This Stroad’s Past Shouldn’t Seal Its Future
Quebec Street in Denver, where Gregory Robinson was killed while trying to cross this multi-lane stroad.
On July 3, 2022, a driver fatally struck Gregory Robinson as he was crossing Quebec Street on 36th Avenue, a multi-lane stroad separating an older residential community from a colony of big-box stores hemmed by even larger parking lots. Robinson’s death was one of 82 recorded in Denver that year, the city’s deadliest in the last decade. Moreover, it has since prompted locals to ask why a stroad like Quebec Street exists in a city trying to achieve zero traffic deaths by 2030.
Quebec Street is defined by five lanes going in each direction, separated by an approximately 215-foot-wide barren median. It’s nearly impossible to cross from one side to another in one go, requiring those walking to wait in the median while sandwiched by 45 mph traffic.
The stroad’s width—akin to a highway—is surprising given the fact that it’s flanked by a grid of dense residential housing on the west side and chain retailers on the east. In fact, it acts as a divider between two contrasting styles of development. Even so, it wasn’t conceived with either of those adjacent land uses in mind.
“Quebec Street is a legacy airport access road, designed to service a facility that no longer exists,” Adam Spiker, a Denver resident and Bus Rapid Transit Design Engineer at the Colorado Department of Transportation, explained. “The road seemingly hasn’t changed an inch since that airport closed.”
An inspection of Google Earth’s data revealed just as much. Since the closure of the Stapleton airport in 1995, the road has endured marginal changes, virtually none of which impact the “nice and fatal design speed of 45 mph,” Spiker pointed out. At the same time, the land around it has transformed dramatically.
A Neighborhood With Many Faces
In fact, Central Park, the neighborhood formerly known as Stapleton after the airport it supplanted, is one of Denver’s early New Urbanist experiments. "From our perspective, it's one of the best examples of 'smart growth' in the Denver region," Will Coyne, the land-use advocate for Environment Colorado, told The New York Times in 2005. Taking inspiration from “older, more walkable neighborhoods,” Stapleton’s homes are close together with small yards, smaller garages, and front porches designed to spark conversation. Its champions were hoping to attract people otherwise likely to move to the suburbs.
One resident interviewed by The New York Times said he moved to then-Stapleton because he wanted “the look of an old house with the closet size of a new house.” That same resident, however, was not a fan of the suburban-style shopping center mere steps from his home. "The bulk of my neighbors won't shop there," he said.
The shopping center, known as Quebec Square, looks out of place with New Urbanist Central Park to the southwest and Park Hill, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, to the east. The tree-lined sidewalks of either residential enclave butt up against thousands of feet of parking, highway-like roads like Quebec Street, and a smattering of stores devoid of local flavor.
For this reason, Strong Towns’ Director of Community Action Edward Erfurt sees some of New Urbanism’s deepest faults reflected in Stapleton. “These attractive, entirely walkable enclaves are completely surrounded by an environment that is the exact opposite,” he said. “And right where the two mix, where the neighborhood street meets the stroad is where your biggest problems begin.”
Where Quebec Street intersects with 36th Avenue, or where Robinson was killed, is exactly one of these places where a neighborhood street meets a stroad, where on one side walking is pleasant, safe, and encouraged and on the other, it’s a death wish.
Unsurprisingly, most don’t feel safe crossing Quebec Street. Those who live steps from Sprouts Farmers Market, PetSmart, and other retailers choose their vehicles to travel a distance that elsewhere in Denver would be, with little hesitation, traveled by foot, bicycle, or even scooter. “It’s just unpleasant,” Spiker remarked. That doesn’t mean, however, that people aren’t traversing the nearly 330-foot corridor daily. Even Google Street View managed to catch a handful of people crossing the street over the years.
Furthermore, Spiker noted Denver’s plans for transitional housing for Denver’s unhoused population right on the periphery of the stroad will generate even more pedestrian traffic. He fears that without a major transformation of Quebec Street, close calls, severe injuries, and fatalities will become even more routine.
Quebec Street goes from five lanes in each direct with a barren median (left) to a two-lane neighborhood street (right) within several blocks.
Yet, just four blocks south of 36th Ave, Quebec Street is an unrecognizable neighborhood boulevard, lined with trees and spanning only two lanes in each direction. Notably, there’s no 215-foot median. For Erfurt, the stark contrast shows not only what’s possible, but what’s evidently unnecessary.
“It appears we’re totally comfortable accommodating only two lanes of traffic in each direction down there,” he points out. “And it’s not like the traffic quadruples as soon as you hit [Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard].”
With Denver’s deadline of achieving “zero traffic-related deaths and serious injuries by 2030” fast approaching, reimagining Quebec Street and stroads like it should be first on the list. After all, it’s been nearly 30 years since the Stapleton Airport closed and the land around it opened itself up for redevelopment. It’s been shy of 20 since the New Urbanist community took hold in Denver. It’s been just over a year since Quebec Street claimed Robinson’s life. And, at the time of this writing, barely two weeks have passed since the stroad landed someone in a hospital.
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Asia (pronounced “ah-sha”) Mieleszko serves as a Staff Writer for Strong Towns. A dilettante urbanist since adolescence, she's excited to convert a lifetime of ad-hoc volunteerism into a career. Her unconventional background includes directing a Ukrainian folk choir, pioneering synaesthetic performances, photographing festivals, designing websites, teaching, and ghostwriting. She can be found wherever Wi-Fi is reliable, typically along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.