Colorado Blvd is slated to get Bus Rapid Transit (like light rail on wheels), and it’s the chance to transform the corridor from the grungy, unsafe, miserable semi-highway it is to a people-friendly main street. The options are “Center-running,” where the bus moves in its own lane in the middle of the street (like Colfax is getting), “Side-running,” where the bus moves in its own lane on the sides of the street, or “Mixed Flow,” where the buses move with traffic like they do now.
Right now, leadership at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is signaling support for the “Mixed Flow” option. That’s not real bus rapid transit, it’s just traffic with branding, and it won’t deliver the speed, reliability, or safety this corridor needs. (Plus, they haven’t even heard from the public yet; that’s the point of these open houses…)
On safety, the difference matters. “Mixed Flow” only marginally improves conditions, and as anyone who’s had a near-miss on Colorado Boulevard knows, marginal isn’t good enough. “Mixed Flow” only cuts severe and fatal crashes by up to 15% max, while “Center-running” cuts them by 30%–double the effectiveness of “Mixed Flow.”
Dedicated bus lanes don’t just move transit faster, they make the street safer. Research shows they significantly slow the fastest drivers, dropping top speeds by over 11%, into a range where small differences can mean the difference between severe injury and survival. When you reallocate lanes to transit, you’re not just improving buses, you’re slowing traffic and saving lives. And this is the especially critical part: “BRT-related lane reductions were linked with particularly strong speed reductions; there were 85th-percentile speed reductions of 4.1 mph (12.6%) when general vehicle lanes were removed versus 2.2 mph (7.8%) when lanes were not removed.”
In other words: when you give buses their own lane by taking one from other vehicles, you don’t just improve transit, you slow traffic and save lives.
Now that you know, take action: Attend the open house
May 13, 5-7 pm (drop in anytime)
Clayton Early Learning Center
You don’t need to prepare anything or stay long, though our comment guide has some pointed questions to ask and a sample comment you can adapt. The most important thing you can do is talk to someone on the project team and say you support the “Center-running” design for Colorado Blvd, with bus-only lanes.
Use this link to add it to your calendar so I can send you reminders!
This is a key moment.
If we don’t speak up, “good enough” will win, and Colorado Boulevard will stay fast for drivers, slow for transit riders, dangerous, and unreliable for decades. If we show up, we can deliver a corridor that actually works, for transit riders and for safety.