GETTING THERE: Bicyclists have more road to roam

Colorado Springs will have added 17.4 miles of bicycle lanes by the time paving and striping season ends in late October.

The new lanes, complete with striping and signs, will expand the miles of city bike lanes to 71.45, an increase of more than 30 percent.

Kristin Bennett, the city's senior transportation planner, said the city has a goal of increasing bike lane miles by at least 10 percent each year.

In recent years, the city has been able to almost double that percentage, in part because of consistent funding of road resurfacing work by the one-cent sales tax administered by the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority. The city also uses money raised by a $4 bike excise tax levied on the sale of each new bike in the city.

Bennett said adding lanes when roads are resurfaced is a cost-effective way of creating more biking opportunities.

This summer, for example, Mesa Road, Spruce Street and Tutt Boulevard were resurfaced, and it was a perfect time to widen bike lanes on the streets and upgrade signs and markings. The city's minimum width for bike lanes is 3 feet, excluding the gutter, but it tries to do lanes with widths of 4 to 6 feet if it has space.

Bennett said the city hopes eventually to connect all major destinations and assure that bikeways are spaced no more than a mile apart.

That's often a challenge because mixing cyclists and cars on some major roads in the region - Academy, Powers and Platte, for example - is a recipe for disaster. But she said there are often streets nearby that lend themselves to bike lanes. For instance, bike lanes on Tutt Boulevard, which parallels Powers, allow cyclist access to nearby neighborhoods and shopping centers.

Ready to try some of the new bikes lanes? Here they are:

• Bijou/Kiowa streets, from Walnut Street to Cascade Avenue and Hancock Avenue to Union Boulevard
• Black Forest Road from Dublin Boulevard north to the dead end
• Bordeaux Drive from Lexington Drive to Meadow Ridge Drive
• Bridle Pass Drive from Dublin to Austin Bluffs Parkway
• Cache La Poudre Street from Institute Street to Union Boulevard
• Colorado Avenue from Cascade Avenue to Sahwatch Street (north side only)
• Dublin from Rangewood Drive to Bridle Pass/Oakwood Boulevard
• Hancock Expressway from Delta Drive to Academy Boulevard
• Meadow Ridge Drive from Lexington to Havenwood Drive
• Mirage Drive from Chapel Hills Drive to Union
• Rangewood from Briargate Boulevard to Austin Bluffs
• Rio Vista Drive from North Carefree Circle to Constitution Avenue
• Scarborough Drive from Telegraph Drive to Squirreltail Drive
• Summerset Drive from Mirage Drive to Research Parkway
• Tutt from Constitution to Stetson Hills

The classy way to get there

Last weekend's second annual Concours d' Elegance at The Broadmoor's west golf course attracted a great crowd - reportedly more than 8,300 people - that viewed a stunning collection of rare and beautiful cars, including Bugatti racers, menacing Vincent motorcycles and stately Packards.

Tucked in among the vehicles were a couple of cool cars owned by local guys. David Jenkins, chairman of Nor'wood Development Group, brought a rare, beautifully preserved silver Porsche 356 Abarth. One of his vice presidents, Fred Veitch, brought his "outlaw" 356 Porsche - essentially a Germanic hot-rod featuring unbelievable craftsmanship - that had drool marks all over it by the end of the day.

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Tell me your commuter tales. 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com