DENVER – No matter what side of the lane you’re on, you’ve probably noticed those white poles sticking up between the bike lanes and roadway in parts of downtown – which is the point.
“They're that vertical delineation that really made it clear that this was a space for riders, and it wasn't a space that you were to encroach in as a driver,” said Rob Toftness, co-founder of the Denver Bicycle Lobby, who both rides a bike and drives a vehicle . “It gives you that real sense of separation. If it's just a line of paint on the ground, all it takes is for someone to be staring at their phone and wander into the lane.”
They’re called flex posts, and for those who bike the busy downtown paths on Blake and Market streets – mixing with cars, scooters and pedestrians – it can be an added element of protection.
“It also provides a little bit of visual friction for drivers, and you know, that causes you to slow down a little bit, kind of activating your senses as you're driving, which is always a good thing as a rider. It felt a little safer,” said Toftness. “It had things like reflectors on it, so at night you could see the line, and in the snow, you knew where the or the blocks were.”
Last week, Toftness noticed some of the flex posts along Blake and Market Streets were gone, so he reached out to Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) to see what happened.
The posts usually sit in between raised barriers, called zippers or Ziclas, along the bike lane and roadway.
Those still remain on both streets, but what happened to some of the flex posts?
“They (DOTI) have told us that this was primarily an aesthetic concern, It had to do with making downtown more appealing. I think that we shouldn't be doing aesthetics over safety. That's kind of been a rallying cry of anyone on a bike or using the street for a long time,” said Toftness. “They (DOTI) also mentioned that they wanted to remove the posts because it would allow pedestrians to more easily see into businesses – it just doesn't make any sense.”
Toftness said each flex post is 3 feet tall.
“It's a logical stretch to say that a 36-inch (tall) and two-inch diameter post is blocking the view into businesses, and to say that at the same time when we have parking at the curb all the way downtown with cars that are 5, 6 and 7-feet tall, and we haven't removed the vehicles, It doesn't hold up to scrutiny,” Toftness added.
Toftness also told Denver7, DOTI’s bikeway design manual called for flex posts to be spaced 20-feet apart.
Denver7’s On Two Wheels reached out to DOTI who provided written answers to the Denver Bicycle Lobby’s concerns.
“We are upgrading the bike lane on Blake Street from 14th Street to Broadway and on Market Street, from Speer Blvd to Broadway, reducing the number of vertical flex posts on these corridors and replacing them with Zicla travel lane dividers, keeping flex posts in place in locations that require greater visibility, such as corners, and places where people in cars and people on bikes are more likely to conflict,” wrote Nancy Kuhn, DOTI’s communications division director.
Biking Market and Blake Streets, cyclists will still see flex posts, albeit far fewer than before.
Denver7 asked DOTI how the “upgrades” would make biking safer along these protected bike lanes and we asked if the changes were a deviation from DOTI’s original plans of having flex posts 20-feet apart.
“The spacing of posts varies depending on the elements of protection we use. The manual doesn’t include a design for Zicla Zippers yet, as we’ve been testing them. So, no, we haven’t deviated. The spacing of posts on Blake and Market at present more closely follows the design we use for concrete curb installations. DOTI is growing in the design of its bikeways and the materials it is using (such as ziclas and speed cushions) while looking to deliver more context-sensitive bike designs and improve aesthetics, while maintaining safety,” wrote DOTI.
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Part of the reasoning for removing flex posts comes from feedback from city maintenance teams, according to DOTI.
“We have found the Zicla Zippers to be sturdier, hardier, staying in place better than the posts, reducing the need for maintenance/replacement,” said DOTI.
As for the aesthetics piece and improving sight lines for pedestrians, DOTI wrote:
“We’ve been hearing from people concerns about visual clutter and by reducing the number of posts on Blake and Market, we have opened up sight lines, making the corridors less visually-impacted, but with vertical elements still installed to mark and separate the bike lanes. At the same time, we’re maintaining posts at key locations including corners and turn locations, making them more noticeable in places where they’re needed most and where they provide the biggest safety benefit.”
DOTI stressed the flex posts would remain at key locations, such as corners, but Toftness worries removing many of the flex posts will encourage drivers to cross over the remaining lane dividers.
“Those posts did many things, but one of them was a deterrent from people driving into the lane and using it as parking before, it was a lot harder to do, and now I worry that they've made it a lot easier and more enticing for people,” said Toftness.
Recording video for this story, On Two Wheels captured video showing a driver of a van on Blake Street rolling over a curb, across a bike lane and over the divider – which likely would not have happened had there been a flex post in place.
“When people intrude on the lane that will either push you out in traffic or in a case like that, I mean, that guy was driving across the bike lane, that's scary,” said Toftness. “It takes a space that's for you, that you should be safe and protected, and either it degrades that completely, so you either have to leave the bike lane or stop your journey.”
Denver7's On Two Wheels will keep an eye on the impact of the removal of the flex posts.
Denver7's On Two Wheels will continue to cover the inherent dangers of riding a bike in Denver as bicycle and vulnerable road user deaths continue to climb in Colorado.
Denver7's On Two Wheels special report dove into the unique hazards when biking in the Mile High City. The special report below includes real-life video examples shared by Denver cyclists showing what it's like navigating the roads with drivers.
Biking dangers in Denver: Close call stories ‘On Two Wheels’Denver7's On Two Wheels is also tracking road user data across the state in the infographics below. You can view the graphs in fullscreen mode at this link.
