Ribbon Cutting at 10 a.m. May 24 in front of Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery
In an effort to continue Las Cruces’ goal of becoming more bicycle friendly, the City of Las Cruces and the Downtown Las Cruces Partnership have teamed up to install an additional 20 bike racks along Main Street, between the roundabout near City Hall and Bowman Avenue.
Funded through the AARP Community Challenge Grant, the new racks will nearly double the bike storage capacity in downtown. These “Quick-action” grants seek to make communities more livable for people of all ages.
“We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Downtown Las Cruces Partnership as they work to make immediate improvements in Las Cruces, NM and are excited to see this project completed,” said Dave Lynch, AARP New Mexico State President. “Previous grantees have seen impressive results from their projects, such as attracting additional funding, overcoming policy barriers, and increasing engagement and awareness in the community. Our goal at AARP NM is to support the efforts of our communities to be great places for people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities.”
Las Cruces currently is rated a bronze level bicycle friendly city by the League of American Bicyclist and is striving to become silver level by 2025. Those efforts include increased bicycle safety education, additional on-street and off-street bike facilities, more bicycle friendly businesses, and a larger inventory of designated bike lanes on Las Cruces streets.
Recent additions to these efforts in the downtown area include added bike lanes along Alameda Boulevard between Amador Avenue, and Picacho Avenue. Future plans call for designated bike lanes along Campo Street between Spruce and Amador avenues.
“These bike racks represent more than a place to park your bike. We are helping deliver a range of transportation and mobility options by increasing connectivity and bikeability to Downtown Las Cruces. Giving people access to a wider range of transportation choices is important to the smart growth of our Downtown” said Jennifer Garcia Kozlowski, Executive Director of Downtown Las Cruces Partnership.
Downtown visitors will be able to easily spot the new green racks designed to be more visible to users and feature a color used internationally to designate bicycle friendly facilities and riding lanes.
There are two racks in front of Becks coffee, four in front of the Museum of Nature & Science, two in front of Grounded Cafe, two near the intersection of Main Street and Las Cruces Avenue, four near Little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery, four near the Plaza stage at the intersection of Main and Griggs Avenue, and two more on the southeast corner of the intersection of Griggs and Main Street.
For information about downtown, contact 575/541-2150, or downtown@las-cruces.org.