Live from Denver: Two Streetfilms, Two Great Ideas, One Leading City

Traffic calming isn’t only for squares.

During his weeklong sojourn to the NACTO conference in Denver earlier this month, Streetfilms auteur Clarence Eckerson Jr. got to see the next generation in traffic circles — a design with a rotary so big that car drivers have to slow down. Check out the film below:

The coincidence of life! Today @ReinventAlbany asks if while I was at @NACTO in Denver if I happened to see any wide-radius nabe traffic circles. Well I was on a @DenverDOTI tour and asked if we could divert from route to check one out I saw.

Pretty cool. #BikeDEN @jonorcutt pic.twitter.com/ji7sClgFaT

— Streetfilms (1,071+ videos!) (@Streetfilms) May 18, 2023

Here’s the intersection now, thanks to the massive radial speed reducer:

Here’s what it looked like before:

Some locals complained in the North Denver Star that the circles still give too much priority to car drivers, but the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure maintains that the slower speeds will improve safety.

Eckerson was also on hand to christen the first of four ¡Viva Streets! — Denver’s version of a cyclovia — that turned out to be joyous despite some concerns about the weather. Why can’t cities do this every weekend in their center cores?