by Jennifer Hill
Interest in cycling is growing as a relevant form of transportation and recreational day trip activity. Planning to develop new trail systems and citywide cycling street networks for its implementation can have a strong effect on the economies of small towns like Rifle, Colorado.
The expansion of road biking and mountain biking can create a draw to Rifle from I-70 as one of the first stops for these activities in Western Colorado. To advance this attraction, the City of Rifle went through a bike master planning process in fall 2013. The Sonoran Institute collaborated with the project team for Rifle’s first ever bike master plan by helping with outreach and communications, editing and designing the final document, and creating a short video about bicycling in Rifle.
The overriding goal of the bike master plan is to link all parts of the community into the downtown through a combination of developing on-street bicycle facilities and connecting Rifle’s existing bike trail segments. Included in the action plan for Rifle’s bicycling enhancements are a combination of multimodal street improvement projects to create better connectivity for bicycling and trail projects.
The “bicycle master plan will connect people to the downtown and allow people to move from other neighborhoods to the downtown” according to Rifle Planning Director Nathan Lindquist. The intention is that greater connectivity to the downtown through a trail system will allow for a larger number of people coming to the downtown, and from that, greater business activity at local shops, restaurants, art galleries and cultural facilities.
Given the downtown’s scenic location along the Colorado River, nearby recreational land (including mountain biking opportunities), and small geographical area, positioning Rifle as a family-oriented bicycling destination along the I-70 corridor is a major opportunity. Future trail connections will link Rifle up valley to the Glenwood Springs and Rio Grande trail network. Enhanced in town connections will give Rifle’s residents additional options for commuting and accessing destinations. The opportunity for increased mountain biking could position Rifle as the first destination for quality mountain biking trails along the western I-70 corridor.
“It’s part of our culture, it’s part of our heritage, and it’s part of being here in the West: is that there is a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities. We have good climate, we’ve got everything that it takes,” said Michael Langhorne with Rifle Economic Development Corporation. He and many other Rifle residents were selected to be interviewed for the bike video to give a local perspective on how increased bicycling could enhance Rifle’s sense of place and add to the local economy.
The City of Rifle Bike Master Plan was developed as part of Phase II of the Downtown Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Strategic Planning process, which I discussed in this previous blog. This large, two-year interdisciplinary downtown planning effort was implementation focused, building on past momentum of the Downtown Rifle Master Plan (completed in 2005) and several downtown redevelopment projects that were recently implemented, including Centennial Park, the Brendan Theater, Ute Theater renovation, and the new Rifle Library.
(Cross posted from Community Builders)