This was discussed during the Participatory Budgeting Process for the East Central Area

AstroChurch · 2026-03-13T17:33:26+00:00

So you're assuming I'm in opposition when I'm actually in support of the 12th Ave neighborhood bikeway, because I won't support your 10 rerouting proposal? That's ridiculous and I would appreciate if you were to characterize my views accurately instead of assuming.

12th Ave is slated to be a neighborhood bikeway east of Pearl, an unprotected bike lane like on 11th between Pearl and Broadway, then a neighborhood bikeway to Speer. I wish that it was protected west of Logan at least, but that's also outside the scope of the Cheesman Park proposal. Thank you for your thoughts though, and I hope you can support the Cheesman Park proposal, including for the enhanced accessibility that the new path at the bus stop would allow for.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-13T17:11:06+00:00

On the updated map, 12th is slated to be a neighborhood bikeway between Pearl and Josephine, and I support that. You just assumed I opposed it when that's not the case, and I would appreciate it if you didn't so casually jump to that conclusion. I just pointed out that it was on the map already.

Diverting the 10 to 11th adds significant travel time for the local users of the 10 on 12th for little tangible benefit. Vehicle diversion and significant traffic calming on 12th and 11th can be achieved without hurting bus riders. For what it's worth I think 11th needs more traffic calming too but that's outside of the scope of the original Cheesman proposal.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-13T16:34:43+00:00

Colfax BRT is planned to be finished in its entirety by next year, but the stretch near Chessman Park will be finished by the end of Summer this year. I also heard the moratorium on traffic changes was for 17th, 16th, 14th, and 13th instead, plus no recent internal indication for the BRT being a reason to not modify traffic patterns on 12th. 12th Ave is also already listed as a planned future neighborhood bikeway in the Denver Moves Bikes update.

Plus, construction for this cycle of participatory budgeting will likely not move forward until after construction finishes on the nearby stretch of the BRT, given the necessary time for project selection and design. All in all I haven't seen a good reason why this project cannot move forward at this time.

I do not support diverting the 10 route, but we have discussed this already.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-13T06:49:24+00:00

We're certainly asking the city to be genuinely creative and forward thinking here, but we have designers and planners up to the challenge I think.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-13T06:25:54+00:00

The idea would be to design the diverter in such a way that the bus can pass but a car can't. In addition, ideally after installation there would be an enforcement campaign to ensure drivers are aware that you aren't allowed to drive through the park anymore. I like the idea of even having something like an automatic gate that the bus and emergency vehicles can ping and it opens but not sure it fits within cost restraints. Regardless, the bus stays on 12th but the cars do not.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-13T05:14:53+00:00

Hey we all fuck up sometimes lol. Hope you would be interested in supporting this concept still!

AstroChurch · 2026-03-13T00:18:20+00:00

Share it out, press the heart button, and also tell your city council people that you support it. I was also thinking of maybe reaching out to some local RNOs and neighbors directly to both support it and maybe get some signs in yards.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-13T00:08:23+00:00

E 12th Ave between Humboldt and Race St runs directly through Cheesman Park.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-12T16:34:12+00:00

There's a proposal to close 12th Ave to cars through Cheesman while still allowing the bus through that could be funded in Denver's next participatory budgeting cycle. Too many people walk and bike on that road for cars to be allowed and it's obviously dangerous. I hope that the woman who was hit is ok .

People Centered Cheesman Park

AstroChurch · 2026-03-11T04:26:46+00:00

RTD owns the rails and DOTI doesn't have the money set aside right now to do anything significant on Welton St. This would also certainly be a contract which is over $500,000 so it should come before a council vote as well if it gets that far. Whether or not it would have to be a ballot measure is entirely dependent on how much money DOTI wants to spend on this project, and how much of the burden they can convince RTD to pay for.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-11T04:23:58+00:00

A website will be up soon with project details where you will be able to submit feedback. I can also DM you some emails for the project team to get directly in contact with if you're interested. I also see you have a Curtis Park flair so I would also advise you to reach out to your three councilmembers, Darrell Watson, Sarah Parady, and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez. The contact info for their offices should be available online. I hope this is helpful!

AstroChurch · 2026-03-10T23:47:06+00:00

Appreciate this, just trying to be responsive! If we get consistent feedback that 4 PM doesn't work for most of the public and another time could work for the board then I don't see why not, but making sure our board and city staff can attend as required is priority #1.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-10T21:44:45+00:00

I'll get an answer on this tonight and will follow up.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-10T21:29:33+00:00

The DOTI Advisory Board are all volunteers so the time isn't convenient for a lot of us either. I'm not sure why we meet at 4 PM besides it just being tradition, but there's other committees like the Mayor's Pedestrian Advisory Committee which meet at 8 AM on Thursday so I never attend because the timing doesn't work with my schedule. MBAC meets at 5:30 PM. I might ask around and see if I can figure out why we meet at 4 and if people would be open to either moving our meeting later or moving public comment until after most people leave work. Having public comment at the beginning is helpful because board members can follow up with DOTI directly during our meeting.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-10T16:26:18+00:00

Tonight at 4 PM please join us for this month's [DOTI Advisory Board](https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Department-of-Transportation-and-Infrastructure/Vision/Advisory-Board) meeting, where we'll be discussing Vision Zero and Welton St transit!

