Denver pilots pedestrian-only block in front of Union Station

Driving the news: The city's "Spooky Wynkoopy" Halloween-themed festival, which kicks off Friday, will shut down Wynkoop Street between 17th and 18th streets to traffic — doubling as a trial run for how a pedestrian-only block might work long term.

• City officials will use mobility and community data gathered during the pilot to inform the next phase of design.

Zoom in: The pilot is one of several ways the city's transportation department is studying how the corridor could become a more welcoming "front door" for visitors arriving through Union Station, spokesperson Nancy Kuhn tells Axios Denver.

• Another design concept is a shared street with limited vehicle access.

What they're saying: The ultimate goal is "to increase people-first space," Kuhn tells us.

Zoom out: If Wynkoop ultimately goes car-free, it would join a growing list of Denver streets city officials say are embracing "shared space" culture:

• Larimer and Glenarm streets downtown — car-free pilots under the city's Outdoor Places program

• Bannock Street — closed between Colfax and 14th for festivals
• Fillmore Street in Cherry Creek — often closed for events and currently a quasi-shared street
• 39th Avenue Greenway — a low-speed shared corridor east of downtown
• Acoma Street (10th-12th) — in design now to become a flexible public plaza by 2027 under the 2021 RISE Denver GO Bond

The bottom line: If the data and community support a permanent closure, that transformation remains years away.

• "This is the very start" of a long-term plan that would result in "substantial infrastructure changes," Kuhn says — and is dependent on future funding.