredible community leadership and city leadership. Brand Boulevard, for the first time has sidewalks and bike lanes. And I think it's indicative that we're going in a new direction in the city of Denver that no neighborhood is is okay if it does not have sidewalks and bike lanes . And so we want to make an investment in the rest of the city. And I think it's critical that we move in this direction and hopefully. Councilman Clark, as we've been talking about, there would be some plans to get us moving much faster in that direction to get bike lanes and sidewalks all over this city. The last thing I'll say is there have been a lot of issues with cars and bikes and a lot of people being frustrated by folks who who are riding bikes and you honking at them actually happened to me with my three kids on Saturday, someone frustrated and honking at us and we were actually in the bike lane . I don't know what they're honking and I couldn't believe it. But for those of you who are honking in a vehicle, a £6,000 vehicle. To someone riding a bike. I think you need to put yourself in that person's shoes or bike and think about. There's not a connected for. There's not a lot of connected facilities throughout this city. It's really hard to bike through the city. You should be honking and saying, Hey, thank you because it's one less car in the street and you are. Decongest in our streets. And so I think we need to be very respectful of people walking. And I think we need to be very respectful of people biking in the streets. So with that. Thank you for bringing this for Dr. Sussman, Secretary Rocha Sussman. Hi, Black Clark. All right. This from Rosa Flynn. I feel more Herndon. I can eat. Lopez. All right. New Ortega. Mr. President, I. Was wondering these results. 12 eyes. 12 eyes. Did somebody vote? No, we had a. Oh, okay. Absent, sir. Okay. Sorry, guys. Okay. 12 hours it passes. And now. Madam. I mean, Dr. Sussman, is there anybody wanted to bring up? Yes. Someone from public works can come up to the podium. Tell us all about it. Hey, good evening, everyone. My name is Dan Raine. I'm staff at Public Works and I work on the Bikeway program. I don't think I can match the great dialog y'all had here tonight about cycling, but the mission is is managing our public right away for people throughput. Whether you're walking, you're cycling, taking transit or driving a car. And we really have to focus on that with 40 plus people moving here day. We don't have the time and money to ruin Denver by widening our public right of ways and and taking away these local amenities. And look, this is that we really appreciate. So we are very focused on creating. Grid networks. To allow folks to be able to get around by bicycle even easier than they do now. Using our trail, great trail systems, a trunk line. The voters have spoken and we have a lot of work to do. Go ahead. Oh, well, and, you know, this week is really just about encouraging folks to to give it a try. My commute 17 miles. And so I take the train mostly every day, but I'll even ride in on my shopping for an electric bike. But I'm not there yet, but it'll take me a little longer. But if anyone wants to be at Civic Center Park in 5 a.m. as we start setting up, we're really grateful for the partnership of Dr. COG, but we're really especially thankful for sponsors like delectable egg kind bars and so many other folks. Denver Library. Safe Routes to School or Vision Zero program. And everyone pulling together and supporting sustainable transportation. Great. Thank you so much. And thank you, Councilwoman Tester.