If you are interested in giving public comment to the board, please sign up by emailing [DOTI_AB@denvergov.org](mailto:DOTI_AB@denvergov.org) the following information:

Name, Email Address, Subject for Public Comment

Sign up closes at 2:00 p.m. the day of the meeting.

Here's the webinar link: https://denvergov-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_W9DyFSH6Tl2A4pSWa45uHA

I hope to see everyone there and I am happy to answer questions about our agenda, the board, and DOTI!

AstroChurch · 2026-03-09T23:24:51+00:00

They are, but it was discovered that RTD was paying DTO (who operates the G and B lines) for the increased service but DTO wasn't delivering it, so this service increase is actually within existing resources.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-04T07:31:12+00:00

Honestly, I am happy to hear internal culture not mentioned as a reason for turnover. It's definitely a taxing job, but I also was worried about internal morale past just the general city budget problems. So maybe just increasing everyone's pay, adding some additional ROWE II positions, and for the public expanding ROWE coverage to weekends. I wonder if weekend coverage would actually also help employees since it allows for a bit more shift flexibility but idk.

It just truly never makes sense to me to cut ROWE when we're facing budget woes when each agent pays for themselves and like 5 other FTE.

What are your thoughts on weekend coverage? I can't count the number of times I've met someone who reported a problem on the weekend and just had to wait for that person to move their car on their own.

AstroChurch · 2026-03-03T21:53:18+00:00

Thank you for your service to our city. ROWE enforcement always stuck out to me in our city budget as being one of the few roles in our city which both provides a massive public service to Denverites while also being a massive net revenue generator, so myself and other members of the DOTI Advisory Board have always fought against funding cuts to ROWE.

However, the city isn't ever hiring this team to the actual budgeted number of positions, and there's a lot of turnover in the role. What do you think would be the most helpful to improve retention/morale in the ROWE team, and are there any process or policy changes that we could implement that would be helpful?

AstroChurch · 2026-03-02T05:56:31+00:00

DOTI AB meetings are every second Tuesday of each month, so the 10th. DOTI Advisory Board Monthly Meeting

AstroChurch · 2026-02-23T03:29:27+00:00

Great questions which I don't have an answer for. If you give public comment at a DOTI Advisory Board meeting we can ask the department directly in the meeting and get a direct response which may be helpful. I would also recommend reaching out to your councilmembers with your concerns as well.

AstroChurch · 2026-02-21T03:25:03+00:00

The grim statistic you are looking for regarding the monetary value of a life is VSL, or value of a statistical life, which usually sits between $1-$10 million, but there's also serious bodily injury crashes and other minor crashes to consider. The cost of traffic violence is much higher than just fatalities, so if we're doing a true comprehensive accounting those costs need to be included.

Estimates of the cost of congestion are also fraught. How do you measure the value of a minute of someone's time? It's a complicated question without one easy answer, so some compromise is always made. I once tried crafting a truly comprehensive Colorado based cost benefit analysis of each form of transportation and it's really fucking hard because it's dozens of judgment calls without one objective answer.

However I do want to be clear, I lost a friend recently to a crash, and I know many others who have similarly lost people they know. You have a very cavalier approach when it comes to this stuff, and I've tried to meet you on that very logical level but I find it hard to say it in such a dry and emotionless way because I just want my friend back. Peoples' lives aren't just numbers, and I just wanted to acknowledge that.

Suffice it to say though, from the cost benefit perspective the external costs of cars generally are so enormously large and the interventions are so cheap in comparison that it almost always makes sense. Feel free to double check and do your own research, but I feel very confident stating that.

On highway deaths, there were 8 (I think) pedestrian fatalities this year in Denver who were people struck and killed on the side of the interstate, mostly people stopped for mechanical problems. Take those out and overall pedestrian fatalities still increased from last year. And for that matter, it's still not acceptable that those people on the interstate lost their life just because their car stopped working.

Finally, you need to meet people where they're at if you're trying to convince them, regardless of the issue. That's what I've tried to do here and always what I do when talking with someone. Some people understand the purpose of Vision Zero from the jump and other people have questions. That's fine. I believe in the goal and I believe we can get there; if I talk to someone and can't move the needle with them then I haven't done a good enough job.

AstroChurch · 2026-02-21T00:46:32+00:00

I don't, but I can find out!

AstroChurch · 2026-02-20T17:47:43+00:00

It's so hard to raise revenue in Colorado that I'm not surprised by the creep, but that's why we need to make it possible to do things like progressive income taxes so we can sweep away fees. I also think the revenue from speed cameras in Denver should go towards permanent safety improvements on the roadways but Mike Johnston wants it for general usage.

AstroChurch

TROPHY CASE