New Bike Racks Are Making an Appearance

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Luke Elias

The new bike racks near the main entrance of DHS. At the front entrance of Durango High School, new, efficient bike racks were installed early in the 2022-23 school year and are commonly used by students and staff throughout the school day.

New bike racks have been installed at Durango High School as a part of a city wide addition of bike racks with the goal to become more accommodating to those using nonautomotive methods of transportation. The racks were added with a grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, new bike racks have been added throughout the city as well. According to an article published by the Durango Herald, “Ten more bike racks have been designated for parks and 12 more will be distributed to the Rotary Club of Durango Daybreak for its bike rack program. The Rotary Club took a survey and found concerns about insufficient bike racks around town.”

The project was funded by a $4,189 dollar grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The money was allocated in hopes of updating the current bike racks with new, u-shaped racks which are now the standard of efficiency. Devin King, a multimodal administrator with Durango detailed in an interview with the Durango Herald, “The purpose of the project was for quick wins throughout communities to make communities more active and healthy.”

“We encourage our students to ride, walk or take public transportation to school,” Also in an interview with the Durango Herald, Durango 9R Security Director Kathy Morris stated, “That’s one of our wellness pieces for students and staff.” They had reached out to the city to acquire about six new bike racks for the Safe Routes to School program which is aimed at encouraging healthy options for student transportation like walking or biking to school. They also try to make those options more accessible for all students and staff regardless of their situation.