Hi bikey friends!
I'm on the board for our neighborhood organization and over the years have gotten the general conversation to budge beyond people who complain about car parking... bit by bit! So now they are tearing out our single family bungalows en masse and building apartment complexes to the scale of 350+ units each. Four in less than two years, all within 8 blocks of us.
We bought in this community because of the transit accessibility, but we still have those TERRIBLE 20-inch ankle-breaking rollover sidewalks and pisspoor intersections, etc. We're simply not at all accommodated to take the blow of adding thousands more car trips each day, and we've also created lots more cement.
It's clearly time for some traffic-calming efforts that our officials would otherwise tend to in about year 2050.
I've been bringing to the board the thought of doing some murals (we also face a large freeway retaining wall, so there's PLENTY of canvass!) that raise bike/ped/transit awareness. The general response has always been YES - great idea! But no one actually does anything.
I see all the mini-grants from Safe Routes and other usual suspects, but I can't submit for them, even with the weight of the RNO behind me, without at least a handful of things to show them. I've put out an open call for artists and an open call for image sample ideas and gotten squat.
I'm guessing that I'm asking the wrong people. Why would the group that goes to monthly meetings to complain that there is no longer street parking directly in front of their home going to deliver traffic-calming sample images to my inbox??
It occurs to me - YOU are the right people!!
Please send/share your favorite, most impactful traffic-calming images that share bike/ped/transit love, inspire people to drive less and be more cautious when they do, that these are healthy choices, that there are two major transit hubs that people need to be able to get to/from... etc!!
Also if you know Denver-based artists that you like, I'm welcoming those connections, too!
THANK YOU !!!
Pedal proudly,
Jody