No parking on 16th Street Mall

So I was at the 16th Street Mall on Sunday, meandering about and engaging in some commerce, when I saw this nice orange cruiser up ahead. I proceeded to ogle it.



I then noticed a bright green paper zip-tied to the handlebar and, curious, went in for a closer look.

Please do not park on the 16th Street Mall

There are over 600 designated bicycle parking racks throughout Downtown, including at each intersection of the Mall. Parking your bicycle at locations such as street lights, trees, railings or other furnishings on the 16th Street Mall is prohibited*, can cause property damage and may limit pedestrian access on this pedestrian-transit street.

Please be aware that bicycles parked along the 16th Street Mall that impede pedestrian or shuttle traffic may be impounded by Denver Police.

Please contact the Downtown Denver Partnership with any questions about bicycling in Downtown Denver at 303.534.6161

* Section 54-575 RMC

I continued to see these notices attached to bikes all along the mall. I had neither seen nor heard of such things before, so I promptly asked the Internet what it was all about. I promptly got a few replies.





The referenced section of the Revised Municipal Code says you can park on the sidewalk in a rack "as to not impede the normal and reasonable movement of pedestrian or other traffic." It doesn't seem to say anywhere that you can't park next to signs or posts, but that definitely appears to be how it's being interpreted here.

The 16th Street Mall must be the most bike restrictive place in Denver. You cannot ride there, but you can on Sundays, but you can never park there.

Ciclovia

"Ciclovia" is a Latin term referring to an event during which major roads are closed to automobile traffic so that pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles can flourish, thrive, and otherwise assume control of the streets.

I learned the word this morning from an LA Times article via the League of American Bicyclists. Apparently in Los Angeles, local advocacy group cicLAvia is gaining some support from the city council for organizing some ciclovias in downtown LA.

Now, we have our own ciclovias here in Denver, where we have "1st Sundays in the Park" at Cheesman Park five months out of the year, May through September. And that's cool. It's a lot more than other places get.

And our ciclovias being on Sundays, you can further flex your cyclist's rights by venturing two blocks north, down the Teenybopper Mallrat Route and down the 16th Street Mall should you feel like it!

Route profile: 16th Street/Avenue

16th Street Mall and 16th Avenue are collectively known as the Teenybopper Mallrat Route.



One of Denver's stranger bike routes, notable for running along the spine of the city, but at the same time not really taking you anywhere.

Access to the mall is limited to one day out of the week; and 16th Avenue has a bike lane but is not part of the Grid, and eventually comes to an abrupt stop after a couple blocks.

The route starts at one end of the city at the northwest end of the 16th Street Mall, either at Union Station or at National Velvet.



Now, unless it's Sunday, you cannot ride on the 16th Street Mall. This is one of bikedenver.org's Big Four rules, right up there with No Riding On The Sidewalk. Bike here 85.7% of the time, and you'll get a ticket.

On Sunday though, you can cruise right down the middle of the road. It's an interesting 1.5 mile ride that's not without its own unique joys and frustrations.

At the southeast end of the mall, your route crosses Broadway and becomes E 16th Avenue.

16th Avenue is not listed on the City of Denver bike map as a "grid" route, or even as a local bike route, but simply as a "road with a bike lane."

So even the city recognizes that it's kind of special.

Personally, I have a tendency to forget about 16th Ave until I cross it coming from the north or the south, and I see a bike lane, and I think to myself, "Oh! An E/W bike lane! I need to go east … might as well use this convenient bit of infrastructure!"

So I turn onto 16th and cruise along, slowly progressing through the the stop signs that litter the route, until suddenly it dead ends at East High School.



Near the school, there is suddenly eleven or eight fleets worth of cars parked on the street, and there are always—regardless of the time day, morning or afternoon—handfuls of kids milling about outside.

Enough to make you want to point out to them that there's no such thing as education by proxy. Being at the school doesn't count. You gotta, you know, go inside and learn stuff.

Anyway, so suddenly you dead-end at the high school. You options for continuing are, to the south, Colfax Ave; and to the north, 17th Ave.

Neither of these streets are safe to bike on.

That leaves you the option of, to the north, continuing past 17th into and through City Park or, to the south, riding on the sidewalk on Colfax for one block before cutting back up to a safe side street.

Of these options, one is illegal (sidewalk-ridin') and one is inconvenient (the winding route through City Park takes you out of your way.)

---

So this route is interesting. It takes you from East High School to the far end of 16th Street Mall, and not really anywhere else.

But in doing so, you get really close to the real heart of the city.

Just off this route is City Park, Civic Center Park, the Central Library. Cheeseman Park is a short ride to the south. It runs parallel to all the wondrous crap on Colfax and it runs right through all the wondrous crap on the 16th Street Mall, including Skyline park. At the northwest end, you can get on the S. Platte River trail just north of the confluence with the Cherry Creek trail.

So from a wider perspective, I suppose it's quite a well connected hub.

But since all it literally does is connect a high school to a strip mall, I shall henceforth call this the Teenybopper Mallrat Route.

Biking the 16th Street Mall: access to usually restricted areas

Today is Sunday.

