"The bike ride was sunny, peaceful; I was meeting new people," Milbery says, comparing the January 31 ride around the Mile High City to the 200-foot plummet he experienced on a (very) "snowy evening" on January 12. "It was not slippery, there were no 80 mph gusts of snow or inches of falling snow. There weren't thousand-foot cliffs on the edge."
Instead, Milbery, one of Denver's best-known muralists, took a ride on the mild side on January 31. He was hoping to show a couple dozen Denver residents — including staff from the Denver Department of Transportation & Infrastructure and RTD — the seven "portals" he'd painted in collaboration with Lyft.
The portals are mini-murals on the pavement where people can park the shared bikes and scooters available across Denver. They're all painted in Milbery's signature tone of "Colorado blue" with touches of Lyft's trademark pink, near intersections in the Central Business District, Union Station and Five Points neighborhoods. He also painted the design for the decals on the mudguards of the bikes and added his "Love Tap" signature, a mark Milbery uses because it's his first name spelled backward.
The group bike ride led by Milbery included such transportation professionals as Jyotsna Khattri, a market development supervisor for RTD, and Nathan Pope, a senior city planner for DOTI. Both said they enjoyed the ride and what the portals do for downtown Denver.
"It was fantastic," Khattri says. "I saw a lot of neighborhoods I wouldn't normally see on transit. If I'm on a bus, I'm passing a lot of the same streets, but I'm reading a book. But with the group ride, I'm completely engaged. I'm engaged in the surroundings. I'm looking at people and the vibrant colors."
"Lyft has done a great job trying to revitalize downtown with its corral space. It's really helping show off downtown," Pope says. "One of the reasons we're excited about shared micro-mobility is that it helps meet a lot of our goals around giving people options for transportation."
Shared bikes and scooters owned by Lyft or Lime, its Uber-affliated competitor, are more popular each year, according to Pope, who works in Denver's shared micro-mobility program. More than 5.2 million trips were made on Lyft or Lime bikes and scooters last year, up from 4.9 million in 2022 and just 314,000 in 2018. Lyft alone sees about 580,000 individual riders in Denver use its bikes and scooters each year, according to the company.
Jill Locantore, executive director of the nonprofit Denver Streets Partnership, also went along for the ride. Milbery's portals "make it easier to find" the bikes and scooters, which are "more affordable, better for the environment, better for your health, and you'll probably enjoy it more than driving," she says. "But it's place-making, too. It's adding art and color and vibrancy to the street."
"It was fantastic," Khattri says. "I saw a lot of neighborhoods I wouldn't normally see on transit. If I'm on a bus, I'm passing a lot of the same streets, but I'm reading a book. But with the group ride, I'm completely engaged. I'm engaged in the surroundings. I'm looking at people and the vibrant colors."
Pat Milbery shows off a portal he painted in Five Points to people in a Lyft group ride.
Bennito L. Kelty
Shared bikes and scooters owned by Lyft or Lime, its Uber-affliated competitor, are more popular each year, according to Pope, who works in Denver's shared micro-mobility program. More than 5.2 million trips were made on Lyft or Lime bikes and scooters last year, up from 4.9 million in 2022 and just 314,000 in 2018. Lyft alone sees about 580,000 individual riders in Denver use its bikes and scooters each year, according to the company.
Jill Locantore, executive director of the nonprofit Denver Streets Partnership, also went along for the ride. Milbery's portals "make it easier to find" the bikes and scooters, which are "more affordable, better for the environment, better for your health, and you'll probably enjoy it more than driving," she says. "But it's place-making, too. It's adding art and color and vibrancy to the street."
A former professional snowboarder, Milbery loves an adrenaline rush almost as much as he loves this city, but he also likes to take it easy when he can. He spends most of his days patiently executing the calm brushstrokes that go into mural paintings, and his favorite way to get from project to project is on a bike.
"Don't get me wrong — I do love adventures and do enjoy adrenaline, but at the same time, the act of creating and using your imagination is one of my favorite things to do," he says. "And I love biking as transportation. I love riding my bike around the city, because you're always discovering new neighborhoods, new pockets or new parks."
Although he recently bought his own e-bike, Milbery says he's still a fan of using Lyft bikes and scooters. He first got the idea to work with Lyft after employees from the company volunteered to help paint his "Interwoven" mural in October, he says, citing the blue and purple artwork on Bannock Street in front of City Hall.
Lyft and Milbery applied together for a Dynamic Downtown Denver Grant, a program announced by Mayor Mike Johnston in October as the first in his administration aimed at revitalizing downtown. The city awarded Milbery and Lyft a $15,000 grant for the portal project, and along with Lyft staffers, Milbery started painting the pieces in December. It took about three weeks to create all seven.
Milbery's murals and art can be found all over downtown Denver, and well beyond. He's painted more than 500 murals — mostly in Denver, but also across the U.S. and other countries. His most famous pieces are the "Love This City" murals downtown. His fans recognize his "dimensional" style, he says, referring to the way he adds angles and shapes to the inside of hearts or other objects to make them look three-dimensional. 
Milbery has also worked with nearly all of Denver's major sports teams (though he has yet to work with the Rockies). He designed the Rapids' special "New Day" kit for the upcoming season; a mural for the 2019 Stanley Cup watch party at the Tivoli Quad using more than 1,500 recycled aluminum cups to render the Avalanche logo; an interactive mural at Ball Arena that allows Nuggets fans to take pictures with a virtual Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray; and a mural at Empower Field depicting the Rocky Mountains.
"Pat is probably one of the most in-demand muralists in Denver," says Audrey Wyman, Milbery's studio manager. "He's prolific, prolific. He really does care deeply about this city. It's his home. He knows art is what provides flavor and soul to a city, and he knows how to use his gifts to allow that soul to come through."
Milbery and Lyft want these tours to be free monthly events — if they can continue to attract about twenty people for each group ride, and as long as the weather is nice. In a few weeks, Lyft will announce a schedule for upcoming tours in the spring and summer, and will offer the bikes and ride credits so that people don't have to pay. The route of the tour is also available online for people who want to take their own self-guided tour.
Milbery would like to continue as tour guide for the official trips, to help get more people to connect with their inner artist and to enjoy a bike ride.
"It's such a great way to see the world and explore new areas," Milbery says. "And as far as creating art, I would just highly encourage anyone to allow themselves the space to create, and don't put too much pressure on yourself."
