[BikeLongmont] I-25 "North 40" EIS

[Richard Masoner]

Here are some bicycle-specific discussion points regarding the EIS.
I'll try to leave my opinions about sprawl, air pollution, wildlife
protection, and destruction of agricultural resources out of it.

1. At least a couple of people on this list occasionally bike-commute
between the Tri-Town area and Longmont. How do you feel about the
119/I-25 interchange? If CDOT were to spend money to improve this
intersection, what are specific things that can be done to help you as
a cyclist?  Would some sort of median to seperate truck-stop traffic
from through traffic be a help or hindrance?

2. The St. Vrain Trail will, someday, cross I-25 to connect with the
Firestone Trail. (This will be a Weld County thing). Any I-25
improvements should take this into account. For example, CDOT needs to
work with Weld County Parks so that frontage road bike lanes will
connect to the St. Vrain trail.

3. Proposed I-25 improvements include continuous frontage roads. Any
frontage road improvements should include wide lanes to allow for
nicer bicycle access. Connections should be made to existing and
proposed off-road bike/ped facilities that run near the frontage road.

4. Mead plans to develop the I-25 corridor east of that city into a
commercial strip of cheap motels, truck stops, fast food stops, and
rental storage units. Frontage road and intersection changes will need
to take slow-moving travel (bikes & peds) into account, instead of
just focusing on moving the cars through as fast as possible.

5. I know several people who bike-commute to Broomfield from Longmont,
but some portions of U.S. 287 between Ft. Collins to Denver can be
scary for some bicyclists. Money for bike facilities (wide lanes,
mostly) on US 287 would be well spent.

6. Weld County Road 1 is popular as a route to get around congestion
on I-25 or US 287. Either improve this narrow country lane to handle
the high volume of truck traffic, or figure out how to slow that
traffic down. Speed limits on this narrow lane with cross-traffic near
hills are 35 to 45 mph, but everybody zooms at 60 mph.

RFM