About the Study
Elati Street is a north-south corridor in Littleton that spans nearly 2.5 miles, from Littleton Boulevard to the High Line Canal Trail. Elati Street is primarily residential with many homes on either side of the corridor and provides access to three Littleton Public Schools, multiple trails, parks, and other nearby destinations. The Elati Street Corridor Study will explore strategies to enhance transportation safety along the corridor and at key intersections. It will identify improvements that can be made in the short term, while also considering funding needs for future design and construction projects.
Transportation Master Plan
As part of Littleton’s Safer Streets Program, Elati Street was identified as a priority for safety improvements to enhance the City’s multimodal transportation network. It was also identified in the City's Transportation Master Plan as a Neighborhood Connector and a pedestrian and bike priority street (p. 125-127).
Schedule
The Elati Street Corridor Study will be conducted throughout 2025 and will include four phases:
Existing Conditions - Safety
Safety
Reducing future crashes and improving safety outcomes for the community requires examining locations of previous crashes and what types of crashes occurred to best identify potential solutions. This map shows a hotspot analysis for the total 24 crashes along Elati Street between December 2019 and December 2024. Three intersections along the corridor experienced three or more crashes. These locations include:
- Caley Avenue & Elati Street, which experienced four crashes (two broadside, two rear end).
- Littleton Boulevard & Elati Street, with three recorded crashes (two broadside, one sideswipe).
- Euclid Avenue & Elati Street, also with three crashes (two broadside, one fixed object).
Crash Types
The most common type of crash in the study area is broadside—or T-bone—collisions, with nine incidents reported. These crashes usually happen at intersections when one vehicle hits the side of another, and they often lead to injuries because of the impact point.
Rear-end crashes were the second most common, with six incidents reported. Half of the rear-end crashes involved drivers heading northbound.
Young drivers—those under the age of 24—were involved in 25% of the crashes along the corridor. That’s a bit higher than the citywide average, where young drivers are involved in about 21% of crashes.
The average estimated speed at the time of crashes was just over 17 miles per hour, showing that even lower-speed roads aren’t immune to serious incidents. Nearly half of the crashes involved reports of careless or reckless driving.
Bicyclist Crashes
There were two crashes involving bicyclists along the corridor—one at Arapahoe Road and another at Euclid Avenue. The crash at Euclid, which happened in 2021, resulted in no injuries. However, the 2023 crash at Arapahoe Road was a tragic fatal collision. In both cases, the bicyclists were under the age of 14, highlighting the importance of improving safety for younger riders in this area.
Time of Day
A quarter of all crashes along the corridor happened at 3:00 PM—a time that stands out from the usual morning and evening rush hour crash patterns. This afternoon spike is likely tied to the nearby school dismissal time, when there’s a noticeable increase in traffic from parents, buses, and students. The data suggests that school-related activity may play a role in traffic safety on this corridor.
Existing Conditions - Traffic Conditions
Traffic Conditions
Traffic and speed counts were taken over two weeks in April 2025 and are shown in the map here. Segment 6 sees the lowest weekday average daily traffic (ADT), with 257 vehicles daily. Segment 1 has an ADT of 757 vehicles per weekday, which, while higher than segment 6, is considered low for this type of corridor. Segments 2; 3; and 5 have higher weekday ADTs of 2,205, 1,192, and 2,159 vehicles, respectively. Segment 4 has the highest ADT of 2,268 vehicles per weekday. Traffic volumes generally peak at school drop-off and pick-up times during the week, and all corridor segments see a drop in ADT on weekend days.
Speed data was collected alongside traffic volumes to assess how much speeding is an issue along Elati Street. The likelihood of a fatality or serious injury for pedestrians is 13% for vehicles traveling at 20 miles per hour (mph), 40% at 30 mph, and 73% at 40mph (visionzeronetwork.org). Given the residential context of the corridor with multiple schools, safety for people walking and biking is essential. The table here shows the recorded speeds for each segment. The data shows that speeding is an issue, but it does vary per segment. Speeds over 45 mph were recorded in each segment.
