When some of our team had the opportunity to visit Copenhagen a couple years ago, we were struck by how the city basically has just two types of streets: 1) Bigger streets with lots of people traveling by different modes, each with its own dedicated space—sidewalks for people walking; elevated, protected lanes for people on bikes; dedicated transit lanes; and lanes for people in cars. 2) Smaller shared streets, where all modes are allowed to mix together, but people walking and biking are prioritized and people drive so slow that everyone feels safe sharing that space, whether they are inside or outside of a car.
In Denver, we got our first taste of shared streets with the pandemic, when the City added temporary barricades intended to dramatically slow down drivers and reduce vehicular volumes on roads like 16th, 11th, and 30th so people would feel safe walking and biking in the street. Community members celebrated this newly found safe space, taking advantage of the opportunity to teach their kids to bike, learn to bike themselves, or just enjoy the more peaceful, neighborly version of the street. Who wouldn’t want to live on a nice quiet block where people drive so slow that parents feel safe letting their kids play in the street?
The City has also begun rolling out more permanent changes to our streets that are intended to function much like these shared streets. They are called Neighborhood Bikeways, but don’t let the name confuse you. Unlike protected bike lanes that the City has installed recently on streets like West 13th and 14th Ave, where people on bikes are clearly separated from people in cars, these types of streets use a variety of design changes intended to slow and discourage traffic and prioritize people not in cars. Similar to the shared streets, Neighborhood Bikeways are outfitted with signage and traffic calming measures such as traffic circles, curb extensions, and diverters to make them more comfortable for people walking, biking and scooting.
35th Ave in Northwest Denver is one of the first streets to receive some design changes intended to transform it into a Neighborhood Bikeway. Since this type of street is new to Denver, the Denver Streets Partnership has been collecting data and community feedback on 35th Ave to assess how well it’s working, and identify additional changes that might help it and other Neighborhood Bikeways fulfill their potential as truly great neighborhood streets. If you’ve travelled on 35th Avenue, take the survey here!