RFP 22-172 JR - Chatfield State Park Shared Micromobility

Electric bikes - or e-bikes - are an emerging technology that are displaying significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant emissions through their ability to expand access to non-vehicular mobility options; facilitate quicker, more convenient, and less demanding first and last mile connections; and afford users the ability in a variety of environments to reduce their car dependence. In spite of these benefits, the cost and unfamiliarity of e-bikes present significant barriers to many individuals, and existing opportunities to test e-bike vehicles in urban shared micromobility programs have often skewed toward a narrow selection of demographic groups.

Meanwhile, Colorado’s State Park system is facing increasing levels of visitation and, with it, growing congestion issues and associated vehicular emissions. In the coming years, the need to accommodate increased visitor levels is surely to include reducing, where possible, the number of visitors arriving and circulating within State Parks via vehicles, especially single occupancy vehicles.

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is conducting this Shared Micromobility Pilot at Chatfield State Park to demonstrate the potential of a shared micromobility program to increase state park visitors’ mobility options, improve their experiences as visitors, and to impact their broader and long-term travel habits, by introducing users to e-bike vehicles in a controlled environment. In addition, the pilot will also serve as a platform to demonstrate replicable best practices that address the critical issues and challenges facing new and existing micromobility programs across the state, including the promotion of safe vehicle use, creating an accessible experience for a wider range of users (e.g. older populations, families), and effectively structuring a shared micromobility program in a recreational context. The project shall also provide an opportunity both the Colorado Department of Transportation and Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife to collect data about e-bike trips.