In many ways, Sunday is kind of a tough day. Certain shops are closed, like Chick-Fil-A and 20th Street Cafe. Also, I live next to a huge Baptist church, and so there's no parking available next to my house on Sundays.

In fact on Sunday, you're kind of restricted in terms of stuff you can do. Wherein lies the appeal of doing something that can only be done on Sundays.

Such as taking advantage of "Big Four" Rule #4.

Six times out of seven, if you ride your bike on the 16th Street Mall, you'll get a citation. But on Sundays, it's fair game.

And that's really the only appeal: getting to do something you don't usually get to do.

Because it's not a terribly pleasant ride. Almost every intersection is a traffic light, and during my ride this afternoon—during which I rode from one end to the other and back again—I got stopped at nearly every light.

And it sucks to get stuck behind one of the buses.

And you must contend with the mental kung-fu that makes it such a great pedestrian mall: there's so much continuity between the sidewalk, the road, and the crosswalks, that it's possible to almost sail straight through an intersection without realizing it!

Other than that, though, it's neat scenery that you otherwise don't get to enjoy from atop a bicycle. Lots of public artwork to enjoy, people playing chess at the games tables in the median, shops that I always forget about between trips to the mall. You can detour down Skyline Park in the middle, or through Commons Park at the north end. On the other side of the north end is swanky Lower Highlands, where you can make a hard to beat one-two stop at Salvagetti and My Brothers Bar.

So I guess upon reflection that it's not that unpleasant a ride, as long as you know what you're getting into.

Yup!

16th Street Mall, I'll be seeing you again next Sunday!

National velvet

This is one of the strangest landmarks in the city of Denver. It's an installation of public art at the north end of the 16th Street Mall, right by the pedestrian bridge that crosses I-25 and connects downtown Denver to the Highlands.

At night, it's lit up from within, and it glows in a menacing way.

It is evocative. Everybody I've talked to about it has very strong feelings about it.

Mostly because it's hideous.

It's the Gelatinous Giant. It looks like it should be throbbing and pulsing.

It's nasty.

It probably has syphilis.

It rivals Mustang, ole Bluecifer, as Denver's most unsettling piece of public art.




I didn't know the title of the piece before today. National Velvet. I've always simply referred to it as the giant red blob.

(National Velvet is an old Elizabeth Taylor movie.)



I didn't even notice this as I was taking the picture, and it was only upon later review that I noticed that the new Salvagetti building is apparently right next to the monstrosity. That's it in the background above.

The sign and the "I (heart) bikes" mural on the side of the building are almost exactly the same shade of red as National Velvet.

We (Ladyfriend and myself) went to Salvagetti this afternoon. First time since they relocated.

The Lady had complained to me about her trike having some problems shifting. It wouldn't go into 3rd at all, and in 1st the pedals had a tendency to spin freely, not engaging the wheels at all.

That sounded like it was far beyond my meager mechanic abilities, so we shoved it in the trunk of the Subaru and ventured across town.

Once there, we unloaded the big thing, and once inside, Hannah fiddled with the tension on the shifter cable and fixed the damn thing in about thirty seconds.

Which just goes to show ya.

I consider myself a very bike-savvy dude. And I didn't recognize that this was something that could be fixed by tugging on a cable and turning a nut.

If you haven't seen Salvagetti's new digs yet, do yourself a favor and go take a gander.

It's pretty grand.

the Big Four

Here is the text from the back of the Bikedenver.org "Ride Safe" spoke cards, or what I now think of as the Big Four.

If you bike in Denver:
Drive your bike like you drive your car!

• Obey stop signs, traffic signs & stop lights
  Set an example for everyone and wait in line for a green light! Bikes and cars -- same rights, same laws.



• Take your place in traffic
  Ride your bike on the street; sidewalks are reserved for pedestrians



• Always ride with traffic
  When you're on a bicycle, you ARE traffic. Ride on the right; it's predictable and safer for everyone.



• Bicycle riding is prohibited on the 16th Street Mall
  Except on Sundays, when RTD lanes are open to bicyclists.

The first three are pretty universal. The fourth is obviously a concern only very locally. Not even everybody in Denver will ever try to ride on the Mall.

Judging from this list, one has to assume that riding on the 16th Street Mall is the fourth most often ticketed bike traffic infraction. Otherwise why include it on this list?

snowy snowy snowy

I had planned on taking the bus home this evening since it had been snowing the whole blasted afternoon, but I got cold waiting at the bus stop with my bike, so I decided to pedal along the route to warm up, thinking a bus would soon catch up to me.

But no! I rode the whole way home!

At the 30th & Downing RTD station, I read the bus schedule and learned that the next bus was 25 minutes away. Decided to press on.

Going down California, around 29th, it was pretty awesome to see Downtown just slow fade in, and emerge out of the snow.

Tried to get on the Mall Bus at the 16th Street Mall, but the driver said over the speakers, "No bikes on the bus!" and opened the doors again for me to get back off.

I camped out in the elevator at the end of 16th street for a while to let my hands warm up.

But I made it all the way back. It was snowing, but it wasn't devilishly cold, or icy.

Although, once home, I did strip down and dive under the bed sheets the second I got in the door.