Denver Divvying Up More of its Street Space for Not Cars

Jon Murray checks in with the transportation situation on Broadway south of Downtown Denver, where last summer the city installed a two-way bike lane and removed a lane of vehicle traffic between Bayaud and Virginia avenues. According to Murray, Broadway funnels the heaviest traffic out of Downtown—about 32,000 drivers use the street every day. As "frustrating" as the changes have been for some rivers, writes Murray, the changes were welcomed by bike advocates and the change "is a signal of the future of commuting in Denver."

"As the city grapples with a surging population, intensifying traffic at all hours of the day and high demand for driving alternatives, public works officials increasingly are dividing up precious pavement, ending the decades of supremacy enjoyed by cars," according to Murray.

The pilot project on Broadway provides proof of concept, according to local transportation planners, that reducing traffic lanes doesn't necessarily slow travel times for cars, while it increases the potential capacity of the road. With evidence of the lane's success in serving all users (not just "auto-driving suburbanites," as Ken Schroeppel, an assistant professor in urban planning at the University of Colorado Denver, puts it in the article) in place, the city is preparing to expand the transit and bike lanes on the street.