DENVER — The Cherry Creek Trail along First Avenue sees more than 600,000 people every year.
“It’s always been a main corridor, so there is always traffic, especially at rush hour,” said Lynn, a Denver resident.
The City of Denver plans to revamp 1st Avenue between Downing Street and University Boulevard, the stretch that the Cherry Creek Trail runs along.
“It’s only a matter of time, if it hasn’t happened already, for a car to be coming up on the sidewalk,” said Zach Page, a Glendale resident.
A study by Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) reveals that 31 crashes occurred in the Cherry Creek neighborhood between 2017 and 2021, causing either fatal or severe injuries.
DOTI said the Cherry Creek neighborhood is one of the fastest-growing areas in Denver.
“The improvements that we are looking to make are really intended to support that growth and development as we look to the future,” said Sam Piper, DOTI planning manager.
DOTI plans to widen the Cherry Creek Trail from eight feet to 12 feet and add a tree lawn on the south side of 1st Avenue.
“What we have planned now is 12 feet, which is Denver Parks & Recreation standard for this kind of trail,” Zacharias said.
“The tree barriers would help because that would give us a little bit more protection on the sidewalk,” Page said.
In order to add a tree lawn along the trail, the center median would need to be reduced. Some are worried about the current trees along the center median.
“We need all the trees we can get in the city,” Lynn said.
Some of the trees in the current center median will be impacted, according to DOTI.
“If we go forward with the project as planned, there will be some trees that will be impacted, but we are also adding trees to the south side of 1st Avenue, and the estimates that we have right now have us creating a larger tree canopy in total than we have now,” said Kayla Zacharias, DOTI associate city planner.
While all lanes will remain, DOTI said the redesign is intended to accommodate a potential future Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane in both directions of traffic if one is added.
“Bus Rapid Transit can take many different configurations. In some circumstances, it is lane dedication. In others, it’s mixed flow," Piper explained. "We haven’t done that level of analysis to really determine what BRT would look like along this section of the corridor."
“We wanted to retain all the traffic lanes that we have, just in case a future lane is dedicated to BRT," Zacharias added. "The BRT study hasn’t been completed yet, so we don’t know if there will be dedicated lanes or not."
The project has funding to complete 30% of the design phase.
“We don’t have funding to complete the design, so we are not quite sure on a cost estimate yet," Zacharias said.
Video extra: In the player below, take a look at a cyclist's perspective on the Cherry Creek Trail along a busy 1st avenue before the proposed changes.
What the Cherry Creek Trail looks like at 1st Avenue before proposed changes
DOTI said the project team has been actively engaging with the community and plans to go back out to the public next month to gather feedback on the preliminary design.
Another part of the project aims to make safety improvements at the intersections of Downing Street and University Boulevard along First Avenue. For a detailed look at the project, click here.
