The 1st Step to Build VAMOS

The next mayor will have a huge say in how we get around Denver and whether VAMOS achieves its potential. Our proposal is ambitious, but the first step is small: we're asking the City for permission to place eight cones at one residential intersection for a couple hours. No joke. This whole VAMOS thing. Eight cones.

The implications are big: creating "diverter" features that reduce neighborhood cut-through traffic and make streets quieter can be done with a template and without custom engineering at each intersection. (I.e., quickly and inexpensively.) Here's the first draft of the template:

In effect, a template was used to place the temporary barricades that served as diverters for Shared Streets. (Proof of their effectiveness is even visible in Street View images.)

Here's another example of traffic diversion in the wild that we discovered on a recent group ride in southwest Denver. It's a simple change that makes a huge difference.

If we already know that diverters work, why spend time on them? With DOTI next to us, we need to test the hypothesis that diverters can be created with a template and without custom engineering. If successful, it would mean that a crew could install 3-4 low-cost diverters in a day.

They wouldn't be as fancy as the Rolex of diverters on 35th & Irving, but they'd get the job done like this one at Bayaud & Lincoln.

So we're working to earn the City's blessing to test our diverter template with eight cones on one residential intersection. We're not asking for the whole enchilada right now. We're just asking for permission to place eight cones.