Drivers were confused Friday by a sudden change to two-way traffic on a 16-block section of east 13th and 14th avenues on what had long been one-way streets to reduce congestion on East Colfax Avenue in Denver.

During rush hour in a single five-minute stretch, a Denver Gazette reporter witnessed two cars traveling the wrong way down the newly designated two-way 13th Avenue, headed for downtown. Drivers in the newly single westbound lane on 13th had to shout instructions to errant drivers, allowing them to cross into the correct lane.

Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure had announced the change in a news release Thursday afternoon — as the change was put in place, surprising drivers and some neighbors.

The city was converting the stretch from one-way to two-way “to slow vehicles down and better reflect the existing neighborhood context,” DOTI said in the release.

“East 13^th and 14^th avenues between Quebec St. and Yosemite St. primarily serve the adjacent neighborhood with lower average daily volumes,” DOTI said.

Traffic counts, it said, showed the previously one-way stretches east of Quebec Street handle 3,000 vehicles per day, as compared to 6,000 vehicles as the avenues continue west from Quebec toward Colorado Boulevard and downtown.

DOTI added that it intends to analyze the continued stretch west of Quebec “to implement safety improvements to address speeding, serious crashes, intersection safety and multimodal connectivity.”

That, DOTI continued, would be carried out in support of the recently-passed “Vibrant Denver Bond.”

The conversion, DOTI said, addressed safety and speeding concerns.

“Speed data captured from April to October 2023 found the majority of drive(rs) on these stretches were traveling at greater than 40 miles an hour, while it’s posted at 30 mph.”

A former chief traffic engineer contacted by The Denver Gazette said the decision carries on a series of measures that will add danger to the surrounding streets, rather than improve safety.

Former Denver chief traffic engineer Dennis Royer said that the directional changes along 13th and 14th avenues will only further congest an area that is already seeing traffic spill over from east Colfax Avenue, in the process of a conversion to bus rapid transit that has reduced traffic flow to a single lane in either direction.

As the city carried out the direction switch, the exact parallel stretches of Colfax, a block north, are already narrowed down as the $300 million BRT project unfolds.

In a statement to 9NEWS, DOTI had emphasized that its team communicated with local community groups about the upcoming changes. But on the first day of the change, some motorists appeared unaware of the new configuration. 

Several drivers continued traveling in the left lane as if the road were still one-way, creating tense moments with vehicles proceeding in the opposite direction.

The neighborhood association, the district councilwoman and the Denver police were all surprised by the move, according to a neighborhood statement.

“Neither District 8 Councilwoman Shontel Lewis nor District 2 Police were notified of the timing, so we were all caught off guard,” the association said.

The Denver Gazette’s news partners 9NEWS contributed to this story.