LoVa in the News- June 13, 2023

June is Bike Month in Colorado with many communities around the state participating in Bike-to-Work Day on Wednesday, June 25th. Here in Garfield County, our communities join together to celebrate BikeThere! with both morning and afternoon events across the County.

In our region, not everyone can bike to work. Many residents commute long distances from where housing is comparatively more affordable to work in up-valley locations.

Driving is often required, but it is not always enjoyable. It’s no surprise to anyone traveling on major roadways in our County that traffic has increased significantly in the last decade – Grand Avenue in Glenwood Springs has seen an over 17% increase in vehicle trips over the last 5 years. Traffic is frequently congested even during non-rush hour timeframes. Many of us have been stuck in a road closure, or were unexpectedly late to a meeting trying to get across town.

However, many trips in the U.S. are less than 3 miles. Those look different for everyone, but in the Colorado River and Roaring Fork Valleys, they might consist of traveling to school, the grocery store, library, bus stop, or friends’ houses.

When it comes to your favorite way of getting around, what comes to mind? A frequent answer to that question, for many, is biking.

Replacing short car trips with bike rides offers compelling benefits. Swap all shorter trips for biking, and you’ve theoretically reduced car trips by 50%. Choose one no-car day a week, and you’ve cut trips by 20%. This translates to significant savings on maintenance, fuel, and insurance, while slashing your gas station visits and contributions to local traffic.

My personal tipping point came during February’s cold streak when my car battery died, costing me $300 to replace. I live and work in the same town, so I wasn’t driving much. I asked myself, why was I spending money on car maintenance, generally speaking, for a car I drove about once a week?

I made the leap: I sold my car and bought an e-bike. Now my e-bike replaces 99% of my single-occupancy car trips, supplemented by RFTA, Bustang, the Carbondale Downtowner, Ride Glenwood ON DEMAND, and occasional borrowed cars. At times, these alternatives require more planning but cost less and prove more enjoyable.

Many Garfield County residents are discovering e-bike life alongside me. In 2023/24, CLEER distributed 90 e-bikes through an eBikeThere Garfield County program. One e-bike recipient had never ridden a bike before. Now they’re using their e-bike for a quarter of their trips and have even started mountain biking – a great example of how biking can open the door to a more active, healthy lifestyle. Others are biking to the grocery store, filling panniers with their grocery haul.

Another fascinating and fairly recent development is the growth of bike share throughout the region. For example, WE-Cycle started their bike-share services in Carbondale in July 2023. In the first month there were over 8,000 bike rides. In April 2025, there were over 12,000 trips. Bike trips in Carbondale and across the County are growing thanks to accessible bikes and safe bike routes.

More and more people are choosing two wheels, and you could, too.

All Colorado residents qualify for a $450 e-bike tax credit when you buy an e-bike from a participating bike retailer. Holy Cross customers can stack an additional $50 rebate. With commuting e-bikes typically costing $1,500-$2,000, that’s substantial upfront savings.

If you’re ready to turn those short trips into bike rides, we’ve got just the event for you – with a chance to win a free e-bike.

Join Garfield Clean Energy, Clean Energy Economy for the Region (CLEER), Garfield County Libraries, Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA), and many more partners for BikeThere! Garfield County. This family-friendly event takes place on Wednesday, June 25th, from 3 to 6 PM* at your local Library branch* to celebrate biking anywhere you can. We’ll have pizza, community booths, bike decorating and giveaways, bike rodeos, and free bike maintenance. You’ll also be able to register for the prize drawing, which also includes an e-bike, gift cards, a rafting trip, lift tickets, and more. Visit https://garfieldcleanenergy.org/bikethere/ for details.

Reducing traffic in our region requires big decisions, investment, infrastructure, and more. 

Luckily, you can BikeThere and actually do something about it. Leaving cars at home one day a week or for trips under 3 miles cuts emissions and gives you the freedom to skip traffic, gas stations, and parking headaches. Together, we can make everyday trips easier, cheaper, healthier, and way more fun.

Dova Castañeda Zilly is the clean mobility coordinator for CLEER (Clean Energy Economy for the Region), the nonprofit that manages the programs of Garfield Clean Energy.

LoVa in the News- October 12, 2023

Phase three completion of the Lower Valley Trail (LoVa) was ushered in with a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday, according to a Glenwood Springs news release.

The event was hosted by the city of Glenwood Springs and the Lower Valley Trail Association.

