For those who experience a medical event downtown, help may come on two wheels instead of four.

While the “ambulance” may only be a bicycle, the paramedic aboard comes fully equipped to handle most 911 emergencies.

“The bike medics,” as they are known, are part of a larger paramedic division within Denver Health and of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s recent efforts to increase downtown safety and encourage people to return to the 16th Street Mall.

The mayor’s revitalization push comes amid perceptions of downtown growing more unfavorable in 2024. In the last few weeks, Johnston announced the creation of a dedicated downtown police unit, a move that another official said would yield “significant changes in the crime map” for the corridor within a year and encourage people to come back.

Downtown Denver has struggled ever since the pandemic hit five years ago, when governments shut down businesses and limited public gatherings. It’s dealing with rising office and retail vacancies, further strained by the years-long 16th Street Mall renovation construction project, homelessness, and some high-profile violent and drug crimes recently. Foot traffic has yet to fully rebound.

For rapid response in congested areas, such as the mall or Coors Field, bike medics make perfect sense, according to Capt. Liz Lenz of the Denver Health Paramedic Division.

Bike medics also ride four-wheeled ambulances, rotating between the two to ensure they remain familiar with the back of the ambulance, with the ingress and egress locations throughout the city, and how to get patients to where they need to be so that it’s easy to extricate them.

“As we get more involved with special events, large crowds of people make it very difficult to get an ambulance through, so we had to adapt and change and figure out a way to respond to medical calls inside of large venues, without using an ambulance,” Lenz said. “So, that’s where the bikes kind of came in. We carry everything on the bikes that we do on an ambulance to initiate any patient care for any call that comes out of a special event.”

Denver Health’s bike medic program started in 1989, but it wasn’t until 1991 that the program became fully functional.

But what about the bikes?

The fleet runs on bikes made by Omaha-based patrol bike maker Volcanic Bikes.

Lenz said the more robust welding on the frames helps support the additional 30 pounds of equipment the paramedics must carry.

“We run a one-by-11 gear set, but other than that, it’s a standard mountain bike,” the officer said.

While some municipalities use e-bikes, Lenz said Denver Health does not.

“We have tried e-bikes at the division. However, the events that we’re covering, (it) makes it very difficult,” she explained.

Because e-bikes are pedal-assisted, riders get a jolt moving forward and that presents a safety concern in crowded areas.

“We cover Coors Field, so we’re inside the stadium. So, think about all the people that are in there. If you get that jolt at the wrong spot, it’s just not gonna be a good thing,” Lenz said.

E-bikes are also a lot heavier than mountain bikes, so the additional 30 pounds of gear makes maneuverability in crowds more challenging.

During a standard eight-hour shift, bike medics ride somewhere between 10 and 15 miles, depending on where they begin their shift.

Denver Health bike medics have already played life-saving roles in some of the city’s high-profile events, including a cardiac arrest during a St. Patrick’s Day parade a few years ago.

Paramedic Paolo Siccardi said a number of bike paramedics responded to the individual, who suffered a heart attack in the middle of the parade route. The paramedics seamlessly transferred the patient to an ambulance for transport to the hospital.

Bike medics were also the first on the scene to assist two men who were shot during the Denver Nuggets’ NBA championship celebration.

So, how will the bike medic program look like on the 16th Street Mall?

Not that much different than before, just an expanded presence to assist those with medical questions and help alleviate a number of certain types of 911 calls on the mall, officials said.

“We are highly visible,” Lenz said. “We have very reflective bright uniforms so that people can pick us out and a crowd, which, I think, helps kind of that sense of increased security, so that if you are being approached by somebody that has a medical question or potentially has a mental health concern, flagging one of us down help mitigate that, and finding resources for that individual is a lot quicker than waiting for an ambulance to arrive.”

Bike medics work 365 days per year regardless of weather conditions.

“But, we’re all in this job because we’re ‘people people,’” Siccardi said.