AURORA, Colo. -- There's no shortage of people, cars, and close calls at an Aurora intersection right across from UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.
The intersection, located on East 16th Avenue near Troy Street, sits between the patient parking garage and the hospital on the south side of the campus. For Denver video blogger, Chris Jones, therein lied the problem.
"It's too confusing and especially with the high number of pedestrians. It's just not an ideal situation," he said.
Jones said the four-lane, four-way stop inspired him to launch a new video blog series he's calling "unfortunate intersections."
"This intersection has compounding layers of unfortunateness," he says in the video.
The first layer, he explained, is the missing fourth crosswalk, which used to be painted on the east side of the intersection.
"The removed the crosswalk at some point," said Jones.
Someone replaced it with two orange cones tied together with caution tape on both sides.
"I think this is supposed to discourage people from walking across the street here, but if you stand here long enough, you can tell it doesn't work. People cross here anyway," he said.
The kicker, Jones said, is the street is not a public road.
"This is a completely private intersection owned by the hospital," he explained.
Twenty minutes after Denver7 called a hospital spokesperson to ask about the intersection, someone removed the orange cones and caution tapes. We found them hidden in a corner nearby.
"If you're visually disabled, I know I have almost run into it," said Jones. "I want to talk about it and bring awareness about what makes a bad intersection."
Denver7 asked the hospital who removed the cones and if it was the result of our calling to ask questions.
The spokesman wouldn't answer that question, but shared this statement:
The number of patients requesting care at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital has surged in recent years. We now care for more than 1.2 million patient visits each year, and providing an excellent experience for patients and visitors is a top priority. We are aware that the intersection at 16th Ave. and Troy St. is busy, and we have taken steps to improve the intersection in recent years, including expanding our free valet parking options, changing one of this intersection's streets to a one-way street, and providing additional parking options close to the Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion for patients with disabilities. We continue to review additional options to improve this intersection.
