As the intense June heat radiated off Federal Boulevard’s asphalt, a group of elderly and disabled residents found themselves in the middle of a crosswalk as the light turned green.
“We don’t have a chance to get across,” said Cleo Johnson, a resident of Denver Housing Authority’s Mountain View complex at Federal and Louisiana Avenue. “The walk light only lasts about three seconds and people on a walker or a wheelchair do not have time to cross the road.”
As the group struggled to cross the street on time, Mayor Mike Johnston and his Department of Transportation and Infrastructure appointee, Amy Ford, watched on.
The demonstration’s organizers have been asking the mayor and his staff to come see pedestrian conditions along the busy corridor since he first took office.
“Too many folks who live in this community at Denver Housing Authority have been killed (or injured) just trying to cross the street, get to a clinic, visit a resident here,” said Alejandra Castañeda, an organizer with Pedestrian Dignity.
On the back of a record-breaking year of traffic fatalities, advocates are urging the city’s leadership to take pedestrian safety more seriously. Many said it starts on the city’s major corridors — like Federal Boulevard.
Pedestrian Dignity says pedestrians lack dignity.
Chressa McFarland, a partially blind senior, led the group as they left Mountain View and went north towards Mississippi Avenue. She walked slowly — worried about tripping and falling into the street.
“You have to be careful,” she said. “I go kind of slow and I make sure I pick my feet up and roll down so they don’t stumble-step. Sometimes you stumble-step anyway, especially if the sidewalk is uneven.”
The sidewalk along Federal is often narrow and littered with plastic or broken glass. There’s almost no shade, even at bus stops. Cars speed by, with not much separation between the street and the sidewalk. In certain areas, traffic stretches across seven lanes, with cars blowing past the 40 mph limit.
It isn’t a pleasant walk, especially on a hot summer day, but many residents have to endure it to get to a bus stop or groceries.
Jill Hansen, who uses a motorized wheelchair, said running her weekly errands has become more stressful.
“Nowadays it’s not safe and all that because people don’t pay attention where they’re driving through,” she said.
Denver’s leadership has faced criticism for a lack of urgency on street safety
After the walk, Johnston said the walk was “very educational” for him.
“We saw some things that were working and some things that were not working,” he said.
After watching the crossing light give just 20 seconds to cross Federal at Louisiana Avenue, he asked DOTI Director Ford about possible solutions.
“You helped me realize that there’s some real risk if you get halfway out there and the light starts to change,” he told the group after returning to Mountain View. “And so we’re going to work right away on how we try to adjust that signal timing to make sure that’s easier to get across.”
The Johnston administration has faced criticism from transit and pedestrian advocates about a lack of movement on street safety. Earlier this year, organizations banded together and gave him a D- on a report card for transportation safety, access and mobility since he took office almost three years ago.
Castañeda has been one of those critics.
“I’m hoping (they take this) and (are) thinking, ‘OK, these conditions should not be accepted,’” she said. “But for what I’m seeing right now and hearing right now, I don’t know if this is going to make a difference.”
Johnston said that street safety and Vision Zero are still a priority for his administration, despite their absence from his public goals dashboard. He touted the city’s efforts to rebuild sidewalks and install speed cameras on busy corridors.
“Traffic deaths are absolutely something that we track, we care about and we’re deploying strategies and putting in real resources to combat, so it is a priority for us,” he said.
Bus rapid transit could radically transform Federal.
Ford said the best shot to reimagine Federal Boulevard is through the upcoming Federal Boulevard bus rapid transit project. Unlike the Colfax BRT project, Federal’s will be shepherded by the state’s department of transportation.
While the city and state debate the shape of future BRT projects, Ford said it is the best chance to radically change the corridor’s infrastructure.
Currently, the city’s changes to Federal are piecemeal and relatively slow-moving.
“The work I think that’s being done right now with the federal BRT is a good example of how you try to put all those pieces together from sidewalks to transit to also vehicular traffic,” Ford said.
Still, the project is likely to be controversial. While advocates have applauded efforts to build better transit networks in Denver, many are left skeptical of major street construction due to the years-long timeline of the Colfax BRT project.
Paolo Zialcita
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