Bikers on the Cherry Creek Trail have long dreaded the segment between Downing Street and University Boulevard.
For that one-mile stretch, the beloved path is squeezed between the shrub-covered fence of the Denver Country Club and the fast-moving traffic of First Avenue, with cyclists and pedestrians in both directions squeezing onto a glorified sidewalk.
“There's often debris from crashes and things that are on the path,” said Ryan White, who was biking along the trail for Bike to Work Day on Wednesday. “It's just the least safe feeling portion of an otherwise very beautiful and safe and nice path that I think is kind of the defining feature for cycling in general in Denver.”
Relief may eventually be on the way.
The city’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is planning to redesign First Avenue from Downing Street to University Boulevard to make it safer and to prepare the corridor for a potential bus-rapid transit route.
The road’s redesign may include improvements for that section of Cherry Creek Trail, too. Initial designs would widen the path from 8 feet to 12 feet and add a green buffer between the trail and the road, keeping riders from falling onto the pavement. The city plans to widen the trail by shrinking the First Avenue median that separates the east and westbound lanes.
The expansion would bring the section closer to the width of the other two sections of the trail.
On Wednesday, city engineers set up a booth along the trail to raise awareness about the project. Feedback from interested riders was mostly positive.
"It'll be great to see it improved with better width in certain areas. And certainly along the Denver Country Club, it's always an issue, so it'd be nice to see improvements there,” said Mary Roberts, who rides the trail often.
The project was spurred by safety concerns that residents highlighted during mobility planning for the area.
While much of the Cherry Creek Trail follows comfortable, separated paths along the water, it takes a long detour to avoid the country club property — a noisy and dramatic shift from the quietude of the creek.
Schematics for the redesign aren’t finalized yet. City officials said that they’re still soliciting feedback. They said the cost of the project and the timeline are still up in the air.
