Local Castle Rock Issue Here…

What If, you lived in Castle Rock and could be People Powered to Downtown Denver and beyond, without having to mortgage the home to fill the tank? I read somewhere the other day, 06-27-2008, that gas prices could be 7 bucks a gallon by 2009! With the inflated prices at the pump we are now, doling out this seemed as if it would happen this fall, if not earlier. Look at the definition of dole, only the gasoline we crave as a population is general, is not distributed as charity to somebody in need; sure we are in need but distributed as charity? Please, it makes me rethink the use of the word! Keep in mind the word “petroflation“, this is my term for the brisk, for a lack of better word, gasoline swindle we are currently having. Back on topic now as this gasoline rant topic is too free flowing, sorry almost got of topic here.

The other day while driving back from Parker we took the newer road from Parker Road just north of Franktown to Castle Oaks and connecting at Founders Parkway to the town’s New Southwest Corridor planned route which led to a lot of “What-If Thinking”.

The way America is heading in both personal fitness and personal finance, we are in need of a big change in living habits and we as a population should be proactive about it instead of trying to play catch up. Being physically fit and catching up are words that do not belong in the same sentence, the harder you try to catch up on being fit, the more likely you are to get hurt in the process. Being caught-up in your finances, well the process hurts, and for the average American never is caught-up and many will never recover.

What-If Number 1:

What if, there was a bike path from Founders Parkway at the Escavera subdivision? Alternatively, in terms that is more realistic, how about making a bike path from where the pavement ends in Castle Oaks subdivision and stretched east along the Castle Oaks dirt road (Castle Oaks Parkway?) to the Cherry Creek bike path/bridge and juncture just west of Parker Road near Franktown. This country in our county needs this bike path, it is crying out to be ridden but people’s skinny tires cannot handle the washboard roads and rocks. Then if this took off maybe our bike shops would form a posse of riders who patrol the routes and aid in repairs in bikes and paths; farfetched? Time will tell but at the current rate of “petroflation“, we are going to find out sooner rather than later.

OK, so you do not work in downtown Denver do not think it should apply to you but it does get you within pedaling distance of the Parker light rail station connecting you to points North, South East and West by commuter bus and North South and West by rail. If bicycling is the way Colorado is the way our future is headed, RTD had better get on the ball making bicycle friendly storage on our mass transit system. It would be interesting what kind of bicycle statistics they keep of being hauled on their system and if it has increased along with the “petroflation” increase.

What-If Number 2:

What if, this cherry Creek Bike Path feeder bike path was the backbone for the town of Castle Rock to build an interconnected bike path system throughout Castle Rock that feed commuters through the Cherry Creek bike path artery.

What-If Number 3:

What if, you decided to get heart healthy and self propel you whenever possible? What’s it going to take? How high does gasoline have to get before it influences more than your pocket book, which is now at an alarming level!

I propose implementing a new onetime fee on all new commercial building applications to help finance either a ½ or 1 mile of grading and asphalt to construct this path. We can listen to all the grand plans and ideas the town leaders may have on biking Castle Rock and DC but unless they get proactive and actually start a bike path system then use it. Our town will continue to be a town with bike paths, and yes we already have them, but those bike paths start nowhere and go nowhere and are separate from one another making you having to negotiate the roadways, and quite a few of those roadways have no shoulder.

Castle Rock is, like it or not, a bedroom community and if the residents cannot afford to pay these outrageous gas prices they will simply move closer to work, and then what happens to our thriving town if its population moves closer to work? There would be no more Starlight Summer Movie Series, no more downtown summertime, music events and the lighting of the star on Castle Rock? If no one slept or lived here, nobody would see it or miss it.

We need to work together, but the town has to act and start moving in that direction.

What-If Number 4:

What If, we rode bikes as the primary mode of transportation in our daily lives?

What is it going to take?

Then there is highway 85-headed back to the metro area; this is another prime bike path route I may expound upon in future Blogs.