DENVER You could feel it through the screen.At the most recent Department of Transportation Infrastructure (DOTI) advisory board Zoom meeting on Nov. 18, Denver road-safety advocates took turns expressing anger and frustration to the departments Director Amy Ford over DOTIs sudden reversal in what had been a finalized plan to make a portion of Alameda Avenue between Franklin and Lincoln streets safer.It was just days after the city announced it was sidelining the road diet plan, reversing course on creating a turn lane in both directions to go in favor of a slimmed down approach.The original Alameda Lane Repurposing plan would have reworked the four-lane road to two lanes with a dedicated center turn lane along with buffer space between the street and curb.The new design includes some of the elements of the original plan.The speed limit will still be reduced from 30 to 25 miles per hour while DOTI would add marked crosswalks, striped medians and pedestrian refuge islands. The new plan would keep the two eastbound lanes as is while changing one westbound lane to a series of turn pockets between Franklin and Pearl Streets.Its one of Denvers high-injury corridors that DOTI had for years studied and engaged with the public to find a solution.TRUST IS BROKEN  Community members spent years giving up their weeknights, their time, they organized, they advocated, they filled out surveys, said DOTI Advisory Board Member Jake Cohen, who represents District 10. They (community members) met with DOTI, the DOTI staff talked about congestion studies and then said they didnt have concerns.He called the Alameda reversal a repeat of what we did on 29th Avenue, 17th you can argue its a repeat of Blake and Market. This is bad governance.Cohen was referencing other road safety projects in which advocates believe DOTI pulled back or altered original plans that benefited vulnerable road users due to pushback from some in the community over parking spaces and aesthetic reasons, among other logic. We have asked people to show up to public meetings, give their time and give honest feedback. If this is how were going to operate, we should just stop holding public meetings because its not fair to the citizens of the city, said a visibly upset Cohen, who added, Trust is broken.This is disrespectful to the citizens of the city, period. I think we can say we made design changes that were better or not we can debate that all day but I think its OK to say we (DOTI) messed up, this was not right. Thats where the trust is broken. Director Ford took hard questions and criticism from the advisory board in that meeting, as she often does in public, including most recently at a West Washington Park Neighborhood Association meeting.In that DOTI advisory board meeting, advocates werent happy with her answers.I understand what youre saying when you say that public feedback comes in a lot of different ways, replied Ford. During this process it came through our design process, it came through the public meetings and it continued to come through this summer. I would suggest that its thoughtful for us to create an open environment where we listen, where we engage, where we talk, where we look carefully at ourselves.The advisory board, which is made up of six mayoral appointees and 13 city council appointees, was approved by voters and formed in 2020. As part of its bylaws, the DOTI Advisory Board is made up of community members tasked with advising the city on projects and providing feedback and guidance on strategic plans as Denver works to achieve a vision of zero traffic deaths by 2030.According to Denvers Vision Zero dashboard, there have been 81 traffic deaths this year.WHY ALAMEDA NEEDS CHANGE In targeting Alameda for improvements, DOTI said of its original design that it was a priority because of 311 community concerns. When the corridor was analyzed, preventable crashes (rear ends and turning vehicles) were higher in this section than DOTI would like to see. Upon further analysis, these crashes were a result of speeding and lack of left turn lanes.Drivers get T-boned, other drivers get rear-ended, and still others get frustrated waiting behind a vehicle in the left lane while the turning driver ahead attempts to dart across the other 2 lanes of opposing traffic to avoid getting hit.Speeding is especially a problem on this corridor and theres little room between the street and sidewalk, adding to the anxiety of any pedestrian walking along Alameda.DOTI said there have never been plans for a bike lane.The department arrived at the plan to repurpose the Alameda lanes through a years-long process of study and community engagement, which eventually led to construction notices shared in April with Wash Park neighbors and business owners announcing that construction was set to begin in the summer.Here's a link to that letter.We basically put a dear neighbor letter on all the residences that line Alameda and we went face-to-face and met with businesses as well, several business owners, said Molly Lanphier, DOTI strategic communications liaison, in a YouTube video posted earlier this month explaining the rationale behind its decision to change course.DOTI said business owners had no issues.All of the business we met with at this point it was more of an informational meeting at this point we did not hear any opposition to what the plan was for the full reduction, the department said.So, with construction