DENVER — Homeowners who live along a busy intersection between Colfax Avenue and West 6th Avenue have seen multiple crashes in the past 30 years.
The solution seems simple to neighbors; make the intersection of Lipan Street and West 10th Avenue into a four-way stop.
“On a daily basis, there’s a lot of activity here depending on the day or time of the day," said longtime resident, Connie Buckley. "We have students and schools up the street.”
Lipan Street, which runs north to south, has a stop sign at the intersection but West 10th Avenue, running east to west, does not.
“A lot of the people cruise through and you can see them creeping into the middle of the intersection,” Buckley said. “I call this 10th and trauma sometimes, not 10th and Lipan.”
Neighbors said they have sent dozens of emails to the city and District 3 leaders letting them know that the problems they see daily are drivers who speed through the neighborhood or ignore the stop signs, causing near miss crashes or crashes that have damaged homes.
“The changes that we have seen are ridiculous, this is a problem that’s been going on for at least half a decade," said Raul Delay. "Nobody stops, so [the city of Denver] gave us a new stop sign and it might be slightly larger."
Delay has lived at the corner of Lipan and tenth Avenue for 35 years. His front yard is a magnet for vehicle accidents, he shared these pictures with 9NEWS reporter Briana Fernandez, showing the cars in his front yard.
“It’s a very disturbing trend. The speeds are what makes it really dangerous,” said Delay. “It’s exhausting when it happens all the time, mentally and emotionally always seeing people hurt in front of your house, for something that’s easily avoidable. It’s exhausting.“
Delay’s front yard has taken a battering over the years and said every time someone comes crashing through his yard, he gets stuck with the repair bill.
Neighbors believe a four-way stop would reduce the number of accidents.
According to DOTI, there have been no fatal crashes at the intersections. Data shows 0-2 crashes per year have happened between 2019-2023, 5 crashes since October 2023 and two last month.
Nancy Kuhn, with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure shared this statement with 9NEWS:
The plan, per our La Alma/Lincoln Park Neighborhood Transportation Management Action Plan, is to use paint and posts to add bulbouts at the corners of the tenth and Lipan intersection to slow right hand driver turns and improve pedestrian safety by shortening pedestrian crossing distances. We will also perform daylighting, which involves pulling back parking a bit at the corners, so that cars can see around the corners better and see pedestrians. These improvements are scheduled to happen this year. Based on this recent uptick in crashes, our plan is to now install a four-way stop. That will likely happen this year when we make the other improvements or just afterwards.
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