David Sachs
David cut his teeth covering transportation, development, politics, education, and art in D.C. He's covered sustainable transportation for Streetsblog since 2015 and has lived in Denver's Cheesman Park neighborhood since 2012.
Recent Posts
Denver, Where Golfing Is More Important Than Walking
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Along Sheridan Boulevard, next to the immaculately manicured Willis Case Golf Course in Berkeley, is a strip of dirt and shrubs, inches away from speeding traffic, that Denver Parks and Recreation expects people to use as a sidewalk. Walking isn’t much better on the other side of the street, where the sidewalk is either nonexistent or just a few feet […]
A Driver, Not a Car, Killed Colleen O’Connor. It Was a Crash, Not an Accident.
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Colleen O’Connor’s family, friends, and Denver Post colleagues are remembering her 60-year-long life after a driver named Jesus Carreno, 23, ended it Wednesday night on 1st Avenue near Downing Street. Her death marks the ninth pedestrian killed this year by a driver in Denver. O’Connor recently wrote about street improvements on Broadway meant to make […]
Councilman Kevin Flynn Votes Against Denver’s Red Light Camera Program
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Despite marked reductions in red light running and crashes since Denver PD began enforcing the law with unmanned cameras in 2008, City Councilman Kevin Flynn isn’t ready to commit to the program long-term. He voted against a new contract with Xerox, the contractor Denver PD uses for the program, at a committee meeting on safety […]
Streets That Encourage Speeding Are Streets That Encourage Drag Racing
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An unidentified 17-year-old kid without a drivers license killed Nicholas Richling, 26, because he wanted to drive as fast as possible — faster than his drag-racing opponent — on Alameda Avenue on Sunday evening. Afterward, Denver PD Sgt. Mike Farr, a crash investigator, pointed to a street design that encourages speeding. “Alameda is a straight […]
Redesigning Broadway and Lincoln: Just the Latest Version of Evolving Streets
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Denver’s streets are changing. City planners are converting one-way speedways into two-way neighborhood streets, prioritizing transit with more dedicated bus lanes, and installing more protected bike lanes. Meanwhile, City Council members seem to be taking people’s demands for sidewalks citywide seriously. These changes don’t make everyone happy. The public’s limited street space “belongs” to cars, many […]
WalkDenver Audit Quantifies Difficulty of Walking on East Colfax
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A third of the people traveling along East Colfax Avenue and surrounding streets are walking, taking transit or biking, but that doesn’t mean the streets are well-designed for anything other than driving a car. Now, there’s data to prove it from a recent “walkability audit” by WalkDenver. The report quantifies what many people already know about the […]
After I-25 Was Widened, It Filled Back Up With Cars in Less Than 5 Years
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Colorado spent $1.2 billion to widen I-25, and all it got was more traffic and no congestion relief. Why does Governor John Hickenlooper think that widening I-70 will be any different? In this chart, you can see why spending billions to widen highways is a shortsighted, ineffective way to deal with people’s travel needs. About two years after the […]
Meet Denver’s First Full-Time Pedestrian Planner
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Mayor Michael Hancock made room in this year’s budget to hire Denver’s first full-time pedestrian planner, and Denver Public Works recently filled the post. His name is David Pulsipher. Pulsipher comes to the Mile High City from the Chicago Department of Transportation, where he headed up a program focusing on pedestrian infrastructure near Chicago’s 1,500 […]
Eyes on the Street: Colorado Boulevard Gets a New (Obstructed) Sidewalk
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Last month Streetsblog published a photo of the east side of Colorado Boulevard, where a half-mile strip of overgrown jungle grass was posing as a sidewalk. Bus stops with no pedestrian infrastructure abutted Park Hill Golf Club, a private course with immaculate walking and driving paths just a few feet away from the public right […]
It’s Official: Denver City Council Values Parking More Than Housing
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What’s more important: Providing sufficient housing for Denver residents, or cramming more car storage into the city? With a unanimous vote on Monday to temporarily ban new small-lot developments without off-street parking, the Denver City Council has prioritized car storage over places for people to live. The decision undercuts the City Council’s top two stated priorities: creating a less […]
If Colorado Doesn’t Spend Smarter on Transport, It’s Going to Choke on Cars
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Investing in transit, walking, and biking infrastructure has never been more urgent in Colorado. With the state’s population projected to grow by 2.4 million by 2040, Colorado will choke on its growth unless Governor John Hickenlooper and state and local leaders change course, according to a new report by the Colorado Public Interest Research Group and the Southwestern Energy Efficiency Project […]
With Two-Way Conversion, Blake Street Is About to Get Better For Everyone
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Blake Street will soon resemble a neighborhood street instead of a speedway for cars. Today Denver Public Works began converting Blake from a one-way road to a two-way street with bike lanes. The redesign, which runs from Broadway to 35th Street, should calm car traffic and make Blake a safer place to walk, bike, and drive. This […]