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
Hancock Will Go Public With Vision Zero Plan Next Week, Denverites Cheer
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On Wednesday, Denver will join other cities in America and abroad that have committed to ending deaths and serious injuries on their streets. About 60 people gathered at the steps of City Hall on Friday to show some love to Mayor Michael Hancock, who will officially launch a Vision Zero plan next week. The Vision Zero Coalition, a group of advocates […]
Colorado DOT Director Shailen Bhatt Calls for Raising State Gas Tax
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Colorado DOT Executive Director Shailen Bhatt wants drivers to pay their fair share for the roads they use, he said at the Colorado Bicycle Summit on Tuesday. To do that, he’d like to see a higher gas tax on the state and federal level. “Raising the gas tax is absolutely the right thing to do,” Bhatt said. […]
The Denver Post Cheers for a Car-Choked Future
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Some people think widening highways is just an inherently good idea — the more space for traffic, the better. Count the Denver Post in that camp. The Post recently threw its wholehearted support behind widening I-70 by four lanes. Believing that wider highways will fix traffic problems is like believing that loosening your belt will fix your waistline. We […]
Mikael Colville-Andersen on Building Effective Bike Lanes: Just Do It
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It’s really not that difficult to build bike infrastructure so that city streets are safe and efficient for everyone. That’s what Mikael Colville-Andersen, the “bicycle urbanism” expert who founded Copenhagenize, wants Colorado to know. “The greatest thing about bike infrastructure today is very, very simple,” Colville-Andersen told the crowd of about 250 at the Colorado Bicycle […]
#StreetFail: Walk at Your Own Risk
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This photo from Friday’s afternoon rush hour on Broadway is a reminder that if you’re walking, the street isn’t designed for you. The guerrilla stop sign, one of four between 7th and 8th avenues in front of the Anthem building, is near the entrances and exits to an underground parking garage. The street design favors vehicles so much […]
Will the Capitol Stiffen Penalty for Drivers Who Hit People Walking or Biking?
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If a driver clips a car’s sideview mirror in Colorado, the offender could get the same charge as a driver who strikes a person walking or biking: Careless driving. In other words, the current law values metal boxes as much as it values human beings. That could change — if state legislators want it to. No one has introduced a […]
Friday: Show Some Love for Vision Zero and Walk, Bike, and Ride to City Hall
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It’s just a matter of time until Mayor Michael Hancock officially adopts Vision Zero, a commitment to eliminate traffic deaths in a specific time frame. There’s money in the city budget to develop a plan, plus walking, biking, and transit advocates formed the Vision Zero Coalition in December to make sure that plan has teeth. What’s missing is […]
Engineers Blew Off Safety Concerns to Widen Federal. Will They Do It Again?
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Engineers know that wide city streets with wide lanes are dangerous — those are the streets where people get killed by speeding drivers. But when people confronted Denver’s transportation agencies about the widening of Federal Boulevard, Colorado DOT and Denver Public Works blew off their safety concerns. Making the street safer for walking, they said, would ruin the whole […]
North Denver Residents to CDOT: Take a Hike With Your I-70 Widening Plan
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The Colorado Department of Transportation and the City and County of Denver have tied so many projects to the repair of an aging I-70 viaduct that residents of Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea have to support adding four lanes to the highway in order to get basic amenities that are commonplace in richer neighborhoods. In order […]
With a Big Denver Snowfall Comes Big Inspiration to Calm Traffic
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Tuesday was Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, so spring will come early this year. So it’s good that Denver got a big snowstorm while the winter lasts, because snow helps illustrate the potential to redesign streets. As drivers trace paths through the snow, a lot of asphalt remains untouched, revealing excess pavement all over the place, especially at intersections. The […]
#StreetFail: The 15th Street Protected Bike Lane-Slash-Construction Site
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When construction projects jut into bike lanes, the city needs to keep those lanes functioning safely. But that isn’t happening on the 15th Street “protected” bike lane between California and Stout, above. This construction site takes up the whole block. Denver Public Works attempted to keep the bike lane intact by temporarily repurposing a traffic lane. Problem is, the […]
Tell CDOT Why Widening I-70 in North Denver Is a Bad Idea
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The fight over Colorado DOT’s billion-dollar-plus plan to widen I-70 is coming to a head. Many residents, especially of north Denver where the highway has spliced neighborhoods for years, have spoken against this project since around the turn of the century. They’ll bear the brunt of the additional noise and pollution, but widening the highway […]