The ACE subcommittee was a major partner in the effort toward Durango achieving:
- Bicycle Friendly Community certification and working with Trails 2000, Safe Roads Coalition, Fort Lewis College and concerned citizens to have Durango designated a “Bicycle Friendly City”. The application for a “BFC” designation was submitted in March ’08 and involved an audit of city roads that was completed by partnering organizations. Part of the certification process was to hold a community Bike Summit held in May funded by collaboration between HLLP, BFC, Trails 2000, Safe Roads Coalition and the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. This summit brought together the bicycling community, elected officials, and city and county staff to discuss solutions to some of the “issues” between bicyclists and motorists and to improve city/county roads for all modes of transportation, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, public transportation and the physically disabled.
- The Bicycle Friendly Community Task Force (made up of the bike Summit presenting organizations and 2 bicycle activists) made a presentation to the city and county on the outcomes and suggestions from the summit participants. These recommendations included the number one recommendation that the city and county work together to hire a Multi-modal Director to oversee coordination of new and existing roadways to safely accommodate all forms of transportation, not just automobiles and trucks. The presentation was given at the end of July to the County Commissioners, city and county Managers, and the City Council of Durango.
- In 2008, ACE continued to expand it’s effort to form connections
and educate public officials and staff, including with: the Durango
City Council, La Plata County Commission, the new City Manager, the
new County Manager, the new Durango School District Superintendent,
and city/county engineering and planning staff including the Public
Works Director for the City of Durango.
- At a recent Durango City Council meeting one of the counselors
publicly thanked HLLP for its work in making the city healthier,
and recently the City Manager sent an email to the HLLP staff requesting
our help in making Durango workplaces smoke-free.
- ACE again collaborated with Healthy Local Foods and CSU Extension
to organize the very successful second annual Tour de Farms bicycle
tour of gardens and farms. This year it included both a 42-mile
farm route, and a 5-mile in-town garden route. This event has shown
to be a perfect way to collaborate between worksite wellness, healthy
local foods and active community environments.
