Some Denver streets will close to cars, giving people who walk and bike more elbow room during the coronavirus pandemic

April 3, 2020 — Parts of Denver are about to go back to the days when people congregated and played in the streets before cars dominated them. Except… no congregating and no playing.

The city government will close segments of East 11th Avenue, Byron Place, Stuart Street and East 16th Avenue to cars, the mayor announced Friday. Denverites will start seeing the changes Saturday.

The closures are temporary, but Jill Locantore, head of the Denver Streets Partnership, sees an opportunity to show the public what “people-first streets” can do.

“This is basically a huge tactical urbanism project where we can temporarily demonstrate different uses for our streets and allow people to experience that,” Locantore said. “It’s a great opportunity for people to think about whether some of these changes should be made more permanent. Do we actually think our streets are functioning better this way and could continue to function this way even after we emerge from the crisis?”