Boulder, Boulder County focusing on transportation projects to impact safety, connectivity
Jun. 10—As Boulder continues to plan for the future, it's putting its transportation focus on a subset of the city's busiest thoroughfares where the most crashes occur.
"Our arterials are really that last connective tissue that gets you to your day-to-day destinations in the city of Boulder," Transportation Planning Manager Valerie Watson said on Thursday in a quarterly Boulder Transportation Connections luncheon. "But we don't often connect the dots in terms of our projects and how we can complete a truly connected, comfortable network — whether you're walking, bicycling, taking the bus."
By focusing on what the city is calling its Core Arterial Network, informally dubbed CAN, Boulder can create a connected system with protected bicycle lanes, intersection enhancements, pedestrian facilities and transit facility upgrades.
This allows for a more connected system, particularly considering 63% of Boulder residents live within walking distance of an arterial street and 71% of employment opportunities in the city are along those corridors, Watson noted in the meeting.
But it also impacts safety.
Some 67% of serious or fatal crashes in Boulder occur on the arterial streets, with 44% occurring specifically within areas included in the CAN work plan.
"If we are able to put some resources there, focus our efforts in tandem with our Vision Zero Action Plan, we're going to be making a big dent in what we see in terms of crashes in the city and advancing our Vision Zero goals," Watson said.
The first three priority corridors are Baseline Road, Iris Avenue and Folsom Street.
The city will this summer begin initiating design and community engagement for Baseline, an east-west corridor from 30th Street to Foothills Parkway that connects residents, students and a bus route in east Boulder.
According to the city, the project is part of the pavement management program that will incorporate street design upgrades and safety improvements into annual pavement resurfacing work.
Design for the project has yet to occur, in part because the city is taking a new approach. Instead of jumping in and presenting design ideas for various projects, Boulder is hoping to conduct more contextual conversations that can inform the project design process, Watson noted.
"We want to start first with looking at the context of these neighborhoods — understanding what are the needs of the users who use this street, how familiar are they with the types of projects we do at the city," she said.
Following the Baseline project, the city will begin design and engagement for the work on Iris Avenue followed by the work on Folsom Street.
And beyond the work planned for the near future, Boulder has six active projects along its core arterial streets: improvements to 28th Street, 13th Street, 30th St, the 28th Street and Colorado Avenue intersection and the East Arapahoe and Valmont multi-use path projects.
Boulder City Council unanimously agreed to make the CAN a priority in its annual retreat earlier this year. The idea was proposed to the Council by Mayor Pro Tem Rachel Friend and Councilmember Matt Benjamin but originally suggested by Transportation Advisory Board member Alex Weinheimer.
The Council is currently scheduled to get an update on this work in its July 14 meeting.
Boulder County also is working on transportation projects meant to improve connections and safety. Among them are the Colo. 119 bikeway design and safety and mobility projects, which include bus, bike and intersection improvements along the Diagonal Highway connecting Boulder and Longmont.
"It is the highest crash corridor in the unincorporated county," Boulder County Bicycle Planner Alexandra Phillips said in Thursday's meeting.
Boulder County is preparing to release draft designs for that project.
Furthermore, the Boulder County Commissioners are considering a potential 2022 ballot initiative for transportation funding. The county's transportation sales tax expires in June 2024 so Boulder County is considering future funding needs for the countywide multimodal transportation system.
To learn more about the Colo. 119 project, visit: bit.ly/3tuQGIX
To learn more about Boulder's Core Arterial Network, visit: bit.ly/3mEFsxY
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If you go
What: Boulder County transportation funding meeting
When: 5:30 to 7 p.m. June 14
Register: boco.org/TransportationFundingJune14
