Bikes vs. Scooters: Some Denver commuters, including bicyclists, are concerned that scooters will create even more traffic on already congested streets.
Scooters have become an alternative to cars for many people,
especially city residents with quick commutes. In 2018, Denver made over a
thousand electric scooters (e-scooters) publicly available to citizens via
companies such as Bird and Lime. Since, scooters are becoming an increasingly
popular mode of transportation. With their increasing popularity lies a traffic
jam and possible safety issues on sidewalks. Denver Public Works is considering
a city ordinance that will ban e-scooters from sidewalks and allow them to be
legally operated in the bike lane. This legislation has Denver citizens
expressing polarizing viewpoints regarding where the scooters should operate.
While some residents are in favor of scooters scooting left to the bike lanes,
other citizens are opposed and offer their own safety concerns.
After reviewing citizens’ expressed opinions about the
scooter program, Denver Public Works is considering the ordinance in an effort
to increase the safety of people both on and off the scooters. With the recent
influx of public scooters, insurance has had little time to catch up.
“Currently, there is no mandatory liability insurance that e-scooter riders
need to carry,” Daniel Foster of Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher, LLP
informed Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle. This leaves potential victims of
scooter riders with little recourse to retrieve compensation for injuries.
This and other factors prevail while Denver Public Works
carefully considers solutions. When speaking with the Chronicle, Public Works
Chief of Staff Nicholas Williams expressed that, “the main benefit of this
ordinance change is that it will minimize instances of scooter/ pedestrian
conflicts.” Williams went on to say, “the most common complaint I receive from
residents involves a scooter rider traveling at a high rate of speed and
endangering a pedestrian.” E-scooters can reach a speed of 15 mph.
Popular Mode Of Transportation: Last year, e-scooters zoomed past station-based rental bikes as the most popular form of shared “micro-mobility” transportation, with rental companies like Lime and Bird renting 85,000 e-scooters across the country, according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials.
This isn’t the first time legislation has been proposed for
the e-scooters. Former Denver Councilperson Mary Beth Susman sponsored the
original bill banning scooters from sidewalks. Susman admitted she was unsure
as to what this new ordinance offered but ventured a guess that it would “get
rid of” the stipulation of the original bill that stated scooters could use
sidewalks if posted speed limits exceeded 30 mph. This would seem to be the
case, as the new ordinance proposes a total ban of e-scooters from sidewalks.
Most Denver residents who spoke with the Chronicle were in
favor of the bill. Denver resident Carson Cameron expressed that scooters “clog
up the sidewalks” and hinder accessibility for people who utilize wheelchairs.
If scooter riders used the bike lanes, it would provide more accessible space
to move around. This sentiment was echoed by fellow resident, Sarah, who also
utilizes a wheelchair. E-scooters are technically still allowed on the sidewalk
if riders are traveling less than 6 mph, and their use can limit available
space for people with physical disabilities or limitations. In highly populated
areas such as downtown and Denver University, this is a concern.
Another pro of e-scooters being relegated to bike lanes is
that more citizens may be encouraged to ride their scooters, thus reducing car
emissions such as smog and other air pollutants. This is the case for resident
Jenn Vaught. “I would ride more,” Vaught responded to the Chronicle when asked
about the ordinance. Car emissions directly impact the ground ozone level and
reduce air quality. This affects everyone, particularly people who are older or
have asthma or other breathing concerns. During summer months, air quality
alerts frequently report moderate to unhealthy levels of air quality.
E-scooters may not be appreciated on sidewalks, but safe operation in bike
lanes may improve the air we breathe.
The ordinance should also ensure scooters remain in
congruence with other transportation and vehicle laws, which is important to
some Denver citizens. This was confirmed by Public Works Chief Williams who
said, “it will simplify the rules of the road to mirror those of bicycles,
which most people are already familiar with.” Resident Brenna agreed with the
idea of scooter riders following similar laws to cyclers and voiced concern for
people who operate the scooters intoxicated. If e-scooters were held to similar
standards as other vehicles, then citizens can better understand the
regulations of operating the transportation devices.
Readily Available: Companies such as Lime have electric scooters publicly available to riders in Denver.
Not all Denver residents are in favor of scooter legislation
and have their own safety concerns if e-scooters are permanently banned from
sidewalks. Some Denver commuters are concerned that scooters will create even
more traffic on already congested streets. A negative of the bill expressed by
citizens is that strictly relegating scooters to bike lanes and roads may cause
an increase in vehicle accidents. The scooters have been known to cause
accidents and most recently, a person died in a scooter related accident on
August 4, 2019. The victim, Cameron Hagan, was struck by a car while attempting
to cross the street on a scooter. He marks the first scooter-related death in
Denver.
