Civic Center Park is a lively hub for folks in and around Denver to visit and enjoy the greenspace it has to offer—from city-wide events to a quiet reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the city. However, the threat of speeding cars on surrounding roadways can make it challenging and intimidating to get to and from the park on foot or by bike. That’s why we’re excited to see that new traffic calming measures have recently been implemented on 14th Avenue next to Civic Center Park to help folks make their way more safely and pleasantly to and through the neighborhood.
Back in July of 2022, the Denver Streets Partnership and the Civic Center Conservancy spearheaded a similar traffic calming demonstration on this exact same street segment. As part of “Day in the Park” at Civic Center, 14th Ave was closed to cars between Bannock Street and Acoma Street so that people could walk, roll, and bike freely. In addition to shaded seating, lawn games, and activities for folks to enjoy, we lined the street segment with planters to represent a buffered bike lane. We also used these planters to create our own temporary bulbout at the Acoma street pedestrian crossing—a way to increase the visibility of crossing pedestrians and slow cars down. The event was a huge success with the neighborhood residents and visitors, who were thrilled with how easy our temporary measures made it for them to enjoy this gorgeous space.
This demonstration made it clear that these traffic calming improvements would be a great benefit to the community, and it’s fantastic to now see them become a reality! Nowadays, if you take a bike ride or a stroll to Civic Center Park, you’ll see flexposts on 14th Ave to create a buffered lane for people riding bikes, along with a bulbout at the Acoma intersection just like we demonstrated. In turn, the driving lanes are fewer and narrower.
Piep Van Heuven, Deputy Director for the Civic Center Conservancy, shared a similar sentiment when reflecting on these new changes. “Civic Center Conservancy was excited to see the 14th Avenue protected bike lane extension from Acoma to Grant Street put the community’s vision from the 2022 Open Streets demonstration into action. In addition to providing people biking east with a safe route past Civic Center Park, the extension significantly improves safe pedestrian connections into the park from the south, including traffic from cultural heavyweights like the Denver Art Museum and Colorado History Center. With fewer traffic lanes to cross, and the slower traffic that comes with reduced lane widths, it’s a much more inviting entry point for kids and families. There are also future opportunities to explore placemaking, beautification, and safety on 14th Ave, and the bike lane extension sets the stage for these important next steps.”
We are excited for more new traffic calming infrastructure popping up around the city as Denver continues to implement its Denver Moves Everyone and Denver Moves: Bicycles programs. Greater connections in areas like Civic Center, where many people walk, bike, and connect to multiple transit lines, help form a strong network for all people in our city.