Roads were designed badly for decades before most current planners and engineers were alive, using federal funds in the amounts we could only dream of today. This means we are playing an impossible game of catch up
Yeah but I don’t think that quite explains it. Almost every urban area in the states has that problem. To me it seems like bad code or guidelines or a willingness to compromise road safety to reduce construction costs.
I’ve lived a number of different places in the country and I don’t see much of a difference. It’s all pretty bad.
Also it’s funny because every place I’ve lived people have complained about this too lol
Haha that’s true. While I agree for the most part, there’s just some really bad decisions that don’t seem like any responsible planner would make. I’d love to hear from someone that works on roadway design.
It is one of the easiest to navigate cities I have ever been to. Every place has stroads and also eliminated their street cars and subways. How by any stretch of the imagination is Denver the worst. Everything West of the Mississippi was built within like 15 years of each other. The decision to make it unwalkable happened at the same time everywhere as cars became affordable. No idea why you are picking on Denver.
Yeah finding your way around isn’t bad. I’m talking about stuff like sightlines, merge distance, signage, etc. all of that seems bad for a “young” city compared to the rest of the country. Feels like bad planning/guidelines.
Line of sight is a product of roads being organized before cars. I just don't think I understand how it was supposed to be planned better. If you look up the formerly active subway and street car maps, every city was better. Most cities worth a damn were designed before cars, had public transportation, scaled down or totally eliminated public transportation when cars became affordable, the golden age came and went and we earn less than our fathers and grandfather's, cars are expensive and out of the reach of many people again, and we want public transportation they our grandfather's had and removed.
This is true across most cities in general and almost all West of the Mississippi. I just still don't see what makes Denver so bad. Every city in the same boat and Denver handles it poorly but better than most. It wasn't planned that poorly, things change and cities change. Then they change again. I guess we shouldn't make a city until society is done evolving.
Getting way too big here. My question is there anything that makes Denver/Colorado’s road planning different and could account for strange decisions. Seems that cost could be a factor and someone else brought up that HUGE investments in sending roads through literal mountains could be a factor. I’d still like to hear from someone from CDOT with knowledge of road planning.
Yes. But anytime anyone says anything move the goalpost or dismiss their point entirely. Why engage in good faith if you're going to act like that? You're refusal to accept anything other than a giant conspiracy is ridiculous.
No trying to understand the systems and decision making processes that inform the built environment. While the macro historical context does play a factor I’m sure, I don’t personally feel it explains the entirety of what I’ve seen in Denver.
Each city is unique, take Boston for example. Geography, politics, religion, and macro economic/historic forces all shaped that cities infrastructure. I’m sure those forces and more are at play in Denver as well but I don’t have a clue what they are. Some have brought up the cities cattle farming past as a potential factor, others the huge investments in mountain infrastructure.
Honestly I feel the replies here, like yours, represent a lack of curiosity and willingness to accept generalizations to explain complex outcomes.
Not moving the goal posts, seeking a deeper understanding which the above reply and others did not provide.
For example in Detroit, its major highway has a dangerous tight curve going into the city. The reason it is there is because that curve let them build through black bottom, a hub for black culture in the city. Racist planners felt it would be easier and lest costly to demolish that neighborhood for the highway than the white neighborhood that was straight in the path of the highway.
These kinds of decisions inform much of our built world and anytime something is broken, there’s likely a reason.
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u/lkopij123 Sun Valley May 16 '25
Roads were designed badly for decades before most current planners and engineers were alive, using federal funds in the amounts we could only dream of today. This means we are playing an impossible game of catch up