If the final destination isn’t too far away from his Englewood house, Wayne Canaban prefers to ride his bicycle. But last year as he was riding through Denver during the evening, he was hit by a car. The accident left him with a painful broken collarbone.

“A lot of days you see those bumper stickers that say to share the road. It has a lot to do with the people who are driving and watching out for cyclists,” Canaban said on a hot August day at the South Platte River Trail in Englewood.

Canaban said he would like to see Englewood add more bicycle lanes, and that’s been in the works in the city recently.

Englewood is planning to install signs and roadway striping for bicycle lanes in each direction along Dartmouth Avenue. The project will also feature bike lanes that extend between Inca Street and University Avenue. One of the goals of the project is to improve local and regional bicycle connections with ties to Denver bicycle facilities and connections to the Little Dry Creek Trail and the Mary Carter Greenway. It’s expected to be finished by the end of the month.

“I think more and more people want to bike, and we want to encourage alternate forms of transportation. Streets like U.S. 285 are so congested,” said Maria D’Andrea, the director of public works for Englewood. “If we can get people using alternate forms of transportation, it helps not only the congestion, but it’s a healthy alternative toward driving.”

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Part of Englewood Forward, a comprehensive plan adopted in 2017 by City Council that establishes a vision for Englewood’s future, includes a section about working to improve pedestrian and bicycle experience throughout the city.

The upcoming roadway striping for bicycle lanes in each direction along Dartmouth Avenue is three and a half miles from end to end, and it marked the city’s first official bicycle lane project. D’Andrea says the city intends to install more lanes along Oxford Avenue from Santa Fe Drive all the way to Clarkson Street. The city hopes to install the Oxford project later this fall or at the beginning of spring.

Englewood Police Sgt. Chad Read said the city had 204 accidents in the last year. He says there was only one traffic fatality in the northeast portion of the city that comes to mind. The Englewood Herald previously reported that 64-year-old Nancy Condit was killed on her bicycle at the intersection of South Downing Street and East Cornell Avenue last summer.

Cherry Hills Village resident Roger Hursh says he thinks about the possibility of getting hit by a vehicle, but having a mirror on his helmet that allows for him to see vehicles behind him comforts him.

“I stay on the quieter streets, so as far as I am concerned, I’m OK. I would like streets like Hampden and Arapahoe to have sidewalks,” said Hursrh, who regularly rides his bike through Englewood.