Denver Pedestrian Deaths Up 50%, Advocates Say City Must Do More

For Berkeley-Regis resident Alejandra Castañeda, Denver’s traffic safety policy hits close to home. Her neighborhood has experienced several fatal car crashes over the past year, including 15-year-old Sammy Ruby, who was killed crossing Federal Blvd. last spring, and 21-year-old Salih Koç, who was killed while biking at 38th and Tejon over the summer. Though Denver pedestrian deaths have become increasingly normalized, Castañeda says, the loved ones of victims will always have “a hole in their lives.”

“Everybody knows someone who either was killed, was seriously hurt or was slightly hurt, you know, it happens all the time. But for the families and for the people who actually witnessed what happened, it’s traumatic,” she said, remembering talking to neighbors about Ruby at his memorial. “And then you start forgetting. ‘Oh, it happened again,’ another number in the dashboard, but I still have to get in my car.”

Castañeda, who has lived and commuted in Denver for the past 18 years, is “hyper-aware” of the built environment because she knows what’s at stake.

“Because I walk a lot, I am able to see how long a distance it is for me to cross (the street) and the walking signal, how long it lasts,” Castañeda said. “And I am a fairly mobile person who moves quite quickly. But I (also) see people who might have a physical disability or are holding the hand of a small child, people carrying groceries, older adults taking the bus.”

Castañeda’s safety concerns are backed by sobering data released by the city earlier this month. According to a Department of Transportation and Infrastructure and Colorado Department of Transportation press conference on Oct. 1, 25 pedestrians have been killed in Denver car crashes this year. That’s up 50% from last year, which saw 18 deaths in the same time span. 

“It is breaking our hearts because we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of fatal crashes with pedestrians in Denver and around the state,” DOTI executive director Amy Ford said at the press conference. Though Ford expressed sympathy for the residents killed and voiced commitments to improve pedestrian safety, many Denverites continue to question what the city is doing to make its streets safer.

“(DOTI) says all the right things at the top, where they speak about how they want infrastructure to reflect design so that pedestrians are prioritized and biking and transit is prioritized over cars,” said Mike Heintzman, chair of the Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Committee. “But those priorities don’t always stay the way that they say them at those press conferences, and it’s definitely not backed up in the way that they allocate money and the way that they prioritize projects. There should be way more money allocated to pedestrian safety if it truly is the top priority.”

Ford pushed back on the notion that DOTI’s words didn’t match their actions, saying that she was limited by budget and that DOTI had made lots of progress on “chiller” streets in residential neighborhoods. 

“I recognize that folks would like us to do more,” Ford said, emphasizing that she thought DOTI’s current approach to street safety was headed in the right direction and needed more “additive” measures instead of changes. “We try to make the most effective use of those dollars. Those projects get implemented as quickly as we possibly can.”

Jill Locantore, head of Denver Streets Partnership, saw the DOTI disconnect as an issue of funding and political will and wanted to see more work around Denver’s high injury network, streets with a disproportionate number of traffic-related deaths and serious injuries. 

Despite being just 5% of Denver’s road system, HIN streets see 50% of traffic deaths; they also overlap with what Vision Zero calls “Communities of Concern,” which are home to low-income residents with lower education rates who skew older and have higher rates of disabilities. 38% of all traffic deaths and 44% of pedestrian deaths were in these communities, despite them only accounting for 30% of Denver’s population.

“A lot of the safety measures that they’ve focused on so far have been on quieter neighborhood streets in terms of adding traffic-calming and pedestrian-friendly amenities on those streets, which is good because we want those streets to be safe,” Locantore said. “But they need to focus much more attention on the major arterials that are part of the high injury network. It also requires political will because we are talking about changing the way our streets look and feel, and that inevitably creates some resistance or pushback.”

Locantore pointed to the East Colfax BRT, which will reduce the number of car lanes to provide a turn and bus-only lane, as an example of the types of changes she wanted to see along other arterial roads like Speer Blvd. and Colorado Blvd. Castañeda added that she hoped to see the city invest in more traffic-calming measures like bump-outs, which shorten the length of street crossings, and raised crosswalks, which force cars to slow down by acting as speed humps. She also wanted to see DOTI follow through on its existing transit safety plans.

