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 Creating Greater Support for Bikes:

A great bicycling city includes many elements—residents who are supportive and positive about bicycling, on-the-ground bikeways themselves, and supporting elements such as bike parking and informational signage (or wayfinding). COS Bikes! sees non-engineering bicycle programs that teach bicycling, encourage riding, enforce traffic laws, and evaluate progress as the primary keys to a community that embraces bicycling as a normal part of everyday life. This plan aims to foster a community that supports more bicycle friendliness.

Colorado Springs has an incredible number and type of bicycling organizations, programs, and events. This energy should be used to create a city identity that includes bicycling. And because the City has committed to becoming a Gold-Level Bicycle Friendly Community, increased bicycle-related education and encouragement efforts, stronger traffic enforcement, and better planning and evaluation processes are needed.

This chapter presents recommendations for new bicycling programs, focusing on those that will be most effective at strengthening support for bicycling in Colorado Springs.

These actions are critical to achieving the goals of COS Bikes! Organizations best suited to shepherd these programs and policies through implementation are identified, recognizing that the City’s resources and reach are limited and that community partners are essential to success. Lead organizations may change over time as new partners emerge.

Overall Recommendation

2.01 Begin Near-Term Program Recommendations First

The recommendations that follow include some near-term actions that could be completed relatively quickly or easily. The City should take these actions first, concurrent with mentation discussed in Chapter 4. By creating these programs, the City will lay a foundation for a community that recognizes the importance of bicycling to many of its residents, which in turn could support more ambitious Vision Network implementation.

Encouragement

Encouragement programs and events help create and maintain a strong and fun bicycle community. They are focused on generating enthusiasm and excitement for bicycling and often include a social element, such as a community bike ride. The following recommendations aim to reach all types of bicyclists, but especially those who need a little encouragement to ride.

Education

Education gives people of all ages the skills and confidence to ride. Several organizations in Colorado Springs provide bicycle education for people to learn how to ride a bike or improve their bicycling skills and these programs should be continued. New education program recommendations presented below fill existing bicycle education gaps.

Enforcement

Enforcement plays a vital role in correcting improper and unsafe behavior by bicyclists and motorists. The most common factor contributing to bicycle crashes was largely behavioral: a driver failing to yield was responsible for almost a quarter of the reported crashes in Colorado Springs from 2011 through 2015 (see Appendix A). Although enforcement is a critical part of a bicycle friendly community, enforcement programs require a commitment from the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD). Because CSPD resources are limited, COS Bikes! recommends two new enforcement programs to strategically target actions to improve traffic safety for everyone. As resources increase, consideration should be given to increasing enforcement and providing bicycle related officer training.

Evaluation and Planning

Evaluation and planning serve to track progress in implementing a bicycle plan and to identify what’s working, what’s not, and where additional effort is needed. Developing this understanding will require greater attention to data collection and clear metrics for gauging success. Proper evaluation also adds power to overall messaging of the “why” of bicycle projects, which will be critical to increased understanding for and support of bike programs and infrastructure in Colorado Springs.