Wash Park West Residents Divided on Traffic Circles, Road Safety

Residents of West Washington Park are largely split on the installation of concrete traffic circles, also known as roundabouts, in their neighborhood.

In November, several Wash Park West residents reached out to Westword with complaints about the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI), which installed traffic circles to create a neighborhood bikeway in the mostly residential neighborhood, tucked between Washington Park and Cap Hill. However, soon after Westword published a piece on December 1 about their concerns, other residents responded with emails standing up for traffic circles…though plenty of readers were angry with DOTI, too.

“Anything to slow down drivers and boost bike and pedestrian safety is an improvement, in our opinion,” says Wash Park West resident Gabby Robinson. “Even if some people like it but think it’s not good enough, it can always be improved even more in the future.”

The transportation department started posting signs and painting circles to guide the installation of concrete traffic circles along East Dakota Avenue on November 4; workers were expected to finish the project on Friday, December 5. According to residents along East Dakota Avenue, city workers were still pouring concrete and asphalt to form the new circles as of Monday, December 8. More traffic circles are planned or finished for Emerson and Sherman streets, according to DOTI.

Opponents of the new traffic circles said they’ll obstruct large trucks while also making the road uglier without significant safety improvements. Most of those residents were part of an email group of about a dozen people who had been communicating about the progress of the project and their efforts to communicate with DOTI and city leaders. However, some Wash Park West residents believe that opposition is overlooking DOTI’s efforts to reduce speeds along East Dakota Avenue, where kids and families walk to the nearby Lincoln Elementary School and Washington Park.

“These neighbors do not speak for everyone,” says Ian Frasch, who lives near Sherman Street and Exposition Avenue. “I’m very much in favor of the Dakota bikeway and traffic circles, in general, as it creates a safer, calmer street for everyone. I’m really excited.”

Amy Kenreich volunteers as a crossing guard at South Logan Street and East Exposition Avenue for students headed to Lincoln Elementary, several blocks south of East Dakota Avenue. She has “a lot of close calls” with speeding cars zooming past her and kids, and asks people to consider DOTI data showing traffic circles reduce speeds by about 18 percent. She hopes that the traffic circles will make the neighborhood safer for pedestrians, not just along one street, and says that’s why Wash Park West needs them.

“I want more people in the streets, not trucks and cars,” Kenreich, who is also a parent, says. “I am also very aware of that it’s normal for fear to be part of your first reaction to change in your neighborhood, so it’s I think a matter of educating people about why these changes are happening.”

Kenreich is also part of the West Washington Park Neighborhood Association, the registered neighborhood organization (RNO) for the area. She says that thousands of residents receive the newsletter that she writes for the neighborhood, where she included news about the incoming traffic circles.

“The information is out there, but I don’t blame anyone for not knowing about it,” she says. “Even though we send a newsletter to people’s doorstep, we can’t make people read it.”

Carolyn Diana, who lives on East Dakota Avenue and Pennsylvania Street, sees kids walk by her house to go to school, and families and joggers pass on their way to Wash Park. Diana also sees “a lot of near misses,” and says cars have nearly hit her and her dogs when they try to cross East Dakota Avenue. During the most recent brush with danger, she says the driver was “looking at their lap,” and she believes traffic circles will give distracted drivers a reason to look up and pay attention to the road.

“If a traffic circle were in, I don’t think they’d risk looking at their phone. They wouldn’t be able to zone out like that, so I’m very in favor of this,” she says. “My main concern is pedestrian safety. Anything that slows down these cars is good as far as I’m concerned.”

The new traffic circles continue to inspire opposition, as well. In an email to Westword, Wash Park West resident Harry Drabkin described the new traffic circles as “overkill” while DOTI “ignored” intersections where he would have liked to see crosswalks and other improvements, like South Downing Street and East Ohio Avenue, where people traverse into Washington Park.

“Many of these have been placed at low-volume intersections where they weren’t needed,” Drabkin wrote. “Several intersections are too small, especially when making a left-hand turn, and they’re definitely too small for emergency vehicles. Others, however, seem appropriately placed and reduce speed.”

East Dakota Avenue isn’t the only front where Wash Park West residents are fighting for road safety. Residents along East Alameda Avenue, including Kenreich, supported the idea of creating a road diet along the major thoroughfare. Similar to a neighborhood bikeway, a road diet involves reducing the number of lanes on a street to slow traffic and make it easier for pedestrians, cyclists and other non-motorists to share the street with cars. However, residents say Jill Anschutz, who also lives in the neighborhood, used her connections as the daughter-in-law of Colorado’s wealthiest man to pressure DOTI into dramatically scaling back the Alameda road diet.

Wash Park West residents don’t believe this traffic spat will tear the neighborhood apart, though. Residents who responded to Westword‘s first article say they’re friends with people quoted in opposition to the traffic circles. Diana says she’s “good friends” with Pat Wagner, who is a strong opponent to the traffic circles.

“We will still remain good friends regardless of how the traffic circles shake out,” Diana says. “We’ve got neighbors who are for and who are against, and whichever way it goes, no one will hold permanent grudges here.”