Bicycle friendly capital backed

Cheyenne officials urge more routes for 2-wheel crowd

Associated Press

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

CHEYENNE - The Greenway is great, but some in the state's capital say the city should do more to make Cheyenne accessible by bicycle.

"My opinion at the moment is that our streets are not very bicycle friendly," said Tom Mason, director of the Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Higher gasoline prices and concerns about obesity and health are spurring a growing number of Cheyenne residents to ride their bikes to work.

The Greater Cheyenne Greenway - a network of walking and bicycling paths - helps in that regard, but city officials now are looking for other ways to make bicycling safer.

"We've done a really good job with the Greenway," said City Councilman Patrick Collins, who owns the Bicycle Station bike shop. "But we need to take it to the next step."

Mason said the 2006 Road, Street and Site Planning and Design Standards call for bike lanes on all newly built or redone streets.

That plan should go to the City Council in the coming weeks. Other plans call for:

• A route connecting downtown to southern Cheyenne;

• Bicycle lanes on Lincolnway and other streets to connect downtown to a proposed Greenway extension;

• Bicycle lanes on Converse between Pershing and Lincolnway;

• A route running parallel to Interstate 25;

• Bicycle lanes on College Drive on Cheyenne's east side.

City planner Matt Ashby said the city should also work to make available more bike racks outside businesses, schools and shopping areas.

Ashby said a side benefit would be the money people save by bicycling to work - money they could spend elsewhere in the community or use to help buy a home.

"This is such a critical issue in our community," he said.

"If we provide some opportunities like bicycling, you suddenly discount a huge portion of a family's monthly budget. Instead of paying for a car and fuel, they can spend that money on actually purchasing a home," Ashby said.