“We’re backing down from certain projects to accommodate and not inconvenience drivers,” Castañeda said, referencing DOTI’s recent announcement that they are “rethinking” plans to reduce Alameda to two lanes. “We hear it all the time, that all of a sudden a small vocal group comes out in opposition and then the city backs down.”

Vision Zero plan

Pedestrian safety has been on the minds of Denver residents for years, with Denver adopting the Vision Zero plan in 2017 with the goal of eradicating traffic-related deaths by 2030 through street design, infrastructure improvements and by slowing cars down. 

Since adopting Vision Zero, crashes have continued to rise, with serious injuries from crashes peaking in 2023 at 425 compared to 292 in 2017. 2022 saw the highest number of deaths from car crashes at 84, up from 51 in 2017. Last year, 80 people were killed and 410 were seriously injured in car crashes in Denver. This year has seen 58 traffic fatalities as of Sep. 30, slightly ahead of last year’s fall figures.

Ford called the increase in pedestrian deaths “disappointing on a lot of fronts.” She noted that four of the 25 pedestrian deaths happened when people got out of their cars on I-25 or I-70. While Ford added that DOTI “knows where and how crashes happen,” she said DOTI didn’t plan on changing its approach and would instead expand initiatives like its SPEED program, which has been criticized for not addressing root issues like infrastructure.

Since 2017, the city has made some headway in road safety, introducing the Safe Routes to School program, installing 125 miles of bike lanes and building several pedestrian bridges. Much of this was due to projects outlined in the 2017 Elevate Denver Bond, which set aside $431 million for transportation and mobility. 

Some advocates worry that Denver is now moving in the opposite direction—DOTI downsized downtown bike lanes over the summer, and most of the $441 million of transportation funding in this year’s Vibrant Denver bond covers road improvements, with just $3 million reserved for pedestrian safety. The Vibrant bond does not allocate any money directly for bike lanes or sidewalks.

“This is where the political will comes in. Because we’ve seen this administration watering down or even reversing street design changes that are intended to improve multimodal safety,” Locantore said. “We’re a little concerned about the administration’s ability to deliver projects that truly increase safety and transportation options and feel like we really need to hold them accountable.”

Castañeda is conflicted over how she’ll vote on the bond’s transportation plan this November—while she supports promised funding for safety improvements along 38th Ave., a dangerous arterial road in North Denver that’s seen several crashes in her neighborhood over the past year, she doesn’t think it allocates enough for street safety in other parts of the city. She also has doubts about the city’s follow-through.

“Most of these projects are still a cars-first approach to designing a transportation system, but I know a lot of advocates are supportive. They want to see change, and they think that any change is better than no change,” Castañeda said, adding that she was also concerned about how recent city layoffs would affect project timelines. Ford clarified that projects from the 2017 bond would proceed, but that layoffs would force DOTI to extend its timelines on future projects.

Denver commuters still have some things to look forward to. The Colfax BRT is slated to be finished in 2027, and Ford said DOTI is planning to implement the SPEED program, which the city has already initiated on stretches of Federal and Alameda, later this year.

To Heintzman, Denver’s limited jurisdictions and solidly blue voter base, with a willingness to implement higher taxes for things like preschool and sustainability efforts, present a unique opportunity for the city to do more.

“It frustrates me a bit when they have this opportunity to make change and to save lives, and they often opt to not,” Heintzman said. “All cities are dealing with this crisis, but I think Denver definitely is well-positioned to be a leader if they want to be.”

Locantore agreed. Calling Denver transit “woefully underfunded,” she pointed out that the Denver Moves Everyone 2050 plan calls for up to $800 million in annual funding to move everyone “equitably, safely and sustainably” by 2050. Even in uncertain economic times, she said, Denver needs to get with it and invest in its future.

“Traffic fatalities and serious injuries create costs for our city,” Locantore said. “It’s money and it’s political will. If we think holistically, investing in a better, safer transportation system will really pay off in the long term, both for the city at large and for households who don’t have to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year on cars just to live their daily lives. We need to take a long-term view on this. This is a long-term investment that we’re making in our community.”