Some citizens feel e-scooters may simply be too slow to keep
up with traffic flow. But research shows this may not be the case. Bike riders
average around 12 mph in city bike lanes, which e-scooters can exceed. This
would mean that scooter riders can at least keep up with typical bike lane
traffic flow. But some cyclers don’t want the extra traffic. “I just think it’s
already too congested,” Denver resident Michael Lewis said. Michael expressed
frustration when commuting around the Park Avenue area. “The scooters would
only add to that,” he concluded.
E-scooter riders who litter pose another concern. Although
leaving a scooter on the sidewalk unattended is not allowed, many people do it.
It contributes to clogging up the sidewalks and hindering accessibility,
mentioned prior. If scooter riders were banned from sidewalks permanently,
there could be an increase of scooters left in bike lanes or in traffic, which
again could lead to an increase of motor vehicle accidents.
While the ordinance to ban e-scooters from sidewalks is
well-intentioned and for many, long overdue, other Denver citizens pose
practical questions to the logistics of adding another transportation device to
the bike lane. There are numerous positive aspects of riding e-scooters
including but not limited to decreased pollution, and increased sidewalk
accessibility. But there are also cons such as increased road traffic and
increased accidents. Regardless of where individual Denverites stand, the
consensus on both sides is safety first. The safety of citizens on the road
should not be compromised for the safety of citizens on the sidewalk and vice
versa. Citizens for and against the bill want to feel safe, and they want
others to feel and be safe as well.
For the last eight-plus years the Denver City Council served
no earthly purpose whatsoever. Thirteen individual council members drew six
figure salaries, had gold plated health insurance and pension plans, along with
expensive office space and assistants, but did absolutely nothing in return
other than rubber stamp everything that a figure head Mayor and the high
density developers who controlled him, put before them.
Councilmember Candi CdeBaca: New Sheriff In Town
Citizens by the scores appeared before the City Council to
beg them for relief from the depravations of the merciless business cartels
such as the CEO driven and Orwellian named “Colorado Concern” and the rapacious
“Downtown Denver Partnership” but to no avail. The City Council even decided,
with the Mayor’s support, to essentially legalize (subject to state approval)
heroin sales to all, including children, under the rubric of caring “safe
injection sites.”
On the night of the second City Council meeting since the
2019 Spring municipal election there was nothing on the agenda which would
cause the Mayor and his staff to expect anything but the normal supine behavior
from the City Council that they had so long enjoyed. But on that night,
however, newly-elected City Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca arose to object to
utterly mundane contracts to two outside contractors who run halfway houses for
approximately 500 convicts in the city. The money for the contracts was not
even from Denver, but rather the State. CdeBaca objected to the contracts on
the grounds that the contracts were with companies whose parent entities
provided detention facilities for ICE, and the fact that she did not like
for-profit companies making money off doing services which are normally
performed by government.
She stated she did not expect support from a single other
councilperson. To the shock of one and all, a majority of the Council supported
her, and the contracts were canceled. The cancellations shook the political
insider world of Denver. If a run-of-the-mill, non-controversial contract could
be cancelled at the whim of a single councilperson, how safe are the literally
hundreds of workie-workie contracts of the Mayor’s friends and city lobbyists?
Is anybody’s piece of the municipal corporate gravy train safe?
After that meeting came the equally shocking proposal by
Council President Jolon Clark of a $43 million carbon tax on businesses to
fund, inter alia, a city climate change office. Clark and his six Council
co-sponsors are a majority on the 13-person Council. The Mayor and his lackies
at the bought-off Denver Post, howled. How dare Clark act as if the City
Council was a democratically elected legislative body. Notwithstanding the
protestations, the Finance and Governance Committee approved passing on the
proposals to the full Council by a 4 to 3 margin with CdeBaca, Hines, Gilmore
and Clark voting in favor and holdovers, Ortega, Kniech and Black voting
against.
As a practical matter we don’t support either the
cancellations of the halfway house contracts or the carbon tax on businesses,
the latter of which has to be approved by the voters even if passed at the
Council level. But far more important to us than the actual merits of these
actions is the fact that a majority of the City Council are no longer willing
to act as a doormat for a corrupt Mayor and his backers. We are hoping that the
new majority will also oppose the rape of Park Hill Golf Course by Westside
Investments, LLC., and the destruction of the Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods
by the ill-conceived and unbelievably corrupt I-70 expansion, along with
hundreds of other projects designed to destroy what was once a truly beautiful
city and its neighborhoods.
Is it possible that representative democracy is returning to
the Mile-High City at long last? We certainly hope so.
The latest Cirque du Solei show to come to Denver is Corteo,
written and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca. Corteo, which has been seen by
eight million people around the world, tells the story of a clown picturing his
own funeral, which takes place at a carnival and is witnessed by angels.
