Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure could attract a crowd to the Central Library Wednesday when it presents a “neighborhood action plan” that could affect traffic flows through Capitol Hill.

Plans include what the city is calling a “traffic diverter” and “bike and pedestrian enhancements” along East 11th Avenue between Grant and Logan streets. The block-long stretch is where 11th takes an S-curve on its east-west route from residential areas toward Lincoln Street and Broadway, each a major arterial between downtown and I-25.

Like surrounding avenues, East 11th currently carries through-vehicle traffic. But a detailed Civic Center-Capitol Hill Action Plan distributed by DOTI, provided along with the notice for the community open house, shows car traffic choked off between the two streets, with only bikes and pedestrians allowed through.

That has neighbors east of the intersection paying close attention.

“That’s a traffic impairment,” said Steve Weil, who spoke to The Denver Gazette. Weil lives on Humboldt Street near Cheesman Park and drives East 11th daily to his western-wear business Rockmount in Lower Downtown.

Crash analysis

“It serves no purpose except to make it harder to get from A to B,” Weil added.

An intersection crash analysis included by the city with the document appears to show a total of 26 crashes at the two involved intersections over the span of 2018 to 2021. The accidents, according to a graphic, include one pedestrian crash and one serious injury accident. No bike accidents appear to have occurred at either intersection.

Those numbers appear to jive with accident counts for surrounding intersections in Capitol Hill, as well. DOTI’s document makes mention of Vision Zero, the Swedish-designed program to eliminate traffic fatalities, which was widely adopted by U.S. cities including Denver 10 years ago.

“I’ve used that very stretch from age 16 until now and I have never seen a safety issue,” Weil said.

He noted that he has been in contact with the group Neighbors for a Greater Capitol Hill, which had also been in touch with The Denver Gazette and plans to have representatives at the open house.

Vision Zero

The scheduled improvements along East 11th are among others outlined in the Neighborhood Transportation Management program. Also mentioned are curb extensions at East 9th Avenue and Washington Street, bikeway enhancements on Bannock Street between West 9th Avenue and West Colfax Avenue — and additional bikeway enhancements along 11th between Speer Boulevard and Ogden Street.

Visuals accompanying the document appear to show the use of “flex posts” — hite bollards that have been heavily used in previous bike infrastructure projects around Denver.

The meeting on the improvements is scheduled for 5-7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Park View Event Room at Denver Central Library on 14th Avenue at Broadway.