notices posted, the plan was finalized until it wasnt. On Nov. 7, DOTI issued the press release announcing the original plan had been scrapped in favor of partial lane repurposing, a Plan B, which would only rework a westbound lane from Pearl Street to Humboldt Street to create the center turn lane while maintaining the current configuration of the two eastbound lanes.Providing left turn lane pockets on this stretch is anticipated to reduce vehicle crashes. Vehicle volumes on Alameda Ave. are lower westbound compared to eastbound, so the potential for congestion and traffic diversion is lower with the lane repurposing in the westbound direction, while the addition of turn lane pockets will increase safety, wrote DOTI in the news release that was titled: DOTI Listens, Responds to Community Input on Alameda Lane Repurposing Project.DOTI said keeping the two eastbound lanes would reduce the potential for congestion eastbound and diversion to the side streets.DOTIs Lanphier in that YouTube video said both the full and partial lane reductions designs offered good potential for crash reductions saying its relatively the same percentages although that data wasnt provided.In its reasoning for the original full lane repurposing approach, DOTIs website originally asked: Why a Lane Reduction? to which it gave the answer: According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, reducing the number of lanes on a multi-lane roadway can reduce crossing distances for pedestrians and slow vehicle speeds. Reducing from four to two lanes and including center left turn lanes is shown to reduce crashes 19-47%.So, in a year in which advocates have already expressed concerns at some of DOTIs moves, the Alameda Lane Repurposing Project reversal left some on DOTIs advisory board, which fully supports the original plan, questioning their efforts to the point of one resigning and others thinking about it.Board member Aylene McCallum, who represents District 4, openly questioned in that November Zoom meeting whether her efforts on the board were making any difference at all.What I am frustrated about is going back on the public process that these advocates participated in they did everything by the book. That was undercut by a small group of individuals who had a lot of money. To me, it seems like they just decided were not going to participate in this public process unless it gets too bad and we dont like it and then well just pay for someone to come in and go around it. Thats what it feels like thats what it feels like happened, said McCallum.She was referring to a Denver resident with a well-known name.WHEN THE ORIGINAL PLAN STARTED TO CHANGE In the case of the Alameda Avenue revision, proponents of the full lane design argue the change was less about what the data showed and what the greater community thought and more about how influence with resources appeared to some advocates to circumvent DOTIs public engagement process.Its a claim DOTI Director Ford has vehemently denied.In June, DOTI said it met with a small group of neighbors opposing the design and then in July it received a petition with 300 signatures opposing the project by a group called Act for Alameda, spearheaded by Jill Anschutz, who lives nearby off Alameda on the east side of project.Anschutz is a prominent name in Colorado. Jill Anschutzs father-in-law is Philip Anschutz, the states wealthiest man with a net worth of $16.9 billion, according to Axios.The Denver Gazette, part of The Anschutz Corporations business holdings, has published articles on the Alameda project.As the summer progressed, the once-finalized full lane repurposing plan began to fall apart. Community sources provided Denver7 with CORAd emails in which Anschutz in June wrote to DOTI Director Ford expressing concern about the Alameda Lane Repurposing plan.She wrote that she had not heard of the plan, that she talked to dozens of residents in this area and not a single person is aware of the plans. She feared reducing lanes on Alameda Avenue would increase dangers on adjacent neighborhood streets.Now that DOTI has repurposed a number of lanes in other residential areas, people in those communities report that frustrated drivers divert to their quiet residential streets. Often these drivers who divert drive aggressively to vent their feelings about the change in the traffic patterns. There is so much pedestrian traffic throughout these residential cross-streets. It would be an error to divert traffic there, Anschutz emailed Director Ford.RELATED: DOTI 2020 YouTube video presenting Washington Park Alameda Traffic Study outcomeIn a September Zoom interview with Denver7 and before the full lane repurposing plan was publicly axed, Anschutz expressed some of those same concerns including the fear that reducing a lane in each direction on Alameda would lead to more issues.We think that if you make congestion a lot worse, you frustrate drivers and you force them into these neighborhood streets that are narrow and are highly used by kids and pedestrians, and that's what we mean by we think you're just going to create new safety issues rather than really completely resolving the concerns, said Anschutz. In those CORAd emails from the summer, she wrote to Director Ford that she was concerned about unintended safety risks and was shocked to see that DOTIs plans anticipate that traffic from Alameda will divert to Virginia Avenue as a result of the