DENVER — A “slow zone” is being introduced near the University of Denver in an effort to make drivers slow down, Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) said Wednesday.
DOTI is putting the new zone along East Evans Avenue, an area where DU students and staff regularly cross to access the north and south sides of the campus.
The speed limit on the stretch of Evans Avenue between University Boulevard and High Street used to be 30 mph but now it's been reduced to 25 mph. Rumble strips, new signage and speed limit markings have been added to the area.
Nancy Kuhn, DOTI communications director, said this zone is different from anything they have done before.
“This is the first time we’ve highlighted this package of treatments – where there’s signage leading into the area that says slow zone ahead, then we got the reduce speed limit signs, then we got the rumble strips and the on-pavement markings," Kuhn said.
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DU and DOTI came up with the idea after a crash in April injured three students at a signalized pedestrian crossing east of High Street. Sunglare was a factor in that crash. With potential risks like sunglare, drivers should be more cautious, Kuhn said.
“The message for drivers everywhere is that there’s a serious problem with speeding in our city and our state, so we want to get the message out that we need drivers to go the speed limit," she said.
DOTI plans to study speeds in the area for the rest of the summer and once school returns in the fall to see if the slow zone is effective. If it is, they may look at implementing it in other places.
This zone comes at the same time as other transportation department work to reduce traffic fatalities around the city.
Over the next 18 months, crews will be implement Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's new SPEED program. That initiative will add more speed limit signs and traffic signal programming on two high-risk streets: Federal Boulevard and Alameda Avenue.