Last year drivers killed 27 people walking and biking in Denver. That’s more than one person killed in traffic every two weeks while just trying to get around the city.

Any plan for safer streets will have to include retrofitting them to prioritize pedestrians and bicyclists and reduce driving speeds. And that goes for the Hancock administration’s Vision Zero plan to end traffic deaths and serious injuries, promised more than a year ago and due out this summer.

In the meantime, the street safety advocates comprising the Vision Zero Coalition are raising awareness of the preventable problem — and remembering the fallen — by holding a Ride and Walk of Silence May 17.

From the website of WalkDenver, which leads the coalition:

Join the Denver Vision Zero Coalition on Wednesday, May 17 6:30 – 8 pm for a Ride and Walk of Silence to commemorate the lives lost to traffic crashes. We will meet at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Franklin Street at 6:30 p.m. From there we will walk and ride bikes into Cheesman Park.

The Ride of Silence is an annual international event to honor cyclists who were killed or seriously injured on public roadways. As cities around the world, including Denver, have adopted Vision Zero policies, there is an even greater awareness around the need to design safer streets to protect the most vulnerable users of the road. In Denver, one third of the traffic deaths are people walking and biking despite being involved in only four percent of crashes.

As part of the campaign, the coalition will also visit the 27 crash sites where people took their last breaths, or sustained the injuries that led to their deaths, and stencil designs onto the street in memoriam.

Register for the Walk and Ride of Silence through the event’s Facebook page.