Visit Golden! Balancing Tourism Impacts and Transportation

Golden, Colorado’s downtown is an increasingly popular tourism destination for front-range locals and visitors, especially since the pandemic. As Denver's “mountain town” and close to the Red Rocks Amphitheater, downtown Golden has a steady stream of visitors, especially in the summer. Visitors also enjoy connecting to outdoor activities such as tubing, hiking, or exploring local breweries.

Plans for downtown are always a topic of discussion in the community; however, recent rapid changes have presented new challenges for the city. Plans for the secondary corridor were originally conceptualized 10 years ago and need to be updated to match tourism’s current impacts on the community. On this tour, experience how small-scale changes have big impacts on managing transportation for locals as well as around tourist destinations and in college towns. Golden had to work with the community, the Colorado School of Mines, and local businesses to ensure that locals, students, and employees have equal access to transit, public spaces, and parking. During a hands-on workshop on Jackson Street, examine one of the city's secondary transportation corridors in its downtown and suggest interventions to improve access and mobility.