Responding to a big drop in car traffic in the neighborhood west of Washington Park, the city of Denver on Tuesday removed a number of traffic lights on the one-way arteries of South Washington and Emerson streets.
The timed traffic lights — which residents say caused drivers to speed up to catch the green lights — will be replaced by four-way stop signs.
South Washington will continue to be a one-way street southbound and Emerson one-way northbound, but their speed limits will be reduced to 25 to 35 mph. Both streets will continue to have parking on both sides, and both will be resurfaced this spring.
“The traffic counts on Washington and Emerson have been declining since 1989 and took a sharp drop when T-REX opened in November 2006,” said Ann Williams, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works. “So the neighborhood is becoming more pedestrian- and bike-friendly.”
The city says the switch from signals to stop signs should make Washington and Emerson safe enough for dedicated bike lanes to be painted this summer along the right sides of both streets.
The dedicated bike lanes will run all the way from Interstate 25 on the south to the bike path at Speer Boulevard/Cherry Creek on the north.
This means bike commuters from neighborhoods surrounding the University of Denver soon will have dedicated bike lanes all the way to Larimer Square and Confluence Park, or wherever they decide to exit Cherry Creek in the downtown area.
Neighborhood activist Charlie Busch, president of the West Washington Park Neighborhood Association, said the next goal is to bring two-way traffic back to Emerson and South Washington, which could take as long as five years.
“We’d also like to see traffic on Logan reduced from 30 to 25 mph,” she said. “And Downing is difficult for pedestrians to cross. So we’ve been thinking of something like bumpouts or extending the sidewalks out to the edge of parked cars at the corners. That might slow down drivers and give pedestrians fewer steps across Downing into the park.”
The traffic lights were removed from the intersections of Washington and First, Virginia, Exposition and Kentucky avenues; and from Emerson at First, Virginia and Kentucky. Four-way stop signs should be in place at all these intersections by tonight, Williams said.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