Corteo, which means “cortege” in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive
parade imagined by a clown.
Bouncing Beds: Like a gaggle of young kids playing in their grandparents’ room, six artists jump on two 600-pound beds that move on rotating platforms.
The show first premiered in 2005 under the big top in
Montreal and has been since updated for arenas in March 2018, keeping the
original story intact. The show features 51 performers, including acrobats,
clowns, musicians and actors.
Cirque du Solei has been entertaining Colorado audiences
since 1997. “We always have a great responsive audience there and we love to
perform in a place where people react well and enjoy our shows and I think it
adds a lot to the show,” said Max Batista, Tour Publicist for Cirque Corteo.
The stage has a unique setup as it will be set up in the
center of the arena and audience members will be on either side with good sight
views. Set Designer Jean Rabasse has divided the Grand Chapiteau and its
rotating stage in two, with each half of the audience facing the other half, so
they see not only the performance, but also have a performer’s eye view of the
audience. There is one turntable built into the stage, which is about 41 feet
long, and the track is almost 120 feet long.
This show also features six musicians and two singers who
are on stage with the performers. Typically, musicians and singers are hidden
from the audience but in Corteo, they are part of the show. “People can see us
all during the show,” said Eve Willems who plays the accordion, guitar, and
mandolin in Corteo.
Corteo: In this Cirque du Soleil a clown imagines his own funeral as a carnival of sorts, blending the ridiculous with the tragic. The show will be performed nine times from August 15 to August 22 at Pepsi Center.
The music accompanies the show and features different styles
of music including Spanish and Irish. Willems, who submitted her video
application to become a part of the show via Facebook, enjoys being part of
Cirque. “At first for me it was to discover all the different talents and I was
amazed to see all these people doing their tricks,” said Willems. “Now that we
have started, I like traveling with all these people and make people dream and
it’s really nice to be part of it.”
The show lasts two hours and 30 minutes (with a 20-minute intermission) and is packed
with death defying feats fans have come to expect from Cirque shows.
With the rising costs of airline tickets and all of the
expenses associated with traveling out of town, families are turning to more
economical trips to get away from the mountain of laundry and the yard work.
But what if you don’t want to spend seven hours in the car to take pictures of
the largest ball of twine in the U.S.? Consider the Gaylord Rockies Resort
& Convention Center which is less than 30 minutes away from central Denver.
Large Atrium: It is hard not to notice the Grand Lodges’ centerpiece the moment you walk in — the 75-foot-tall (eight stories high) atrium window offering spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains.
The Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center is near
Denver International Airport and is a Marriott property that opened in December
2018. The 486,000 square feet of convention space makes it the largest combined
resort and convention center in Colorado. It is the fifth Gaylord property to
open with the others located in Washington D.C, Nashville, Orlando, and Dallas.
Even though this rustic resort focuses on the business
traveler during the week, families are welcome as this hotel boasts 1,501 rooms
including 114 suites. The rooms start at $249 per night which is a bargain
considering you eliminate airfare and car rental expenses.
Sprawling Resort: Gaylord Rockies is situated on 85 acres and never feels crowded.
When you first walk into the resort, you will notice the
Grand Lodges’ centerpiece, a 75-foot-tall (eight stories high) atrium window
offering spectacular views of the Denver skyline framed by the Rocky Mountains.
Consider upgrading to VIP status as the check-in process is
smooth and the “Celebrity Services” staff are able to make reservations at one
of the eight restaurants with priority seating. The on-site restaurants serve
steak and American, Asian and Italian fares.
Lazy River: The 22,000 square foot water park features an outdoor lazy river.
This resort’s main attractions are the indoor and outdoor
pools (which includes an infinity pool), an outdoor lazy river, and three water
slides. This water park is spread out over 22,000 square-feet. The entire
resort is situated on 85 acres of land so it never feels crowded. Guests can
reserve a cabana if they want their own dedicated space. Or, they may snag a
chair by the lazy river and relax.
Inside the Mountain Pass Sports Bar is a 75-foot viewing
screen, the largest in the state. This screen plays cartoons on Saturday
morning during the Character Breakfast. The breakfast features a buffet of
breakfast foods and characters from the book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
walking around to greet guests and pose for photographs. It is definitely worth
it for the little ones.
Sticking with the Wonderland theme, there is an escape room
which is fun for the entire family to experience. The “Hatter” gives clues while
people work as a team to solve the clues and escape the room. It runs $14.99
per guest. The resort also features an arcade, miniature golf, bike rentals,
pickleball, a market and more.
When you check in, be sure to ask about the free root beer
floats that are served daily. The Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention
Center is located at 6700 North Gaylord Rockies Boulevard. For more information
about the resort or to make a reservation, visit www.gaylordhotels.com.
