Denver's streets killed more people last year than at any point since 2013. According to the city's own Vision Zero dashboard, 94 people died in traffic crashes across Denver in 2025, and by early August 2026 the dashboard already showed 36 more deaths for the year.1 Pedestrians and cyclists absorbed a disproportionate share of that toll, and the crashes weren't scattered randomly across the city. A small number of named corridors, Federal Boulevard and Colfax Avenue chief among them, produce most of the serious injuries and deaths for people walking and biking here.
The high-injury network, in plain terms
Denver's Vision Zero program organizes its safety work around what it calls the high-injury network: a small share of city streets, built wide and fast like state highways, that account for a majority of the city's traffic deaths.2 Denver Streets Partnership, the advocacy coalition that tracks the network, singles out Colfax Avenue and Federal Boulevard as two corridors designed like highways that run straight through dense residential and commercial blocks where people are also trying to cross on foot.2 Denver committed in 2016 to eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. In the years since, more than 400 people have died and over 2,000 crashes have caused serious injuries on city streets, and 99% of those fatal crashes involved a motor vehicle driver.2
The trend is moving the wrong way. Pedestrian deaths in Denver climbed from 23 in 2021 to 26 in 2024, then jumped to 35 in 2025.3 Cyclist deaths rose from four in 2021 to five last year.3 A coalition led by Denver Streets Partnership graded Mayor Mike Johnston's administration a D on transportation safety and access. The group's report noted that traffic crashes now kill more people in Denver each year than homicides do, and Executive Director Jill Locantore called it a public-policy failure that demands urgent leadership.4
Mid-2025 data from Denver's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure showed the acceleration in real time: 25 pedestrians had died as of September 30, compared with 16 over the same stretch of 2024, a 50% jump.5 DOTI's own numbers track fatalities by mode, and pedestrian deaths outpaced every other category that year, including people inside vehicles.5
Federal Boulevard
If one street defines Denver's pedestrian crash problem, it's Federal Boulevard. Denver Streets Partnership's review of city crash data found Federal's fatality rate runs more than 20 times the average for a comparable urban Colorado street. From 2012 to 2017 alone, the corridor accounted for 22% of all pedestrian-involved crashes citywide.6 The street runs roughly 100 feet across with a posted 35 mph limit, wide enough that someone on foot can get caught mid-crossing when the signal changes. The intersection of Federal and 14th Avenue, just south of Colfax near Mile High Stadium, is one specific location local reporting has flagged as especially dangerous.7 Farther south, the interchange where Federal meets Colfax, known locally as the Colfax-Federal Clover, is under study for a redesign because its ramps force people walking and biking to cross multiple high-speed turning lanes.6
CDOT and the city aren't ignoring the corridor. CDOT built a $2.4 million continuous raised median along South Federal Boulevard between Alameda Avenue and Vassar Avenue, about 2.5 miles, specifically to cut vehicle speeds and shorten pedestrian crossing distances.8 Farther north, Denver Streets Partnership has run a pop-up demonstration at Federal and 50th Avenue that added a temporary median, protected bike lanes, and curb extensions.6 A bus rapid transit project for Federal, which carries roughly 9,000 daily bus boardings, is planned for service as early as 2030.6
Colfax Avenue
Colfax Avenue is the other half of Denver's most dangerous pair of streets. A CDOT bike-and-pedestrian safety study identified the stretch of Colfax from Moline Street to Peoria Street, near the Aurora line, as the single worst crash hotspot for walking and biking in the entire Denver metro area.9 CDOT's data showed a recurring pattern there: people crossing mid-block rather than at a signal, on a street carrying heavy, constant vehicle traffic with long gaps between marked crossings.9 The dangers aren't abstract. Along that stretch, a bus shelter was destroyed twice by vehicle crashes, and a 15-year-old was struck and killed crossing the street nearby within weeks of an earlier crash that pinned two people inside a bus stop.9
Colfax and Havana Street, Colfax and Moline, and Colfax and Chambers Road also rank among the state's most dangerous locations for bicyclists in CDOT's crash data.9 West of downtown, the picture repeats. West Colfax Avenue between Sheridan Boulevard and Teller Street in Lakewood saw six deaths in the five years before 2019, and the City of Lakewood is now rebuilding that stretch with a continuous center median, new lighting, and mid-block pedestrian crossings.10
Other corridors on the network
The high-injury network reaches beyond these two streets. Denver Streets Partnership's Vision Zero materials point to Yale Boulevard, where a cyclist named Cole Sukle was killed in July 2016, as one of the crashes that helped define the original network map, and to Colorado Boulevard as a current focus of transit and safety advocacy.2 Speer Boulevard and Grove Street is another specific intersection where a pedestrian, Nick Cordova, was struck and killed. That crash helped push City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis toward a funded $500,000 study of banning right turns on red citywide, a policy already in place in Seattle and Washington, D.C.7