changes and DOTI does not see this as an issue. Virginia Avenue is a quiet, residential street that is adjacent to one of our citys busiest parks, Wash Park. This street lacks the infrastructure needed to safely handle increased traffic volumes. I am extremely concerned about new safety issues for pedestrians, cyclists and park-goers if there is more traffic on Virginia Ave. Id anticipate that this will require future intervention by DOTI.Through its study and design process, DOTI did take into account the potential impacts to Virginia Avenue from drivers who might bail on Alameda, according to a July 16 email from a DOTI project manager to Jason Gallardo.Gallardo is a lobbyist hired by the group opposing the design who previously worked in DOTI as a former deputy chief of staff. DOTIs Molly Lanphier wrote to Gallardo that we are taking the neighbors concerns very seriously and assessing what we can do to address some of the concerns they brought up. We are currently briefing DOTI leadership and hope to share more about our next steps by the end of July.Lanphier replied to Gallardo with answers to questions including the Alameda Lane Repurposing Projects impact to side streets:Will this project cause an increase in congestion on side streets, like E Virginia Ave and E Bayaud Ave? Based on DOTI's analysis, the impact to side streets will be minimal; no more than 10% of vehicles will reroute throughout the entire day. A diversion analysis was conducted and anticipates that Virginia Avenue will experience approximately 490 additional vehicles per day, which translates to ~1-2 vehicles per minute.In terms of congestion impact on Alameda, DOTI anticipated the following impacts, according to a recent powerpoint presentation. Full Lane Repurposing: Worst case scenario is an extra is an extra 1.5 minute travel time on a 3.5 minute trip Partial Repurposing: Worst case scenario is an extra 20 second travel time on a 3.5 minute tripAfter engaging with DOTI and its leadership, a letter from Act for Alameda signed by Jill Anschutz and with 300 signatories was sent to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on July 31.The letter cited congestion concerns about the impacts of reducing lanes on Alameda to include likely causing severe backups during peak hours but the letter did not provide data supporting that claim.Current traffic and safety data does not support the need for a major redesign. These changes appear to be driven more by theoretical modeling than by demonstrated issues on the ground, the letter stated.COMMUNITY RALLIES FOR ORIGINAL DESIGN As Anschutzs Act for Alameda group was pushing back, other voices in the community began rallying for DOTI leadership to stick with the full lane reduction proposal.A group called Safe Alameda was formed to petition the city to return to the road diet design.Residents took to the streets, including Jamie Rooney and Tatiana Specter, who have spent many hours along Alameda Avenue with signs trying to grab the attention of drivers.I live at the corner of Alameda and Franklin. I work in Baker, so Alameda is my preferred method of going to work if I'm not cycling in the spring, in the summer or early fall, Rooney told Denver7. We were going to go from four lanes down to three with a designated center turn lane. That would have addressed both of my main concerns.He noted that on Alameda, delivery drivers unloading trucks will often park on the side of the road near businesses creating more backups and stress. When Denver7 interviewed Rooney, a truck was parked in the right lane outside of a business causing traffic to stack up and leaving drivers caught in intersections when the light turned from green to red. It would have addressed the trucks unloading because they could stage in the center lane and traffic can flow, he added. Now to pull the plan back and say, Well, we're going to leave eastbound the two lanes all the way up you're now putting the people who are going westbound that need to make a left turn into a more dangerous situation because then they have to cut across two lanes. And the people that are going east only have to do the one. It's a two-year delay and $100,000 more in taxpayer funds. We should go with the first plan. The money's already there, what's already accounted for, and it's safer."Huge impact to the traveling public"A voice leading the charge for the original full plan is Amy Kenreich. She is a Denver road-safety advocate, a crossing guard and Washington Park neighbor and previously served on the West Washington Park Neighborhood Association.Kenreich believes, based upon federal standards, that the road diet plan on Alameda Avenue is the safest option.During that November DOTI Advisory Board meeting, she laid out her concerns.In terms of congestion impacts: The volumes of traffic on Alameda are well under 25,000 vehicles per day, which makes it a perfect candidate for a four to three lane conversion, according to the Federal Highway Administration, said Kenreich. At a 2020 public meeting, DOTI engineer Brett Boncore explained the results of DOTIs traffic study. We see from 3,800 to 10,000 vehicles per day each direction. As a note, even in the segments where we see close to 10,000 vehicles per day, thats in the realm of what we expect one vehicle lane to handle, meaning this is a perfect candidate for a four- to three-lane conversion. It should not cause queuing and congestion. Were well