Bicycle-unfriendly
For being a 'bike town,' Durango scores surprisingly dismal on annual rankings

PeopleForBikes is a nonprofit that advocates for bicycle commuters around the country. The organization’s purpose is to make cycling better, easier, safer, more accessible and more fun for everyone, which is actually a huge undertaking if you think about it. The goal may seem insurmountable given United States’ deep-rooted single-occupancy-vehicle transportation systems. But PeopleForBikes said they can climb these walls while also making cycling more fun for everyone. Fighting the bureaucratic traps while keeping things fun? It doesn’t seem possible.

But the organization is fighting for the impossible and makes it sort of fun each year by rating cities across the world based on their bicycle-friendliness. Sort of like the Olympics of bicycle infrastructure, but without Snoop Dogg or medals to chew on, and far less breakdancing. 

We should all be interested to know that Durango is one of those cities that is being rated. However, we should not be happy with our scores. 

Since 2021, Durango scored just on average 12.7% on a scale of 100 when it comes to bicycle infrastructure. That is like an F-, but worse. Surprising for a “bike town,” isn’t it?

For comparison, our bicycle infrastructure was rated about as good as Commerce City in Denver. Our score has been (and is currently) worse than Phoenix and Las Vegas. Imagine trying to ride your bike in Phoenix or Las Vegas now knowing that Durango has empirically done a worse job at bicycle infrastructure than either of them. 

The 2024 scoring was just released though, and we should all be happy to know our score has increased by about seven points, to a score of 20. That is a pretty big leap from three consecutive years of 12s, but is this something to be proud of? No. It is still a 20%, which is still worse than flunking. Might as well get high with Snoop and make a career out of breakdancing. 

So, what accounts for our terrible score? It is broken down into several categories, including the ability for a cyclist to access their job, schools, amenities, recreation and other forms of transit without the use of a vehicle. Durango’s ability to easily access our work areas and schools by bike? We scored an 18 out of 100. Our ability to access basic amenities such as hospitals and grocery stores? We scored an eight out of 100. 

Our scoring is also based on high and low-stress areas for bicycling in Durango. PeopleForBikes created a map that is color-coded (you can access the map and information at www.peopleforbikes.org), with red being the most high-stress areas (higher speed limits, no bike lanes, bad shoulders, etc.), and blue being the lowest-stress areas. Our beautiful Durango map is donned in mostly bright and deep reds; notably in our downtown area – the place most dense with amenities, social gathering places and pedestrians and cyclists. The same place where we keep fighting to keep our high flow of vehicle traffic and make sure that large vehicles get their proper parking spots. 

Also in bright, stressful red? The entire northwest corner of town, including the Crestview neighborhood, Needham Elementary, Miller Middle School and Children’s House preschool. Everything on the northeast side is also red except a small area that just so happens to be where the La Plata County Fairgrounds and the Rec Center are. So, I guess you can feel safe riding your bike through the Rec Center and Fairgrounds (although the Rec Center parking lot is actually very stressful, in my opinion). In fact, on closer inspection, the only blue low-stress “safe spots” are areas that don’t really have streets or roads. So, point your bike toward an open field and try to make your way to work or get your kids to school. Hopefully, you have a bike with big tires, so you can roll over grassy hills. Please try to avoid the cliffs and the deer. 

It’s no wonder we score so terribly every year. All of our streets that get us around to our schools, jobs, stores and appointments are high-stress and very rarely will have well-taken care of, easily navigable bike lanes or safe connections. There is no clear and easy path to get to the east side of town from the west side of town – or vice versa. If you’re a kid trying to get to school every day, where do you safely cross Main from east to west? How do you get to the Rec Center or library if you live on the northeast side of town? Would you send your fifth-grader across North Main Avenue every day on their bike? (If you do, that’s great, but wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to worry about cars?)

Our streets are often unpredictable and encourage speeding (i.e., Camino del Rio, Animas View Drive, Roosa, W. 2nd and W. 3rd avenues and Junction Street). They are built for cars, which is fine, but we have a large population – mainly kids – who don’t have cars and get around by bike. So shouldn’t we make the streets a little safer?

Sure, technically Durango does have a lot of narrow shoulders that we can ride our bikes in. They have chipped painted lines we call “bike lanes” to differentiate a cyclist or pedestrian from a vehicle’s path. There are a few faded sharrows, which many people do not understand the meaning of, and most embarrassing of all, we have zero – that’s right, ZERO – protected bike lanes. The only truly safe and easy way to get around Durango by bike is the Animas River Trail, which has become increasingly busy over the years as well. It also only runs north-south, mostly on the west side of town and not through our downtown’s center. It only crosses Main Avenue from west to east once in downtown Durango (near 15th Street), and twice on the south end (good luck getting across S. Camino del Rio). In addition, because everyone is funneled onto it, the ART is highly crowded and has become complete anarchy.

What can we do to make Durango less stressful for getting around on foot or bicycle? First, we can identify all the things that make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists to share the road with vehicles and each other. This includes: lower speed limits; protected bike lanes; safer intersections with higher visibility; narrower streets to slow traffic; and a general understanding of how to – respectfully – navigate and share the roads. 

Second, get involved. The City of Durango holds multiple infrastructure meetings throughout the year and will only make Durango a better place to walk and bike if they hear that’s what people want. If the only people who show up to these meetings are the folks who want more and bigger parking (trust me, they show up, and they are not quiet), then the City of Durango will do what they can to create more and bigger parking. If the only people the City hears from are the people who want more pickleball courts, then the City will build more pickleball courts. 

However, if more people show up and ask for more and better bike lanes, the City will (hopefully) do what they can to create more and better bike lanes. 

If you don’t have the time, energy or desire to go to the meetings, then write letters, make phone calls and be (respectfully) annoying. Yes, it sucks to be that person, but trust me when I say, that is how it goes. 

The City wants to hear from you. They want to know what you want. If the only people they hear from are the ones who want to raise the speed limit on Animas View Drive to 50 mph, why would they lower the speed limit to 15 mph? If the only people they hear from are the folks who want more parking, why would they get rid of parking to build a bike lane? Sometimes you just have to be straight to the point, very squeaky and tell them exactly what you want. 

What I hope, and what I think we’d want, is a better place to get around by bike. We boast about being a bicycle-friendly town, but the data shows we are anything but. It’d be nice if we could raise our PeopleForBikes score up a handful of points, at least to where we’re not failing. It’d be nice if we could get our kids to school or the Rec Center without fear, or if any of us could cross Main Avenue or be passed by a large vehicle on W 2nd Avenue without praying for our lives. But those things aren’t going to happen overnight or without effort, so attend meetings, stay up-to-date, write some emails and learn more about everything either on the City’s Multimodal page, or follow along with Bike Durango, www.bikedurango.org.

Oh, and keep having fun on your bike. PeopleForBikes would want that. 

 Jennaye Derge is the founder and executive director of Bike Durango, an organization that advocates, educates and inspires more people to commute by bicycle.