Moving to Denver!

[madscot13]

Hi I'm moving to Denver! It was my first choice for medical school and now I am so pleased that I was accepted. I've heard that it is pretty bike friendly from TE. When I visited last winter, I saw that it was pretty flat and some bike lanes around. I also located some bike builders and classes in case I decide that I want to build a new frame within the next several years.

Can anyone give me advice for neighborhoods? For better or worse they moved the hospital out to Aurora. It means all new facilities and lots of space but it also means not being in downtown. I would like to be within a 6 mile radius or so of the hospital, located on the old Fitsimmon's army base, and close to a busline- I like to have a back up plan when I don't want to bike. I think I will move out there at the end of July or beginning of August and stay in a hotel until I find a place.

[Selkie]

CONGRATULATIONS!!

I was in Denver once, only two days on a TDY, so I can't provide you any useful info. Despite the short visit, it seemed like a nice place.

[solobiker]

I don't know too much about that area. I live on the other side of the city. Denver is very bike friendly and the trails take you pretty much all over the place. If you ride to the foothills there are plenty of hills for climbing and several nice loops you can do.

Welcome to Colorado!!

[solobiker]

I will ask around for you about Aroura...like most cities there are good areas and bad areas.

[out_spokin']

another welcome to Colorado, and congrats on med school! I live in Colorado Springs, but lived in Denver for four years and commute to Denver downtown a few days a week...I'm not all that familiar with Aurora either, though I did see the new medical campus and it's pretty nice!

Living carfree in that area will be a bit challenging but with a bike things are pretty doable -- Denver, despite the rep of being "in the mountains" is really flat - that plus great weather and great bike advocacy means biking is a happy thing here.

I highly recommend getting this map: http://bicyclecolo.org/itemdetails.cfm?id=250. (think about joining Bicycle Colorado, too, it's a fantastic organization!)

It's an incredibly good resource for figuring out how to get around by bike, and I've used it before with a compass and a string to decide where my radius to look for housing would be, and then you can overlap that with the rtd-denver.com bus route maps (all buses here have bike racks). Your six mile radius will give you quite a lot of choices. Park Hill and the Stapleton area might be a nice way to be close enough to school but give you fairly easy access to downtown when you have some time off. Lowry has done some nice re-development if you're looking for an apartment.

Good luck!

[Pedal Wench]

Insanely jealous!

[canonsue]

Congratulations on Med school. I live up in the foothills in Conifer about a 25 minute drive from the Denver metro area. Denver is flat but where I live it is not. I live on a very popular and difficult bike training route and I see hundreds of cyclists go by in a weekend. As a someone just getting back to riding a bike, I go down to the flatlands of Denver and use the bicycle paths to start my fitness journey.

Welcome to Colorado.

-Sue