under the 25,000 limit.Then, Kenreich joined others at that November meeting questioning the reasons why the original plan was halted in the first place.In September, Director Ford told this board, The project is moving forward I would anticipate the construction happening early next year. I printed that in our newsletter because I do the newsletter for the neighborhood association here that goes out to 17,000 people. Then a few days after the election, after the bond passed, DOTI announced that they are listening to the community and have made major changes to the design of the project. We all know whose voice you are listening to.Kenreich added: Its not OK to ignore your own data and pretend one persons fears about congestion didnt play a leading role in your decision. Director Ford acknowledged the frustration of board members but pushed back against that assertion. She said while community feedback continued to pour in over the summer, ultimately the project start was paused because of construction already happening on Alameda.That is not what happened. So just super clear, and I said this to you guys in September, we paused this project on the construction side per my request because this had nothing to do with a lobbyist. I hadnt talked to anyone this was a month or so before any of that, Ford said in November. Because we had multiple construction projects happening in this area all at the same time and is a huge impact to the traveling public.Director Ford told DOTIs Advisory Board meeting in September: The Alameda repurposing project is not on hold, its continuing to move forward and finalize the design and evaluation of that. The thing that did pause on that I did ask a few months ago actually that we pause the project just for a little bit as we were moving through the construction due to the fact that we had construction moving on Alameda underpass and wanting to settle in on that as far as traffic patterns and those kinds of things and not wanting to double up a second major construction project right on Alameda.Ford reiterated DOTIs objectives, which included reducing crashes on Alameda, addressing high injuries that we see on the corridor and making improvements to vulnerable road user safety. Back to that September interview with Denver7, reporter Lauren Lennon asked Jill Anschutz what she had heard from the city regarding her campaign against the original plan and if she thought it was having an impact.I really don't have any news on that front. We have not heard anything recently from the city about whether they plan to respond to us with some kind of reconsidering or more public engagement. So, I don't really have an update of what the city's thinking, said Anschutz in September.Whether or not Anschutz knew in September, a decision had already apparently been made inside DOTI to go with the concerns of Act for Alameda to rework the original full lane repurposing plan, according to internal emails.An Aug. 14 email shared with Denver7 through a CORA request between a DOTI engineer and the outside engineering firm stated in part:Wanted to reach out to you regarding the Alameda Lane Reduction project. We have been working with leadership to triage some high level community and leadership concerns with constructing the project and recently received clear direction on a path forward. After evaluating different options for moving forward in light of community and leadership concerns, we have decided to move forward with a partial lane reduction (i.e. lane reduction only in the WB direction). This will constitute a redesign of the project but aligns with the initial idea that we started this project with. That apparent internal decision happened almost three months before DOTI publicly announced the change and while the department continued to engage with the public on the project.As for where the project stands as of early December, DOTI says the partial lane reduction design phase is expected to run through June 2026 with construction anticipated from November 2026 to September 2027.Community members in favor of the full lane concept continue their fight, including members of the West Washington Park Neighborhood Association who, on Thursday, held a press conference announcing they have a petition with nearly 1,000 signatures the majority of which they said come from residents in the West and East Washington Park neighborhood. You can watch Denver7 reporter Colin Riley's coverage of the press conference in the video player below. Neighbors continue protesting Denvers change to Alameda safety projectIn anticipation of that press conference, Denver7 reached out to Anschutz for an interview. She replied back:While my name might stand out, this is not about me its about hundreds of neighbors and businesses who are concerned about negative unintended consequences from the initial design of the Alameda Lanes Repurposing Project. I refer you back to DOTI for specifics about the plans and data. Over the last 24 hours, Denver7 reached out to DOTI, which shared the following statement:There are people in our community both for and against our current plans to repurpose one vehicle travel lane on Alameda Avenue westbound from approximately Pearl St. to Humboldt St. to create dedicated left turn pockets along this stretch. DOTI is moving forward in developing revised design plans that will improve safety on the corridor with treatments that address the types of crashes we are seeing (primarily left turn and rear end crashes), and we believe this design will be effective in reducing crashes within the range the FHWA estimates we can expect for road diets. We believe the direction we are headed will also increase safety for pedestrians and people on bikes by continuing the crossing improvements weve planned, and by reducing the potential for eastbound vehicle congestion and diversion to the side streets south of Alameda where we are building out our bikeway network.  