Bike Lane Debate Near Washington Park Continues After Bicyclist Dies
DENVER (CBS4) - What's called a ghost bike has been placed at the corner of Bayaud Avenue and South Marion Parkway in Denver. It is accompanied by flowers for a bicyclist struck and killed.
Alexis Bounds, a 37-year-old wife and mother, was riding when she hit by a dump truck last week. It happened as a neighborhood was involved in a debate over a city plan to add protected bike lanes.
Craig Zeller is an area resident who rides his bicycle to work every day.
"I think they make sense if they are done correctly," he said.
Denver Public Works spokesperson Heather Burke speculates such a lane might have helped save a life.
"I think it would have prevented that conflict at the intersection between the bike and the vehicle that was turning," she said.
The lanes for Marion Parkway would be part of a much larger $18 million plan to fund up to 50 of 125 bikeways over the next five years. The city says adding protected bikeways can reduce the risk of injury by up to 90% for all commuters.
It is meant to reduce conflict between bicycles and cars.
A petition has been circulating through the Marion Parkway neighborhood opposing the planned protected lanes. Terry Berkeley lives nearby is aware of the death, but does not feel adding the bike lanes will do any good.
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"It will make this such an ugly parkway, and it's so beautiful now. I don't think they need that protection," she told CBS4's Rick Sallinger.
Words drawn on the street state "another slain cyclist."
This is a corridor that serves as a link to Washington Park. What all agree is they don't want have a reason for more bikes like this.
The victim's husband, Teddy, issued the following statement about the loss of his wife:
Alexis was known as a sweet, loving, beautiful, talented, and outgoing person to everyone that knew her. She resided in the West Washington Park neighborhood with her two young boys (aged 4 years and 9 months) and her husband of 12 years, Theodore "Teddy" Bounds. She was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was there she met her husband-to-be while attending the same high school.
She earned degrees in Interior Design and Business at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, graduating in 2006. Her first job out of college was working for Associated Grocers, Inc. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as an interior designer for independent grocery stores.
Alexis and Teddy were married in July of 2007 in New Orleans. In 2009, they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. It was there she pursued a career in interior design and project management in the government and healthcare industries, working for Stanford University Healthcare, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. General Services Administration. In 2015, they welcomed their first son Lincoln into the world.
In 2017, she and her family moved to Denver in order to pursue career options and find a permanent home and community in which to raise her family. She joined CBRE Healthcare, providing construction project management support to local and national hospitals. In October 2018, they were proud to bring their second son Oliver into the world.
In her professional life, she found great pleasure in helping her clients and employers realize their visions through her design and project management expertise. In her personal life, she enjoyed spending her free time with her family at Denver's many parks and activities, exploring the area's many restaurants, and had recently started taking classes in pottery. Alexis considered Washington Park her sanctuary and a place for her cherished family time.
In addition to her husband and two sons, she is survived by her mother, Peggy Buckley Boardman, and her husband, Roger Boardman; her brother, David Allan Brown, Jr., his wife, Monte, and their children, her nephew Hudson and her niece and goddaughter Rylie; her father, David Allan Brown, Sr., her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Nancy and Terry Bounds, and her brother-in-law, Matthew Bounds; and a large family of cousins and many friends.
We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our beloved Alexis. She was a light in the life of her husband, two young boys, and everyone that knew her. Her absence will be felt eternally. We love you Alexis and miss you in ways that words cannot describe.
If anyone wishes to contribute to the family, a GoFundMe page has been created to provide educational funds for the children.