By: Pattrik Perez

Posted at 6:19 PM, May 25, 2021 and last updated 11:21 PM, May 25, 2021

DENVER -- Take a drive on Lincoln Street near downtown Denver and you'll notice new -- and some would say -- needed changes.

"The speed is the thing that bothers me the most," Nita Lynch said.

She's lived along Lincoln and Alameda for about 10 years.

"We love the neighborhood," Lynch said.

And like many other places in Denver, it's getting busier.

"This is residential and it's not treated like that. People and their cars treat it like a speedway," she said.

Thanks to a recently-completed safety improvement project by Denver's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, the four traffic lanes north of Ohio Avenue work differently.

On Monday through Friday from 6 a.m.-7 p.m., the far west lane is now a travel lane. Otherwise, it's a parking lane. That caught some drivers, like Deep Badhesha, by surprise this weekend.

"This isn't a bike lane. This isn't a bus lane. This is a parking lane?" he said, recalling his thoughts as he made his way through the traffic on Saturday.

He figured the project would've added a bike line or an actual dedicated bus lane. He's not too happy about the added parking.

"I think the frustration comes from the idea that it's become parking without any other way of movement on that street," Badhesha said.

But others, like homeowner Brittany Spinner, believe these changes will make Lincoln Street safer for everyone.

"The parking is actually going to slow traffic down, which is much needed. It's also going to create a pedestrian barrier for all of the people that walk up and down Lincoln," she said.

The project also updated the travel times for the bus/parking lane on the far east side of Lincoln Street. Only buses can travel on it from 6-9 a.m., an hour more than before. This is the first time buses have dedicated travel times in the evenings here.

Any other time, it's a parking lane.

"Whether it's a parking lane or a transit lane, that means we have fewer lanes for individual cars, which is exactly what makes the streets safer," Jill Locantore, executive director of Denver Streets Partnership, said. "If we're going to achieve the city's goal of getting to zero traffic fatalities, we have to make some serious changes to these streets like Lincoln and Broadway."

Lincoln Street is, after all, on the city's High Injury Network. But change is hard sometimes, and it's even harder to convince people to ditch the car and take the bus.

"We're doing the best we can to find that balance between keeping people moving and keeping all commuters of our roadways safe," DOTI spokesperson Heather Burke said.

You can read more about the department's safety improvement project for Lincoln Street here.

January 23, 2021 - Broadway/Lincoln Street Improvements & Changes Meeting Feb. 24 at 5:30pm Hosted by Denver DOTI

Announcement of Virtual Community Meeting 

Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) will be hosting a virtual community meeting on Wednesday, February 24th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm to provide residents and businesses an update on the exciting mobility and safety projects we have around Broadway & Lincoln from Speer to I25. The projects they will be covering are:

South Broadway & I25 Multimodal Improvements 

South Broadway Protected Bikeway

Lincoln Transit Enhancements & Safety Improvements

South Central Community Transportation Networks

Zoom: bit.ly/BroadwayUpdates  Phone: (888) 475-4499 Conference ID: 848 3179 5789

Written by Amanda Roberts (President Aug. 2020 - Aug 2021)

June 18th, 2020 - We are getting safety improvements!

Tuesday night's meeting with our city planners was a success! The planners listened to our goals to improve the safety on our street and have received funding from Vision Zero to improve the following items (plus more). Refer to the slides for more information.

1) Curb bulb-outs at dangerous intersections

2) Re-timing of lights to slow traffic

3) Daylighting at certain intersections to increase visibility

4) Reduction of Lincoln to 2-lanes during nights & weekends with parking on both East and West side to slow traffic and create a safety buffet for everyone to walk!

5) Lane-line Hardening

6) Addition of bus hours for the evening route in the current dedicated bus lane

7) Pedestrian refuge island at Alameda Ave.

Additionally in the meeting the comments and folks on the call were in significant support of reducing Lincoln St. to two-lanes for cars and one lane for a dedicated bus lane and one for 24-hour parking. If this is something you'd like the city to pursue in the future, I would recommend writing a letter to Jolon Clark to express your interest in long term improvements. We really thank everyone for all of your support and we hope that we can make Lincoln St. even safer in the years to come.

Written by Brittany Spinner (Membership Director - 2020-2021)

MAY 26TH, 2020 -   Announcement:  Lincoln Street Transit Community Meeting

On June 3rd, 2020, The city will be putting on a virtual meeting for the Lincoln Street Transit and Safety Enhancements project. We recently met with a focus group for Lincoln residents. While the design have changed somewhat since the original proposed options, the current proposals from the city still increase the number of motorized vehicle lanes from three to four during the day by removing the current buffet lane (Parking lane). Given that Lincoln is already in the High-Injury network, we are concerned about the negative impact on the vehicle speeds and turning conflicts that this additional open lane could encourage. Cars will still be permitted to enter this extended-hours bus lane to make right turns, as they do on Broadway.

Instead of having all four lanes open for cars and buses to use during the day, we would like to see the city prioritize safety on our street through a reduction of the existing number of travel lanes from three to two, with the bus taking the third lane and parking in the fourth lane.

Lincoln St. Transit Enhancements and Safety Improvements Virtual Public Meeting

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020. 

5:30-7:00pm

Access the virtual meeting at:  bit.ly/LincolnTSE

https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/broadway-mobility/transit.html

We encourage you to take a look at our transit proposal below, which was approved by the WWPNA (West Wash Park Neighborhood Association) board vote on May 5th, 2020 and is supported by other organizations in the city. The Proposal outlines the safety goals that we hope to achieve for our street.

Link to the Lincoln Resident's Preferred Proposal:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10RKm3sbtUq2zASpFQfqypXc0EpP-Q8jF/view

Written by Brittany Spinner (Membership Director - 2020-2021)