Protected Bike Lane Comes To South Broadway

DENVER (CBS4)- Drivers and bicyclists will be sharing the road on one of the busiest stretches of South Broadway.

The City of Denver is testing a new bike lane on South Broadway between Bayaud and Virginia. It's Denver's first two-way protected bike lane with a parking lane to separate cyclists from traffic.

This means one lane of traffic will disappear.

Denver Public Works tried a similar plan last year and received valuable feedback from local business owners.

"They were concerned about having bikes on the sidewalk. It's a safety issue so now we're providing a place for bikes to be," said Denver Public Works spokeswoman Nancy Kuhn. "The other thing they told us was that parking was very important to them so we maintained the parking lane to support the business activity."

The testing phase will continue for 15 months. The new bike lane will open Aug. 15.