Weve also added to the project safety measures that further protect pedestrians and cyclists along Virginia Ave. Any assertions of lying or failing to consider crash data in our decision are inaccurate. Last week, Denver7 continued to press DOTI for answers to community questions. Heres what we asked: When was the decision made to go with the readjusted plan? Was DOTI engaging with the community (on both sides) between August and November about potentially changing from the original design, while internally, that decision had already been made? What will be the cost to taxpayers for the redesign What does DOTIs leadership think is a solution to help repair what some in the community have called broken trust especially in the public engagement process?A DOTI spokesperson responded back:The Alameda Lane Repurposing Project was initially delayed due to other projects occurring in the area. We began meeting with neighbors in June and started an evaluation process in August, coordinated with Kimley Horn as you note.  More detailed information can be found here [denvergov.org] in the webinar and slide presentation. Final decisions on the project were made in late October/early November. The total budget is approximately $575,000 which includes an estimated $100,000 for redesign. This is a combination of resources, including RISE bond as well as Vision Zero. We will continue to engage with the community, city council office and registered neighborhood organizations during this process.There was no response back on the question about "broken trust." On Thursday, Denver7 again reached out to DOTI to answer some questions following the West Washington Park Neighborhood Association press conference.In regards to their petition with 1,000 signatures, DOTIs Molly Lanphier told our reporter Colin Riley: We have looked at the petition. We don't feel at this time the petition is telling us any new information.The neighborhood association intends to deliver that petition to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.Denver7 emailed Director Ford on November 19 requesting a long form interview to produce a half-hour program, giving DOTI an in-depth opportunity to talk about the Alameda project and its overall goals over the next year. We have not heard back. Whatever ends up happening on Alameda Avenue, there remains one problem that likely wont be solved with data, concrete and painted lines.While some Denver road safety advocates say they believe in DOTIs ability to make Denvers roads safer for all users, they continue to struggle with feelings of broken trust.One thing that I know about DOTI is that there are truly wonderful people in DOTI. There are wonderful planners. The planners that I have met are some of the most phenomenal people Ive ever met. They care about the city and they dedicate so much time to the city. There are wonderful engineers that give so much to the city and they spent years on this process, said DOTI Advisory Board member Jake Cohen in November. My sincerest advice to the department would be to stop explaining and say Youre sorry and start listening. Im telling you people are hurt. People on this board are hurt thinking about quitting this board and there are people in the community that are really hurt. Instead of explaining it, I think its just time to say, Were sorry, this was not handled the best way.If theres anything that ties the different sides together in this debate, its that no matter if you drive on, walk by or ride near Alameda Avenue, many believe it doesnt feel safe."DOTI needs to take the time" During that same meeting, Chris Nicholson, who sits on RTDs Board of Directors and represents District A, offered what could be a potential solution to a public trying to figure out which path forward is best.He urged DOTI to take a pause and give the public time to process both the full and partial Alameda Lane Repurposing Plans before making a final decision.If it were just up to me, I'd pick the original design but thats because I don't drive and the original design is better for pedestrians. But it isnt just up to me. The process intentionally cares a great deal about what the neighborhood and the broader community thinks. And DOTI needs to take the time to let people consider and weigh in on the two options side-by-side, rather than simply moving forward with the new proposal as a compromise, said Nicholson. Failure to give both plans equal public scrutiny will lead rightfully to distrust and the perception that city government has been rigged to benefit the rich. To be clear, I don't believe thats the case here. I think DOTI staff are just doing their best to balance a ton of competing interests. But I get how it looks.What's your take on the project? Are you in favor of the full or partial lane reduction plan? Share your voice in the form below.Denver7's Ryan Fish contributed to this report. ...read more read less