Seen Around Town: Dash @ CSU, a bike box, and bike route signs in Loveland

While I was out walking around near campus on Sunday I saw a couple of cool things that I thought I’d share. I was also in Loveland last week and snapped a couple of shots of the bike route signage they’re using. So here’s a quick snapshot glance of a few transit related things that I’ve seen around town in the past week.

Dash at Colorado State University

Do you remember when the very first iMacs came out? They came in all sorts of bubblegum colors and the Apple ads would place them facing out in a circle, like a flower of computers. That’s what these Dash cars remind me of. They’re cute as a button and they come in a set of four, with a different color for each car.

CSU is one of four universities that are testing out this pilot program with four zero-emission vehicles. The cars are 100% electric and can be used to make a quick trip during the day. So if you bike or take MAX to work at CSU, but you need to run a quick errand during your lunch hour that would work best by car, you can snag one of the Dash cars and knock out your errand in a trice.

To find out more about Dash, check out the Innova Dash website.

A Bike Box at the Flats on the Oval

I’ve walked by the Flats at the Oval many times, but today was the first time I can remember walking down the alley behind the development. I saw three large areas for bike parking, with varying levels of service. There were two open air parking areas. One was between the building, the parking lot, and the alley. This section of parking was open to the elements, though there were still several bikes attached to the racks.

There was a second rack on the other side of the parking lot, under an overhang of the building. This rack was also full, and the bikes were free of snow. So there was clearly a level of protection from the elements.

The third parking area was a bike box. (Which, technically, it still “open air,” but I couldn’t think how else to distinguish the wide open-ness of the other racks and the closed-in-ness of this one.) Not only protected from the elements, this rack also gave some protection from theft. I suspect there’s peace of mind when you know your bike is behind an additional layer of protection.

Hopefully we’ll start seeing more and more new developments with this level of bike parking available.

 

Signs for a Bike Route Through Loveland

I was in Loveland on Tuesday for a meeting and while I was there, I did the City’s self-guided residential historic landmarks tour. While walking along 4th, I saw several signs for a bike route. What I don’t understand, though, is that most of the signs are mounted behind the stop signs for the opposing traffic. While I’m sure it saves the City some money to reuse a sign post that’s already up, it’s entirely counterintuitive to put a road sign on the left side of the road when you want travelers to ride on the right side of the road. What am I missing here?

On Friday I’ll be back with a list of upcoming bicycle-related events as well as a quick run through of national/international bike news from January.