Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we give our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems.)I live between two of Denver’s most historic , tree-lined boulevards, but I only ride my bike on one of them. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, less than a block from my house, sports fast, anxiety-inducing traffic that barely abates outside rush hour. I’ve ridden it to work on miles of unbroken bike lanes and, while I’m thankful they exist, I also quickly realized there are fewer reckless motorists on the side streets. The cars are slower and more sparse about 10 blocks south on Montview Boulevard, which runs east from Denver’s City Park to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center in Aurora — a roughly 6-mile stretch of diverse residential and commercial areas. Roberta Smith rides her bike down Montview Boulevard in Denver on Oct. 15, 2012, as she commutes to her job at the Anschutz Medical Campus. (Seth A. McConnell, Denver Post file) Montview’s mix of painted and buffered bike lanes starts at the Denver Museum of Nature Science, on the edge of City Park, and continues east along a picturesque stretch lined with mansions, churches and libraries in Denver’s historic Park Hill neighborhood. Each Halloween, kids in our part of town flock to this stretch for the scenery and outsized Halloween decorations. Some of the modest neighborhoods around it have practically been drained of trick-or-treaters, given that the people who live on Montview are so happy to welcome their neighbors. This stretch has in recent years also added more stop signs and crosswalks for pedestrians and cyclists, and the calming effect has been palpable as drag racers, careening Hummers, and otherwise alarming vehicles seem to avoid it (unlike MLK, unfortunately). As you move east on Montview, you’ll see not just pretty houses and parks, but also working-class neighborhoods in Aurora as you approach Montview’s end at Peoria Street. Aurora over the last decade has installed buffered bike lanes on Montview, between Oswego Street and Fitzsimons Parkway through the Anschutz Campus, although my visits over there are usually car-based. (If you’re a parent in east Denver, you know there’s a Children’s Hospital at CU Anschutz, and Montview provides a direct route.) This stretch passes public schools, auto shops, tacquerias, Thai diners, tidy houses and apartment buildings, and it feels markedly different than the multimillion-dollar milieu to the west. In July 1977, Mayor Bill McNichols led a group of bicyclists in a "safety parade" from Colorado Women's College (then located at Quebec Street and Montview Boulevard) down Montview to Larimer Square. The mayor's leadership of the group was shortlived: He lasted one block. (Note the lack of a helmet as well.) (Denver Post file) Just off Montview, and right where Denver ends and Aurora begins, you’ll find the Stanley Marketplace, which hugs Central Park (formerly Stapleton) with a number of the city’s best eateries and boutiques. It’s eminently rideable if you don’t mind moving a bit to the north and winding around Central Park’s handsome greenways and trails. I’m a casual cyclist and usually ride with my family on the weekends, which means I have a certain, relaxed view of the boulevard that may not always be true. But certainly, it’s not as dangerous as riding along 17th Street to the south, where speeders have reportedly crashed into the same house at the corner of Monaco Street and 17th Avenue five times in less than two years. And even when you’re riding along marked bike lanes on the streets parallel to Montview, such as 23rd and 26th streets, there’s still a shaky urgency to the all-residential traffic. Eating and riding — two things Montview is really, really good for. Try it if you’re in the area, and you’ll see how quickly one will make you want the other. ...read more read less