As the hottest days of the summer grind on, I have been trying to explore more of the options that the Denver metro has, food, drink, and otherwise. To me, Broadway is emblematic of these things, having everything from a men’s underwear store (NSFW) to a well known rooftop patio.
This past Sunday, I decided to take a ride on the Bayaud Ave Shared street after helping a nearby friend move, given that I needed to snag groceries from the Safeway on Alameda.
The Approach
After helping a friend move some furniture on Clarkson, I double backed to Downing Street and took a left unto Bayaud. While in the past I have started slightly earlier in the afternoon for my reviews, time constraints made it so I was delayed until about 3 PM. Additionally, while I tried to document as much as I could, my phone overheated and shut off.
Downing to Pennsylvania
As I headed towards Broadway, the biggest things that I noticed were twofold.
- Compared to the 11th and 16th Ave Shared Streets, there were a lot more parked cars
- Compared to both streets, the traffic seemed significantly lower
While this may be a function of the fact that the section of Bayaud is harder to access by car due to the adjacent Marion Parkway being shared street as well, it was a welcome sign as I headed westbound.
As I hit Washington, I noted that the curb extensions could potentially be something welcoming for pedestrians, but didn’t think much of it because it didn’t seem like traffic was heavy, which felt odd in a few ways. I passed through, noting that only a handful of cars had gone by me.
As I was approaching Pennsylvania, the barricades that typified my last two experiences on shared streets appeared. Rather than being something that narrowed traffic, they acted as a monolith as little car traffic outside of the occasional vehicle passed by me.
As a sidenote, beyond myself there were few active people not in cars out and about, owing itself probably to the heat more than anything else.
Pennsylvania to Sherman
A Barricade and Sign Between Pennsylvania and Grant 
A Traffic Circle on Grant
After passing the outdoor dining area on Pennsylvania, I kept heading east. The left picture above is an image that is the typical ingredients to a Shared Street: Sharrows, Signage, and Barricades.
To me, those in their entirety had less impact than the Traffic Circle up ahead. Even less so than another piece of infrastructure: bollards blocking off the entirety of the street to traffic from Lincoln Street.
While I was unable to get a good full photo of the bollards that Sunday, I have an earlier photo I took in the winter, along with the bollards from two angles.
Final Thoughts
To me, this was the closest it felt like to be in a high-comfort bicycle facility outside of being in a protected bike lane or a separated trail. Blocking off major intersections to only local traffic kept the area fairly tame, and the fact that it acted as a connection from the Washington Park area to Baker and South Broadway is incredibly appealing to a rider like myself. The one improvement I would suggest would be to get rid of the temporary barricades, as they seem to force everyone towards the center of the street in unsafe ways. This street embodied what I think helps build competent multimodal connections: restrict cars from using it.
*Featured Image is a section along the Bayaud Shared Street*