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
The Blindspots in CDOT’s Latest Safety Campaign
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The Colorado Department of Transportation unveiled the conclusion to a provocative billboard campaign yesterday that reminds drivers and passengers to buckle up. You may have seen the ads around Denver over the last week with inscrutable phrases like “Brain Damage,” “Life or Death,” “Fatal Accident,” and “Windshield Ejection.” Those words are now crossed out with an image of a […]
Wes Marshall on How to Make Denver a Walkable City With Safe Streets
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When Steve Jobs built the iPod, he had his team design its remarkable look and intuitive function before asking them to cram the technology inside. That’s how CU Denver professor Wes Marshall thinks about Denver’s transition to becoming a 21st century transportation city — think big and then figure out the small stuff. Marshall is an engineer who thinks like […]
Denver Business Journal: Bike Lanes Are a Conspiracy Against Drivers
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Denver Business Journal Editor Neil Westergaard went old timey in a piece last Friday with the headline “Bikes are OK, but Denver plan goes too far.” The article was behind a pay wall for subscribers, but there are some excerpts below that give readers the gist. Westergaard frames the city’s efforts to improve conditions for bicycling as a […]
Mary Beth Susman Gets It: Denver Needs More Livable Streets
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Before Mayor Michael Hancock and Denver City Council members made transit infrastructure a top budget priority for 2016, Council Member Mary Beth Susman was on a mission to bridge the gaps in the city’s Swiss cheese transit system. The 67-year-old made the case for better bus service in the Denver Post editorial pages last year, then got scolded […]
If You Run a Business and Want Bike Parking, Tell DPW By May 28
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It’s a common scene along Denver’s sidewalks: tangled bikes locked up to trees, gates, or parking meters, creeping into the path of pedestrians. Without proper bike racks, bike riders have no other choice. It should get easier to lock up your bike with a new program from the Department of Public Works that will supply some businesses with […]
Road Diet, New Sidewalks, and Bike Lanes Coming to Blake Street Bridge
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The Blake Street Bridge over 38th Street is a dangerous mess with three driving lanes, no sidewalks, and no dedicated space for bicycling. All of that is about to change, though, with a makeover that will narrow the space for traffic while adding sidewalks and striping bike lanes in each direction. This piece of Blake Street is an important […]
What’s the Hold-Up With the City’s Bike Safety Study?
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The Department of Public Works has been working on a groundbreaking analysis of cyclist crashes and injuries in Denver that could lay the groundwork for major safety improvements, but the release of the document is now behind schedule. On March 12, a DPW representative showed an overview of the study to the Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation’s transportation committee. The presentation was […]
Colorado Loses Ground to Utah in National Bike-Friendly Rankings
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Colorado is falling behind other states when it comes to bike-friendliness, according to new rankings from the League of American Bicyclists. Utah has leapfrogged the Centennial State, which dropped one position compared to last year. While Colorado can still claim a high ranking, the Bike League is grading on a curve: Scoring 53.9 out of 100 […]
Widening Streets Near the Broadway and I-25 Transit Station Makes No Sense
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At the same time that Denver seeks to become more walkable and transit-friendly, the city is pursuing road-widening projects that work directly against those goals. Sometimes the city even tries to do both things in the same place, and that’s what happening on South Broadway right now. In 2008, Denver adopted a Strategic Transportation Plan beginning with this […]
CU Denver Lays the Groundwork to Fill the Gaps in Denver’s Transit Network
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Unlike Boston or New York, the Mile High City grew up around cars and maintains a robust network of wide, speedy roads — infrastructure at odds with the world-class transit network the city government says it wants, and that Denver residents demand. It might surprise you (perhaps not if you ride RTD often), but no comprehensive […]
Tomorrow: Help Shape Development By the I-25 and Broadway Station
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How can South Broadway build on the I-25 and Broadway rail station to make a more walkable, active neighborhood? City planners are in the process of creating a plan that will shape the streets and development near the station, and they’re looking for ideas. If you want to weigh in on the neighborhood’s future, head over to […]
I-70 Widening Has Already Diverted $50M From Smarter Transpo Projects
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Whether it’s the marginalization of Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea residents, the stark threat of respiratory illness, or the simple fact that widening roads does not solve traffic congestion, the I-70 expansion planned between Brighton Boulevard and Tower Road is a terrible idea. Still, the highway project with a $1.8 billion starting price tag has a […]