Death on Denver’s streets; Cars must slow down
Nooneyearnsforanother tragedy to remind us that Denver’s streets should move people safely, not cars quickly. Yet here we are. Again.
Last month, four people on bikes died in crashes across the Front Range, one of them the mother of two young children. And already this year, 47 people have died in Denver, just trying to get from place to place. But the same tired commentariat complains that, if bicyclists on 25 pounds of aluminum and pedestrians in nothing more than a pair of sneakers would stop asking for better treatment and start watching out, the folks piloting two tons of steel would stop killing them.
This is not a peace offering to those complainers. It is a column to galvanize the people who every day worry that a car door will swing open in front of them, who look twice — no,
three times — to see whether that truck will stop before turning right through the walk signal, and who watch as the bike lane disappears into 40 mileper-hour traffic and a painted sharrow shrugs, “Good luck.”
We are dying on Denver’s streets because someone complained that waiting through two red lights is too much to bear and that pedestrian and bike infrastructure will deprive residents of their right to free on-street parking. It is time to reclaim Denver’s streets for people.
The data is clear: speed kills our most vulnerable road users. According to statistics from Denver’s Vision Zero Action Plan, in a 20 mile-per-hour crash, nearly 9 in 10 pedestrians walk away without serious injury. In a 40 mile-per-hour crash, nearly three-quarters of them are seriously injured or killed.
And these crashes disproportionately affect people walking and biking. Pedestrians account for 5% of Denver’s commuters but 38% of all traffic deaths. Bicyclists account for 2% of Denver’s road users but 5% of the city’s traffic deaths. Simply put, as compared to a motorist, pedestrians are 30 times more likely to die in a crash, and bicyclists are 6.5 times more likely. Yet we continue to prioritize speed over safety.
The price of this system designed to move cars quickly is preventable death. And while families grieve, the cost to drivers is almost nothing. Under Colorado’s careless driving statute, killing a person while driving carelessly is a Class 1 misdemeanor, the minimum penalty for which is a fine of less than $500. It costs more to register a new Toyota.
We know how to fix this, and in fact, Mayor Michael Hancock has pledged to do just that: narrower streets, redesigned intersections, grade-separated bike lanes, more crosswalks, and better signal timing, to name few. Last week he ordered speeds to be reduced on a number of roads from 35 mph to 30 mph.
But we cannot simply build our way out of a culture that views 47 dead road users as an acceptable trade-off for arriving at home several minutes sooner.
So let me be clear: we cannot improve life for other people on our streets without concessions from drivers (a group to which I belong). We must accept longer travel times. A 35 mph speed limit on any street with a sidewalk or a bike lane is indefensible. We must give up space on our streets to accommodate people not in cars. A system that provides for free on-street parking but cannot string together even five blocks of a bike lane on Morrison Road or a consistent set of crosswalks on East Colfax is a system insufficiently concerned with safety.
And we must also recognize that operating a two-ton vehicle, especially a truck or an SUV, carries a greater responsibility than does lacing up a pair of shoes for a walk. As soon as we get behind the wheel of a car, our actions take on greater consequence. Whatever your beliefs, I hope you can agree that the cost of a mistake should not be death.
The complainers will push back. They always do. But their vision is outmoded. We are no longer the Denver of the 1970s, where drivers raced between suburban strips and a sea of downtown surface parking lots. We are city of neighborhoods, where cars offer just one of many means of moving about, and where our compassion can extend to all road users. Let’s reclaim our streets for all the people who use them.