Overview:
Denver traffic deaths are down in 2026 as Vision Zero enforcement expands and street racers say they are adapting.
Denver traffic deaths are down so far this year as the city expands speed enforcement and police target illegal street racing. But some racers say the crackdown may be pushing drivers to hide, not slow down.
“It just made it so there’s more precaution. There are ways around getting around that stuff—blackout license plates, radar jammers, and police radios in the car,” an anonymous street racer said. “People spend more money on the stuff where they wouldn’t get caught than to just avoid it entirely.”
Denver’s Vision Zero program aims to eliminate traffic deaths by 2030. As of July 28, 36 people had died in traffic crashes in Denver this year, compared with 94 traffic deaths in all of 2025, according to the city’s Vision Zero dashboard.
The city has also relied on automated speed enforcement, with tens of thousands of warning citations mailed from automated speed cameras. Denver Police have also targeted street racing through coordinated operations. In one June 28 operation, police stopped 19 vehicles and cited or arrested four drivers on allegations of speed exhibition and reckless driving.
Street-racing enforcement tends to become more visible during the summer, when car shows, meetups and late-night gatherings draw more drivers onto city roads. Leah Shahum, founder and director of the Vision Zero Network, said dangerous driving needs to be addressed, but enforcement should not become a pretext for unrelated traffic stops.
“If someone is speeding dangerously or engaging in reckless behavior, that needs to be addressed,” Shahum said. “But we don’t want enforcement to be used as a pretext for pulling people over for unrelated reasons.”
The anonymous street racer said the increased enforcement has not stopped some drivers but has changed how they try to avoid getting caught.
“Yeah, I’ve run from some cops,” the street racer said. “I was caught racing, and I knew I was faster than the cop. I didn’t have my license plate at the time, so I knew that if I was to run and get away, it would be harder for them to track me because I didn’t have a license plate.”
The racer also had a vinyl color wrap on the BMW he was caught racing in, which allowed him to remove it so the vehicle would no longer match the original description.
“I feel like it’s definitely mixed feelings (about Vision Zero) because I can see where they’re coming from, but it’s also just gonna make people take that precaution to where they’re just gonna hide themselves more,” the anonymous racer said. “And then, if they already have the stuff to hide it, they’re gonna be more likely to run and possibly harm themselves or others.”
Shahum said Vision Zero should focus on unsafe behavior rather than treating every modified car or car enthusiast as a public-safety threat.
“Vision Zero isn’t about eliminating car culture or modifications — it’s about eliminating unsafe behavior,” Shahum said. “Some modifications might be harmless, while others could contribute to dangerous driving. The focus should always be on what’s truly unsafe, not just what’s different or unconventional.”
That distinction matters in metro Denver’s car scene, where legal meetups, shows and modified-car culture can be blurred with illegal street racing.
“With no places for enthusiasts to meet and have the culture, it makes it move to the streets,” said Aaron Miller, a local mechanic and big proponent for creating a proper space for the Denver car scene. “There are many things affecting the car culture,” Miller said. With the closing of the close drag strips and with the crackdown on car meets, this is causing the culture to become more dangerous.”
Car meet-ups have the potential to bring car enthusiasts together in a safe, controlled environment, but they also tend to draw unwanted attention from law enforcement.
“Our goal isn’t to have police everywhere. That’s not realistic due to budget constraints, and it can have negative consequences, like pretext stops that disproportionately harm communities of color,” Shaham said. “We’ve written a whole resource called Right Sizing the Role of Enforcement, where we say: ‘Don’t depend on traffic stops as your main line of defense for road safety.’”
Vision Zero uses the Safe System Approach, which emphasizes street design changes such as clearer signage, narrower roads, lower speeds and safer pathways for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users. Shahum said that approach can help address the tension between enforcement and road safety by focusing on specific dangerous behaviors rather than profiling specific cars or drivers.
Nonetheless, enthusiasts and racers agree that their cars will attract more attention due to the attention-grabbing nature of modified vehicles.
“In the BMW, it was a nice red with super dark tints,” the street racer said. “It was very loud. It’s obviously going to catch a lot of attention from normal people and police.”
Still, Shahum said the answer should not be to treat every loud or modified car as a threat. Vision Zero, she said, works best when it focuses on the conditions that make dangerous driving more likely, including wide roads, high speeds and street designs that encourage drivers to move faster than is safe.
“The most effective and lasting thing one can do is improve the environment people are moving in,” Shahum said. “This is about right-sizing roadways and creating self-enforcing roadways—roads designed in a way that discourages speeding naturally because of their physical characteristics.”
That approach does not excuse street racing. But it shifts part of the responsibility from individual enforcement to the design of Denver’s streets. Shahum said safer roads should make dangerous choices harder and safe choices easier.
“The idea is that the safest choice should also be the easiest and most convenient choice,” Shahum said. “We can’t just expect people to ‘do the right thing’ if the environment, street design, speed limits, and policies are telling them something else.”
