Colfax
Colfax Avenue is a Denver icon, famously dubbed the “longest, wickedest street in America.” For pedestrians, that couldn’t be more true.
Colfax is a thriving community.
Home to many
Colfax is alive with residents recent and native, boasting a long-standing reputation as one of Denver’s most active corridors. From its origins as a trail blazed during the Gold Rush to the multicultural flair of today, Colfax welcomes everyone with open arms.
Diverse offerings
Major transportation corridor
The public buses that traverse Colfax are the most used in Denver’s entire transit system, with the highest boardings per hour. Outside of downtown, Colfax may be the busiest pedestrian corridor in the city. And yet, as anyone who has spent time on the Avenue can attest, Colfax can be an unpleasant and unsafe place to walk.
What makes Colfax so dangerous for pedestrians?
The places where the most people walk, including on Colfax and the areas adjacent to light rail stations, are the least pleasant and the least safe for pedestrians.
Dangerous crossings
High speeds
Poor sidewalk design
The lack of buffers between sidewalks and the street degrades the pedestrian environment. With few exceptions, the sidewalks along Colfax are all “attached,” meaning they are directly adjacent to the street with no buffer.
Colfax Projects
Reimagine West Colfax
The Reimagine West Colfax Celebration was tremendously successful in demonstrating street design elements that could transform West Colfax from a dangerous speedway for cars into a safe, economically vibrant, and livable street for all users.
Over the Colfax Clover
We teamed up with the West Colfax Business Improvement District to launch the Over the Colfax Clover project as an effort to bring together community members and local experts to develop design solutions for an intersection that is currently unsafe and dangerous to navigate for all users.
Lakewood Gulch Wayfinding
Thanks to our partnership with the West Colfax Business Improvement District, there is now multi-lingual wayfinding signage on the Lakewood Gulch! The project, West Colfax Connects, builds on efforts to improve pedestrian mobility to support access to businesses for local residents with the goal to connect West Colfax with surrounding neighborhoods, particularly Sun Valley as it undergoes major redevelopment.
East Colfax Traffic Calming Pop-up
We partnered with Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods and the Bluebird District to improve safety on Colfax Ave using data collection, traffic calming, and pedestrian crossings at Colfax and Madison during the Bluebird District’s annual Tasty Colfax event.
Colfax Walk Audits
Colfax should be a walker’s paradise. It is lined with some of Denver’s most beloved shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, and concert venues. Its status as the busiest bus corridor in the city means it is usually teeming with pedestrians. But Colfax can be an unpleasant and even unsafe place to walk. We’ve audited Colfax from West to East, highlighting the factors that make it so wicked for pedestrians.
Vision Zero Community Art Projects
The Vision Zero Community Art Project, led by by the Denver Vision Zero Coalition, brought together the community along the Colfax corridor to create public art installations that raise awareness of traffic safety and Denver’s commitment to end traffic fatalities and serious injuries as a Vision Zero city.
Colfax Viaduct Project
The DSP is working with the West Colfax BID and community partners, particularly in the Sun Valley neighborhood, on the Colfax Viaduct Transformation Project, focused on the elevated portion of Colfax between the cloverleaf and Auraria Campus to the east. Through this initiative community partners are exploring strategies for redesigning both the top of the viaduct to be more bike, pedestrian, and transit friendly, while activating underutilized space underneath the viaduct to better serve the community.
Related Resources
PRESS RELEASE: West Denver Rising Viaduct Night Market on August 20th
PRESS RELEASE — Wednesday, August 17, 2022 MEDIA CONTACT Jill Locantore, Executive Director, the Denver Streets Partnership jill@denverstreetspartnership.org | 303-895-6376 Community partners to host multicultural event under West Colfax viaduct in celebration of West Denver’s bounty of culture, art, food, and music DENVER — Sun Valley Community Kitchen + Community Center, The West […]
Keep 16th Ave a people first street!
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Denver designated 16th Avenue between downtown and East High School as a Shared Street, designed to deter non-local vehicle trips and reduce speeds to create a safer environment for all ages and abilities to use the street for recreation and mobility. Everyone is allowed to use the 16th Ave. Shared Street, including […]
West Area Plan enters next phase of planning
After over a year of community meetings and surveys, the West Area Plan is entering into the next phase of the planning process. Covering the westside neighborhoods of Barnum, Barnum West, Sun Valley, Valverde, Villa Park and West Colfax, the plan will serve as a guide for the area’s development and transportation over the next […]
From Parking Lots to Patios
We’re supporting our small businesses in Little Saigon, Westwood, and East Colfax in repurposing space from parking to patios. Check out our new video!
CU Denver graduate students to DOTI and CDOT: Here’s how to improve bus stops along 14 bus routes
Urban and Regional Planning grad students assessed bus stops along 14 central bus routes in Denver and found lots of room for improvement.
CDOT’s Safer Main Streets aims to make streets safer for people walking, biking, and driving
Denver Streets Partnership chair Danny Katz is excited that CDOT will invest more than $7.4 million on Federal Boulevard and $10 million on West Colfax to improve streets for people walking, biking, and riding transit.
CDOT Is Trying To Fix Metro Denver’s Most Dangerous Roads
CDOT announced funding for Safer Main Streets projects on Colfax and Federal, and Denver Streets Partnership chair Danny Katz talked to Colorado Public Radio about it.
Colfax Walk Audits
Colfax should be a walker’s paradise. It is lined with some of Denver’s most beloved shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, and concert venues. Its status as the busiest bus corridor in the city means it is usually teeming with pedestrians. But Colfax can be an unpleasant and even unsafe place to walk. We’ve audited Colfax from West […]
Vision Zero Community Art Program
The Vision Zero Community Art Project, led by by the Denver Vision Zero Coalition, brings together the community along Denver’s Colfax corridor to create public art installations that raise awareness of traffic safety and Denver’s commitment to end traffic fatalities and serious injuries as a Vision Zero city. This artwork supports a dialogue among residents, city officials, […]
Antiquated to Elevated: Reclaiming Colfax
Streetsblog Denver: As a result of relatively wide lanes and limited pedestrian crossings, Colfax attracts drivers as one of the City’s main thoroughfares. The ease that comes with traveling Colfax for drivers also equals speed, making this busy street incredibly dangerous for pedestrians. Jill Locantore, Executive Director of the Denver Streets Partnership*, says in an […]
Remembering Tim Campbell With a “Ghost Wheelchair”
WESTWORD – A crowd of friends, family members, neighbors, church peers and safe-street advocates gathered on October 11 to remember Tim Campbell, killed by a driver who ran a red light at the corner of West Colfax and Irving while he was headed to the RTD bus stop in his wheelchair on September 11, 2020. […]
Shared streets advocate hit and killed while crossing Colfax; why was the driver released from the scene?
9NEWS — Some safe streets advocates have questioned whether a driver who hit and killed a man in a wheelchair crossing Colfax last week will face stiff enough penalties. Denver Police tweeted that the driver, Jeremy Compton, 31, of Wheat Ridge, was cited for careless driving resulting in death for failing to stop for a […]