Traffic Calming
Over the years, the city has installed treatments to reduce speeding and make crossings safer for all users. The images below highlight various intersection and traffic-calming treatments.
| Segment | Posted Speed | 85th % Speed | 50th % Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 31 | 27 |
| 2 | 25 | 32 | 28 |
| 3 | 25 | 32 | 28 |
| 4 | 25 | 33 | 29 |
| 5 | 25 | 30 | 25 |
| 6 | 25 | 28 | 22 |
Existing Conditions - Walkability
Walkability
As a collector street in a residential area with multiple schools, parks, and trails nearby, walking is an important mode of transportation with standards that have significantly evolved in the past 40 years. Building safe and comfortable sidewalks can not only meet existing needs for walking but also encourage more people to walk. Safe sidewalks are a sign of a vibrant community and can help create healthy habits and behaviors among residents and visitors.
To understand the current issues, the project team walked each block of the corridor to assess the condition and comfort of sidewalks. All sidewalks and curb ramps were assessed and categorized. Current ADA standards require 5’ minimum sidewalks with directional curb ramps at intersections. Using this standard, the team provided ratings of A through D. Both the map and descriptions are below.
Sidewalks vary in width throughout the corridor, from about 2 feet wide to about five and a half feet wide. As shown in the map to the right, on average, the sidewalks were ranked a B meaning they are generally flat but less than five feet wide. This means that while the sidewalks typically do not have deflections - bumps, cracks, or holes - they are still too narrow for more than one person to walk comfortably. Some sidewalks are completely missing or in poor condition. Sidewalks near trails and schools are typically in better condition and wider.
A
- Flat
- At least 5 feet wide
B
- Flat
- Less than 5 feet wide
C
- Contains Deflections
- Less than 5 feet wide
D
- Missing Sidewalk
Existing Conditions - Bicycle Facilities
Bicycle Facilities
As Elati Street provides important connections to several schools and to the regional trail network. From Elati, people biking can connect to the Highline Canal Trail, Lee Gulch Trail, Little’s Creek Trail. Current bike facilities range from no facility to shared on-street facilities to protected bike lanes. These inconsistencies can make it difficult for people who are less confident riding a bike to get to their destination
There are currently no designated bicycle facilities at the north end of the corridor, between Littleton Boulevard and Caley Avenue. Traveling south from Caley Avenue to Euclid Street, the existing facilities continue to be shared on-street but have some on-road markings to share the roadway.
From Euclid Street to Ridge Road, there are existing designated bike lanes, which include bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, and protected bike lanes at various stretches along the corridor. These facilities provide a more comfortable and separate facility for people biking, making it more comfortable for a variety of ability levels.
From Ridge Road traveling south to the Highline Canal Trail, there continue to be striped bike lanes on the west side of the corridor. The east side of the corridor has a shared bike and parking lane, which reduces the bike lane’s functionality and safety and makes its use for biking unclear.
The photos here highlight the differences between biking facilities and how those facilities relate to other corridor treatments. The level of comfort for facilities is greatest for bike lanes that are protected. The level of comfort diminishes as the level of protection and separation from traffic decreases. The images on this page are shown from the highest level of comfort to the lowest.
Higher Comfort
Protected Bike Lanes with a painted buffer provide a high level of comfort for many people with different levels of experience biking.
Vertical protections around intersections and crossings increase visibility for people biking.
Bike lanes that are a minimum of 5’ wide meet basic standards. Being next to traffic and parked vehicles can be less comfortable and increase risks.
Bike lanes less than the standard width, especially when the width includes the gutter space, reduce comfort.
Traffic islands designed to reduce crossing distance and slow speeds significantly reduce bike lane widths. Additionally, both photos show the shared bike and parking lane.
Lower Comfort
On-street shared facilities provide no protection. Bike Route signage and shared street striping provides minimal expectation for drivers to be aware of people biking.