Was the city right to back off on its plan to narrow Denver’s busy East Alameda Avenue from four lanes of traffic to just two lanes — settling instead on a plan that eliminates a single lane and leaves two eastbound traffic lanes intact?

Absolutely, said former Denver Chief Traffic Engineer Dennis Royer.

Royer, who is now retired, reached out to a neighborhood group that opposed the city’s “road diet” plan.

“This was tried over 10 years ago and was a massive failure,” Royer told The Denver Gazette recently.

“It did exactly what the neighbors are worried about now, which is rerouting traffic into the neighborhood,” he added.

REROUTING TRAFFIC

Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is back in the headlines after a second group that supports the original, more restrictive lane closure charged that the city, including Mayor Mike Johnston, ignored safety considerations in the redesign, caving to pressure from the opposition.

The city’s original “lane repurposing project” along Alameda would have cut the speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 25, while narrowing a 12-block stretch from South Logan Street east to South Franklin Street from four lanes of traffic to two. The repurposed lanes would be used for dedicated left-turn lanes, where drivers could make safer left turns, without feeling pressure from backed-up traffic.

After plans were announced, the group Action for Alameda sought to counter the proposal, arguing that the action would cause backed-up traffic to spill into the adjoining neighborhoods.

The plan could “create substantial and lasting negative impacts on traffic safety, neighborhood livability, and the vitality of local businesses,” the group wrote to Johnston.

Some 800 co-signers signed the letter, according to supporters.

In November, DOTI announced a compromise plan that would leave two lanes of Alameda’s eastbound traffic intact, while narrowing westbound traffic for a 1-mile expanse from South Humboldt Street to South Pearl Street to a single lane, still providing left-turn lanes that would feed into streets south of the avenue.

Opponents of the plan hailed the compromise. But the revision drew quick opposition from the West Washington Park Neighborhood Association, which charged that the city had compromised safety under pressure.

Among those opposed to the original plan was Jill Anschutz, who lives near the project site and helped to organize a petition opposing the original design. The Denver Gazette’s parent company, Clarity Media Group, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation.

In another development, eight Denver councilmembers wrote Johnston and DOTI Executive Director Amy Ford, calling the original, more restrictive plan “community-vetted” and “evidence-based.”

The plan, they continued, was “designed to reduce deaths and injuries, and was supported by a clear majority of nearby residents.”

MAYOR SUPPORTS COMPROMISE PLAN

Jon Ewing, the mayor’s spokesperson, wrote The Denver Gazette, refuting the charge that the city’s top political leader had been influenced in changing the plan.

“Mayor Johnston was not involved in conversations regarding the Alameda project,” Ewing wrote.

“However, we are supportive of DOTI’s efforts to better protect pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers on Alameda without the unintentional effect of new and significant safety issues on side streets,” the mayor’s office said.

“Lost in this conversation is that this is a compromise in the truest sense of the word,” Ewing said. “It satisfies requests on both sides without giving either entirely what they asked for. DOTI has explained its reasoning in exacting detail, and we are confident this direction is in the city’s best interest.”

Ford of DOTI also responded to the allegations, writing the councilmembers that community response to the project, when it was introduced in 2024, had been mixed, “with half of the community supporting the project and the other half sharing concerns about the project’s impacts.”

As a community debate continued into last summer, Ford wrote, DOTI reviewed the plan.

“We have a strong history of incorporating public input into our projects,” Ford continued, citing a similar process in a number of neighborhood projects.

She denied an organization’s allegation that DOTI had instructed a traffic engineer not to reanalyze crash risks that might result from revisions to the project.

“We are committed to continuing that public engagement and will conduct an additional safety review and analysis as we progress design on the project,” Ford added.

All sides of the issue — neighbors who support or oppose the full two-lane closure, as well as city officials — each said that safety is their primary focus in the controversy.

The former chief traffic engineer, however, said neither the original nor the compromise solves the ongoing problems on what forms one of only a few east-west connections through the heart of the city.

“Find me another east-west thoroughfare you can drive on,” Royer told The Denver Gazette.

Royer added that he served 15 years as the city’s chief traffic engineer and headed traffic and public works for the city of Boston for another four years.

“This area is devoid of traffic capacity,” Royer continued. “They’re just chasing traffic off the arterials.

“The compromise Ford negotiated is a good proposal. In this segment, you really need two eastbound lanes. You at least have a left-turn lane that allows cars to pull out of traffic and gives a refuge for pedestrians halfway across.”

Royer is critical of the entire recent direction that DOTI has taken when it comes to street infrastructure, including the deployment of bike lanes and dedicated bus rapid transit lanes in major corridors.

VISION ZERO

“None of the people there now understand any of the history,” Royer said. “They just want to push this Vision Zero bull***t.”

Vision Zero is a widely adopted campaign started by Sweden 29 years ago to reduce traffic fatalities to zero. Denver adopted the program 10 years ago and cites it prominently in its web information concerning traffic safety.

Royer noted that Vision Zero’s performance in reducing accidents and deaths has not been supported by accident data either here or in other major American cities. 

The city, which identifies the section of Alameda Avenue as a “high injury network,” includes accident information on its website that supports neighbors’ concerns about traffic diversion onto side streets. From 2021 to 2024, some 59 accidents were reported on East Virginia Avenue, a side street two blocks south of where Alameda would undergo proposed changes. 

Nine of those accidents happened at Virginia and South Downing Street, a residential intersection at the northwest corner of Washington Park. Included were accidents involving two pedestrians hit in a crosswalk by left-turning vehicles, and two involving bicycles.

Nanci Ricks, a neighbor who spoke with The Denver Gazette early in the contretemps over the safety of Alameda and its side streets, said the pushback against the city’s compromise plan is irritating for those who had stood up against the original, full two-lane closure.