The Downtown Denver Bus Priority Project aims to implement Bus Priority treatments on select corridors identified as transit priority streets in Denver Moves: Downtown and the Denver Bus Priority Network Study, a component of Denver Moves: Transit. The project focuses on treatments that improve the travel times, reliability, and safety of bus operations on downtown streets that carry high volumes of transit passengers and experience significant delays. DOTI has already made investments in Bus Priority on sections of 15th, 17th, 18th, and 19th streets with dedicated bus lanes, and the current work will extend improvements to Blake, Market, Lawrence, and Auraria Parkway. The project will include a range of Bus Priority treatments including bus lanes, expanded boarding areas, and bus stop relocations. A relatively small investment at strategic locations can improve service for thousands of passengers along entire routes. By focusing on Downtown streets that serve several bus, DOTI can act quickly to move more people more efficiently across the City. Bus Priority improvements are a major step towards achieving the vision established in Denver Moves: Transit and achieving the goals outlined in Denver Moves Everyone.
Denver Moves: Downtown recommended transit mobility improvements on the following corridors:
Project initiation and existing conditions documentation occurred in the winter of 2022 into 2023, followed by preliminary stakeholder outreach in summer and fall of 2023. Final corridor recommendations were completed spring of 2024. Design began in spring of 2024 and will conclude in spring of 2025. Construction is anticipated to begin in late fall 2025 or early spring 2026 and is expected to be complete by the end of fall 2026.
The Downtown Denver Bus Priority Project is evaluating the following types of improvements to improve bus reliability, speed, and safety.
This project will move the existing bus lane on Blake Street between 17th and 18th Streets to the leftmost lane, currently a parking lane, to better serve the large volumes of buses turning at this intersection. The new bus lane will also allow left-turning general traffic. The existing bus lane on this block will be converted to parking. South of 17th Street, the bus lane will operate as peak-period-only from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., with parking available from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Additionally, the bus lane will be extended to Speer Boulevard. South of 14th Street, the bus lane will be enforced 24 hours a day.
The final improvement on Blake Street is to relocate the existing 14th Street bus stop further south to eliminate conflicts with the existing driveway.
This project will extend the existing bus lane to the intersection of Auraria Parkway (Market) and Speer Boulevard. Additionally, signal improvements at 17th Street will allow the bike lane to stay along the right curb line throughout the corridor. This upgrade will eliminate the current temporary condition where bikes, cars, and buses merge across each other midblock.
The final improvement on Market Street is to improve the bus stop at 14th Street. The proposed design will create a "floating bus stop" which will allow the bike lane to pass behind the stop. This design will also improve bus efficiency by allowing buses to stay in their lane while passengers board and alight.
This project will create a bus lane on Lawrence Street between 15th and 16th Streets. Since most bus routes on Lawrence turn left at 18th Street, dropping the bus lane at 16th allows flexibility for buses and general traffic to navigate the necessary merges between 16th and 18th.
The final improvement on Lawrence Street is to extend the boarding platform at the 16th Street bus stop to accommodate two buses simultaneously. Bus stacking at this stop was observed during the collection of existing data. With the future Colfax BRT using this stop, extending the platform will prevent further stacking issues.
To join the project mailing list, please complete this form. To contact the project team, send an email to buspriority@denvergov.org.