The Mayor hedges on pedestrian and bike safety, appeases drivers

During a meeting with the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committee Mayor Johnston said:

We want to build infrastructure and a culture that makes that easier, and we think we can do that without making it more difficult for drivers.

In an interview with Denver 7 he said:

And there are a lot of us in the city who still have to use cars, and we don't want to make it harder for you to use a car. We want to make it easier for you to use a bike, and we think there's a way to do both by both protecting parking spots, getting a smaller number of various safe lanes, and then making sure that we can still get people that want access to businesses that have spaces in front.

The mayor fundamentally does not understand multi modal transportation

Any leader of a city that has signed on to Vision Zero has to understand that enacting Vision Zero policies will be perceived as inconveniencing drivers.

Making it safe to drive as well as existing outside of a vehicle is not an inconvenience. Being forced to take turns slower, drive the speed limit, and pay attention is not an inconvenience.

Drivers will gnash their teeth and cry foul, but this is the important point - they will do this no matter what. As mayor you have to be prepared to hear this feedback and know it is coming.

American streets were rebuilt from their people oriented beginnings to accommodate the vehicle. Over time we baked it into our systems that owning a vehicle was almost required to participate in society. Parking was made free and overly abundant. Drivers were coddled with allowances like turns on red, generous buffers before receiving speeding tickets, and parking that was so far below market value they became convinced it should always be this way.

If anything of these things are effected they will perceive this as hardship. When all you've known is privilege than anything less can be perceived like an attack.

Vision Zero will not be achieved by half measures and compromise that erodes safety. Doing so makes you look incredibly weak and indecisive.

Rather than submitting to driver screeching, anecdotal data, and personal edges cases the mayor should recognize that no matter how often he ingratiates himself to the angry mob they will always move the goalposts. Stand your ground, support your initiatives, and recognize it is never an inconvenience to reduce near misses, serious harm, or deaths on Denver's streets.