East Avenues Safety Study

The Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) conducted a safety study of East 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Avenues between Broadway and Yosemite Street. This study analyzed crash data over a five-year period (2018-2022), user volumes (vehicles/pedestrians/bicyclists), traffic speed data, and community input to develop recommendations for reducing crashes and improving safety on these streets.

Not only have residents and neighborhood groups communicated their safety concerns about these streets to DOTI, but Denver's Vision Zero Action Plan also identifies several segments of these streets as Tier 1 or Tier 2 High Injury Network Corridors. The city studied these corridors to identify recommendations for safety improvements alongside the design of East Colfax Ave. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

The geographic scope of the study area is East 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Avenues from Broadway to Yosemite Street (18th Avenue only from Broadway to York and Josephine Streets). The study focuses on the east-west avenues and their intersections with north-south streets but not mid-block segments of the north-south streets. Study of East Colfax Avenue itself has already been completed as a part of the Bus Rapid Transit design and can be found on the East Colfax BRT project website.

Community member input was collected via map comments, survey responses, and neighborhood meetings that reinforced the concerns that were noticed in the crash history and speed data.

DOTI circulated a Web map and online survey from January 17, 2024 until July 16, 2024 through East Colfax Avenue BRT public meetings, email channels, and Registered Neighborhood Organization meetings. The online survey received 487 responses from 425 participants. Based on crash history, data collection, and community member input, the six primary safety concerns are:

• Broadside crashes at signalized intersections,
• Broadside crashes at unsignalized intersections,
• Crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists,
• High speeds,
• Overtaking turn crashes, and
• Wrong-way (head-on) crashes

This study aims to identify mitigations both pre-existing safety concerns on these streets as well as for potential diversion effects resulting from the East Colfax Avenue BRT service, once in operation.

Traffic data shows that vehicle speeds on Colfax and along parallel streets (13th, 14th, 17th and 18th) occurs today and will continue with or without the BRT project. Investing in East Colfax Avenue BRT allows us to better manage existing challenges and meet future demands by: 

• Creating the capacity to move people more efficiently through the same amount of space. By 2040, the BRT will save bus riders up to 30 minutes of travel time when traveling from Broadway to Yosemite. People community the average trip length of three miles by bus will experience up to 10 minutes of travel time savings. Meanwhile, travel times for people driving on Colfax and parallel streets will increase by three minutes on average.

• Facilitating a shift from vehicles to transit for increased safety, speed, reliability, convenience and environmental benefits. The project's reduction in bus travel times is a significant contributor to the expected bus ridership increase of 24% to 31%. This means that the BRT's weekday transit ridership will exceed 32,000 riders per day by 2040, up from 24,450 in 2019. This will result in 35,000 fewer Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) per day along Colfax and a reduction of 31,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per day.

Visit the East Colfax BRT website to find out more about the benefits of the project.

In total, recommended countermeasures are estimated to cost between $960,000 and $1.2 million. No funding for implementation is yet identified, but DOTI's goal is to find funding to implement as many near-term, low-cost countermeasures as possible - outside of the East Colfax BRT project - but within the same construction timeframe as BRT.

Finally, the study recommends a feasibility assessment of other countermeasures to address remaining uncertainties. Implementation of these countermeasures is contingent on these findings.