“Thank you to Jeanne Golay and the LoVa board for your resilience and persistence on keeping progress moving on this trail,” Glenwood Springs City Councilor Erin Zalinski said in the release. Jeanne Golay is the Lower Valley Trail Association executive director. “For over 20 years our region has chipped away at projects to bring the vision for a non-motorized connection to life. We’re happy to see the added recreational amenity for Glenwood today and to be one step closer to greater regional connectivity.”

The “Meet Me in the Middle” trail is also a partner project with the city of New Castle, Garfield County and the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) that extends the trail from the West Glenwood Treatment Facility on the southwest side of town 700 linear feet to the west ending at a new shade structure and outlook, the release states.

The project is largely funded by the first-ever Partnership Grant awarded in 2019 by the Garfield County Federal Mineral Lease District (FMLD), the release states.

“FMLD continues to support the community and is happy to see this wonderful project move forward the LoVa Trail westward,” FMLD Board Member Gregg Rippy said in the release.

Future plans for LoVa Trail

LoVa will continue to seek grants to extend the trail, one segment at a time. Golay is hopeful the project will benefit from new federal funding devoted to safety, climate change mitigation and access to public lands, the release states.

“For a cyclist or pedestrian traveling east to west, Glenwood Springs has the dubious distinction of being the first place where you are forced to get on the interstate highway with vehicles going 65 miles per hour,” she said in the release. “LoVa’s mission is to change that by creating a safe, separated path for everyone.”

Current estimates to complete the approximate 9 miles from Glenwood to New Castle come in at $2 million per mile, the release states. The steep, narrow river gorge through South Canyon offers few locations to place a 10-foot-wide path. Most construction in South Canyon must be staged and conducted from the shoulder of the interstate, requiring traffic control and lane closures.

LoVa in the News- September 27, 2023

A 700 foot segment of the ongoing LoVa Trail is nearing completion, according to an official.

LoVa Trail Group Executive Director Jeanne Golay told Glenwood Springs City Council on Sept. 21 that the “Meet Me in the Middle” segment of the trail is almost finished.

The LoVa (Lower Valley) trail is for people who use other means of transportation, like a bicycle, but they need to get to New Castle or further. Riding on Interstate 70 is dangerous, since vehicles are going anywhere from 65-75 mph, at least from posted road signs.

The South Canyon segment of LoVa trail was completed in 2011.

Golay mentioned that the South Canyon segment, a path with a standard width of 12 feet of concrete, is a little narrow and might require moving a few trees. There will be a fence between the path and the interstate guardrail. 

There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony for this almost finished section in a couple weeks. The next section slated for construction is set to connect New Castle to Silt, which Golay calls the Coal Ridge Trail.

Golay’s vision is to have paths on both sides of the Colorado River corridor. 

LoVa in the News- February 9, 2021

Garfield County commissioners award first-quarter grants for trails, arts, local radio and more

Planning for a new bicycle and pedestrian path to serve Coal Ridge High School between New Castle and Silt got a $5,000 boost from Garfield County this week.

County commissioners on Monday awarded a grant from the county’s Conservation Trust Fund to support the trail project along U.S. Highway 6.

The trail project is part of the larger effort by the Lower Valley Trail Association (LoVa) to build a network of non-motorized trails and paved pathways connecting Glenwood Springs to the western Garfield County communities.LoVa has been meeting with the mayors of both New Castle and Silt to move ahead with initial design and alignment planning for the trail, which would be placed within the Colorado Department of Transportation’s highway right of way, LoVa Executive Director Jeanne Golay said in a report to the county commissioners.

The trail would run along the north side of Highway 6, directly in front of Coal Ridge High, which is located midway between the two communities.Funding for actual construction of the path has not yet been identified, but would likely have to come from state and local grants.

“The Garfield Re-2 School District has a strong desire to see the project come to fruition,” Golay wrote in her annual update on LoVa activities. “In 2021, we will continue … (to) seek funding for further design, utility permitting and construction.”

Commissioners asked that the county’s $5,000 contribution go specifically to the Coal Ridge trail project, but LoVa continues to make progress on several other trail-building efforts.

Through a $500,000 Colorado Parks and Wildlife “Colorado the Beautiful” trails grant, LoVa is proceeding with three “micro projects” that will be part of the eventual completion of the South Canyon trail, Golay said.

Among them are a bridge over the Colorado River and an overpass of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks near Canyon Creek, and rock-scaling work at Tibbetts Point. Delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted progress on some of that work, Golay said.