E-scooters and e-bikes are part of the picture now
Any account of vulnerable road users in Denver in 2026 has to include micromobility. The city recorded eight e-scooter rider deaths in 2025, quadruple the previous annual record and more fatal e-scooter crashes than the prior six years combined. Seven of the eight involved a collision with a motor vehicle.11 Denver police logged 199 scooter-vehicle crashes that year, and Denver Health treated 1,868 patients for scooter-related injuries, more than five people every day.11 A study out of a Denver Level 1 trauma center covering January 2020 through November 2023 tracked 2,424 e-scooter injury patients with a median age of 30. Nearly half of those injuries happened between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., and average annual hospital charges ran roughly $10.4 million.12
Why the numbers keep climbing
Statewide, the trend mirrors Denver's. Colorado pedestrian deaths rose 77% between 2018 and 2024, and 2023 was the deadliest year on record with 136 pedestrians killed.13 Nearly four in five of those deaths happened in the dark.13 Vehicle speed explains a lot of why so many crashes turn fatal rather than survivable: NHTSA crash data cited by Colorado researchers shows a pedestrian's risk of dying climbs from around 10% at 23 mph to 50% at 42 mph.14 Heavier vehicles make it worse. Denver Streets Partnership notes trucks and SUVs now make up more than 80% of new vehicle sales, and the best-selling pickup on the road today is roughly 800 pounds heavier and 7 inches taller than its early-1990s version.2
If you were hurt on one of these streets
A crash on Federal, Colfax, or another high-injury corridor is rarely just bad luck. It's often the predictable result of a street built for speed running straight through a place where people are also trying to walk, bike, or catch a bus. If you or someone you love was hurt in one of these crashes, an attorney who handles Denver pedestrian and bicycle cases can help you sort out what the city's own crash data means for your claim. You can find one through thatcarhitme.com's legal directory.
This article provides general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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City and County of Denver, "Vision Zero: Traffic Statistics." https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Citywide-Programs-and-Initiatives/Vision-Zero/Statistics
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Denver Streets Partnership, "Vision Zero Denver." https://denverstreetspartnership.org/what-we-do/vision-zero-denver/
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Denver Gazette, "Vision Zero: As Denver doubles down, fatalities keep climbing," Feb. 3, 2026. https://www.denvergazette.com/2026/02/03/vision-zero-as-denver-doubles-down-fatalities-keep-climbing/
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Denver Streets Partnership, "Press Release: Mayor's Report Card on Transportation Safety and Access." https://denverstreetspartnership.org/report-card-press-release/
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Colorado Politics, "Pedestrian fatalities soar 50% in Denver, city officials say," Oct. 2, 2025. https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/10/02/pedestrian-fatalities-soar-50-in-denver-city-officials-say/
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Denver Streets Partnership, "Federal Boulevard." https://denverstreetspartnership.org/what-we-do/federal-boulevard/
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CBS News Colorado, "Denver councilwoman proposes no turns on red after deadliest year of pedestrian and cyclist accidents." https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/denver-councilwoman-proposes-no-turns-red-deadliest-year-pedestrian-cyclist-accidents/
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Colorado Department of Transportation, "South Federal Boulevard Raised Median Safety Project," Apr. 2020. https://www.codot.gov/news/2020/april-2020/south-federal-boulevard-raised-median-safety-project
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CBS News Colorado, "CDOT identifies Colfax Avenue crash hotspot," Mar. 16, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/cdot-identifies-colfax-avenue-denver-crash-hotspot-moline-street-peoria
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City of Lakewood, "West Colfax Transportation Safety Project: Project Info and Impacts." https://www.westcolfaxsafety.com/project-info
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Westword, "Denver E-Scooter Deaths Hit Record High in 2025." https://www.westword.com/news/denver-e-scooter-deaths-hit-record-high-in-2025-40839532/
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Rollins et al., "Electric Scooter-related Injuries Are Becoming More Frequent and Costly in Denver, CO," PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39136941/
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Colorado Department of Transportation, "Colorado pedestrian fatalities have increased 77% since 2018," Oct. 2024. https://www.codot.gov/news/2024/october/colorado-pedestrian-fatalities-increased-since-2018
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Colorado Sun, "With no uniform safety improvements, there's no end in sight to skyrocketing Colorado pedestrian deaths," Apr. 8, 2025. https://coloradosun.com/2025/04/08/colorado-pedestrian-deaths-safety-improvements/