Stephen comes at this role from a lifelong interest in community foot and bike paths. He has biked most of the country and has spent much of his career in bicycle-commute mode when at home.Stephen feels called to care for the Shared Paths due to his recognition that Boulder’s high percentage of visitors—including daily commuters, seasonal visitors and students—dilutes the sense of public awareness and responsibility for this common good. There are lots of users and few owners and Stephen, like many of the Shared Paths Boulder Stewards, has discovered that it just feels good to go out there and demonstrate community ownership for our important facility.

Also, Stephen notes that the mixed use by pedestrians, runners, bikes and other personal machines creates a need for behavioral “conflict avoidance.” We have all speeds and styles of users on the Paths, and daily conflicts are inevitable. Stephen tells us, “As a Steward, you see it all, and once you are attuned to the flow of the users, it is actually easy to perform a soft intervention. ‘Hey, slow down for lots of kids on striders ahead!’ Anything we can do to help ear-bud-bearing racers see and slow for the more frail user groups goes a long way to mitigate conflict.”